It is known to be a response to the Trump administration’s newly imposed fee of $100,000 per H-1B visa.
According to reports by Bloomberg News and the BBC on the 22nd, Walmart has the highest number of H-1B visas among U.S. retailers. According to U.S. government statistics, Walmart received more than 2,000 H-1B visas during the first half of 2025. A spokesperson for Walmart told the BBC that it is “committed to securing and investing the best human resources for customer service and is also taking a careful approach to H-1B employment policy.”
Walmart is the largest private employer in the U.S., employing about 1.6 million people nationwide. However, the main beneficiaries of H-1B visas are not so much the retail business as the tech giants in the U.S. Amazon topped the list with more than 10,000 H-1B visas granted in the first half of this year alone. Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google each obtained over 4,000 H-1B visas. Small and medium-sized businesses in startups and non-tech fields also employ some H-1B visa workers.
SAM KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
