$100K H-1B price tag: not just a Silicon Valley problem—Wall Street’s in the blast zone too

President Donald Trump’s new $100,000, one-time fee on new H-1B petitions is sending shock waves well beyond Big Tech. Banks, payments giants, and asset managers that rely on global talent — from software engineers to quant analysts — now face a six-figure cover charge per hire when the change kicks in for the next H-1B lottery. (The fee applies only to new petitions, not renewals or current holders.)

Alongside the fee, the administration rolled out a rule to tilt the lottery toward higher-paying roles and jobs requiring advanced skills. Together, the moves would funnel scarce visas toward big-ticket positions and employers willing (or able) to pay up — potentially squeezing lower-wage uses of H-1B while not changing the 85,000-visa cap.

Scale check: In 2024, median pay for first-time “computer-related” H-1Bs was $101,000; for experienced holders it was $135,000. A $100K fee is basically the entire first-year median salary for new tech hires — before you even count comp.

Business Insider’s read of Labor and USCIS data (FY2025 through June) shows how deeply financial firms tap the program — mostly for technologists, data roles, and some front-office jobs. The biggest users in finance:

1. JPMorgan Chase – 2,440 certified apps
2. Fidelity – 1,575
3. Goldman Sachs – 1,280
4. American Express – 921
5. Citigroup – 874
6. Capital One – 871
7. Visa – 770
8. Bank of America – 718
9. Morgan Stanley – 673
10. S. Bank – 624
    (Also in the mix: Barclays, Mastercard, Wells Fargo, UBS, BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard, Moody’s, Truist, Discover.)

What they’re hiring: Heavy skew to software engineering, data science/analytics, application development — plus some traders, risk, and VP-level banking roles. Several big banks declined comment or didn’t respond.

USCIS data from 2024 through mid-2025 shows: Amazon (19,301) H-1Bs, Microsoft (9,914), Apple (8,075) — with Indian IT services giants (TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, etc.) also dominating approvals via their large US footprints.

Boardroom mood: spooked, split, and waiting

• Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan) said the order “caught everyone off guard,” stressing the US must stay attractive to global experts.
• Reed Hastings (Netflix) cheered the fee as a way to reserve H-1Bs for “very high-value jobs,” bringing more certainty.
• Many companies are telling H-1B staff to limit travel and lawyering up for likely legal challenges. A floated national-interest exception could carve out doctors and other critical roles.

Roughly 71% of H-1B holders hail from India, 11.7% from China. With a six-figure toll and policy whiplash, students and early-career talent are eyeing alternatives (Germany, UK, Australia, Canada). Consultants say families are now building a Plan B into study-abroad decisions.

What to watch next

• Litigation & timing: How (and when) courts weigh in on the fee and wage-based selection.
• Employer strategy: Expect more offshoring, nearshoring, and salary inflation for on-shore roles that still justify the fee.
• Winners/losers: Higher-wage jobs in tech, finance, consulting, health care may capture a larger share of visas; lower-wage use cases likely get squeezed.
• Cap unchanged: With only 85,000 slots, the policy mainly reshuffles who wins, not how many.

The $100K sticker isn’t just a tech story. It’s a talent-tax that could reshape who hires globally trained specialists in the US — and where those specialists choose to build their lives if America prices them out.

With input from the Washington Post, FOX News, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Business Insider.