Walmart Inc. has paused job offers to candidates who require H-1B visa sponsorship, according to a report in Bloomberg that quoted people familiar with the matter.
Walmart is the latest major US company to react to the Trump administration’s costly overhaul of the skilled-worker visa program.
The decision, which primarily impacts the retail giant’s corporate employees, is a direct response to the administration’s latest $100,000 fee for new H-1B applications.
The policy has sent a wave of disruption and confusion across the technology, retail, and other industries that rely on the program to hire foreign talent.
A response to a controversial new policy
The Trump administration implemented the new fee last month in a stated bid to curb what it sees as overuse of the visa program.
In a statement, the White House said the visa changes were legal and an “incremental step towards necessary reforms to the H-1B program.”
Walmart, the largest user of H-1B visas among major retail chains with an estimated 2,390 such holders, confirmed it was adjusting its strategy.
“Walmart is committed to hiring and investing in the best talent to serve our customers, while remaining thoughtful about our H-1B hiring approach,” a Walmart spokeswoman said, as quoted by Bloomberg.
While a major employer of H-1B recipients in its sector, Walmart’s numbers are still smaller than those of tech giants like Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
A ‘cost-prohibitive’ measure for business
The new policy has been met with fierce resistance from the business community. The US Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group, is suing the Trump administration over the changes, arguing the fee will cripple companies’ ability to access global talent.
“The new $100,000 visa fee will make it cost-prohibitive for US employers, especially start-ups and small and midsize businesses, to utilize the H-1B program,” Neil Bradley, executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.
This sentiment was echoed by academic leaders, who questioned the logic behind the steep cost.
“It seems like $100,000 is a fairly arbitrary amount. People are looking at it going, ‘Is this for real?’” John Veitch, a dean at Notre Dame de Namur University, told Bloomberg.
A workforce in flux
The H-1B program, introduced in 1990 to address specific labor shortages, has become a critical, if controversial, tool for industries that point to a domestic dearth of professionals with science, math, and computer skills.
The abrupt and costly change to the program has created a climate of unpredictability for both employers and the visa holders themselves, many of whom have abided by US law for years.
It adds another layer of complexity for companies already grappling with the workforce disruptions being caused by advances in artificial intelligence, a challenge Veitch noted could be particularly acute for small- to medium-sized companies.
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