Donald Trump has raised the cost of new H-1B applications to $100,000.Banks and other financial firms rely on the program to fill a range of roles, including tech.Business Insider crunched the data to see which financial firms could be most impacted by the new rules.
Wall Street banks and other financial firms also stand to be hit hard by the new H-1B visa application fee, scheduled to go into effect on October 1st. No one was prepared for the rapid change to this program, which firms use to fill an array of roles, from computer programmers to traders and even investment bankers.
Trump's executive order, signed late Friday, "caught everyone off guard," JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said on CNBC while in Mumbai, India, this week.
In order to visualize the potential impact on the financial industry, Business Insider turned to publicly available data from the Department of Labor and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The data covers H-1B application data for the first three quarters of the government fiscal year 2025, as well as the less-common H-1B1 and E-3 visas, from October of 2024 to the end of June this year.
We studied certified visa applications during this time period to highlight the biggest financial industry users of the visa program. The data does not reflect the total number of H-1B employees at any given firm, but it provides helpful context on immigrant labor demands.
The data shows that some of the largest financial employers heavily rely on this visa to fill a range of roles, especially technology roles. Major banks like Chase and Goldman Sachs dominate the list alongside major payments companies like American Express. Asset managers like BlackRock and Vanguard, and research and ratings agency Moody's, help to round it out.
Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup declined to comment. The others did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
1. JPMorgan Chase
"We have built a very deep bench," JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said of the bank's executives.
Noam Galai via Getty Images
Certified applications: 2,440
Employees worldwide: 317,160 as of the second quarter of 2025
The country's largest bank focused its H-1B hiring heavily on technologists, with more than 500 certified applications for vice president, lead software engineer, and associate software engineer III positions. The bank also filed visa applications for the firm's main business lines, such as an investment banking managing director.
2. Fidelity
Fidelity investments
SOPA Images/Contributor/ Getty Images
Certified applications: 1,575
Employees worldwide: Over 78,000 per its website
Fidelity submitted a wide range of applications for technical roles, with 40 certified applications for full-stack engineering directors and 125 for full-stack engineering principals. Non-technical roles included a director of marketing.
3. Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs logo against backdrop of stocks on screens.
Ramin Talaie/Corbis via Getty Images
Certified applications: 1,280
Employees worldwide: 45,900 as of the second quarter of 2025
Not all of Goldman Sachs' certified applications specified the role, focusing instead on the level of hire, such as an associate. The data, however, does show a wide range of technologist hires and financial hires, including many vice president-level banking roles.
4. American Express
Credit cards fill a display at American Express headquarters
John Moore/Getty Images
Certified applications: 921
Employees worldwide: 75,100 as of the end of 2024
American Express's certified applications were largely for technologist roles, with more than 125 for"engineer" roles. Business Insider also found applications for non-technical roles, including director-level applications for risk management, communications, and controller.
5. Citigroup
Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup.
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
Certified applications: 874
Employees worldwide: 229,000 as of the end of 2024
Citi's certified applications also largely focused on technology roles, including more than 150 certified applications for "Application Development Technical Lead Analyst" roles.
6. Capital One
The Capital One Financial Corp. logo displayed on a smartphone.
SOPA Images / Getty Images
Certified applications: 871
Employees worldwide: 76,500 as of the second quarter of 2025
Like others on this list, Capital One's certified applications largely focused on technology and data roles. The data showed hundreds of applications for data science and analysis roles, as well as some less technical roles like "business manager."
7. Visa
VISA Inc. Chairman and CEO Joseph W. Saunders (3rd right) rings the opening bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, on March 19, 2008 as VISA celebrates the largest IPO in US history at the NYSE.
Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
Certified applications: 770
Employees worldwide: 31,600 as of the end of 2024
Visa is yet another company largely focused on tech and data hires. Some non-technical roles include compensation business analysts, senior financial analysts, and managers.
8. Bank of America
Brian Moynihan, Chief Executive Officer of Bank of America, being interviewed at a Washington Post event.
Kristoffer Tripplaar for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Certified applications: 718
Employees worldwide: 213,000 as of the second quarter of 2025
Bank of America also focused its applications on tech hiring. Their most common role on the list, a vice president-level software engineer III, could be found on over 100 applications.
9. Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley chairman James Gorman
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Certified applications: 673
Employees worldwide: 80,000 as of the first quarter of 2025
Morgan Stanley's data only showed the level of roles it was hiring for, so we cannot analyze what kinds of jobs its looking to fill. However, we can see that they have applied for vice president-level roles the most, followed by associates and then directors.
10. US Bank
The US Bank tower is pictured in Los Angeles, California
Mike Blake/Reuters
Certified applications: 624
Employees worldwide: More than 70,000 per their company website
US Bank is yet another bank that largely uses H-1B visas for for technology roles, such as senior software engineer. There are other financial roles though, like tax accountant, underwriter, and project manager for the firm's impact finance, focused on affordable housing.
11. Barclays
A man enters the New York headquarters of Barclays
AP Photo/Richard Drew
Certified applications: 457
Employees worldwide: 92,900 as of the end of 2024
The British bank's US visa hiring is also largely focused on technology. Some front-office hires included an equities derivatives trader and an equities "exotic" trader.
12. Mastercard
Mastercard
SOPA images
Certified applications: 434
Employees worldwide: 32,600 per the firm's website
Charles Schwab is also using H-1B visa to hire tech talent, with the data showing nearly 50 software development and engineering senior manager roles and nearly 100 software development and engineering manager hires. We were unable to find a single role that didn't appear to be related to technology.
13. Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo in San Francisco
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Certified applications: 391
Employees worldwide: 217,000 at the end of 2024
Wells Fargo joins the ranks of financial firms largely focused on technological hires in its H-1B visa applications. The data also showed certified applications for roles like lead securities trader and strategy and planning director.
14. UBS
Sergio Ermotti, Group Chief Executive Officer of UBS
Getty
Certified applications: 339
Employees worldwide: 110,323 as of the end of 2024
UBS had certified applications for a slew of tech and financial roles. On the financial side, it has applied for roles like investment banking analyst and associate, the entry-level role to a banking career, as well as an associate director of global markets FX trading.
15. BlackRock
BlackRock, led by CEO Larry Fink, is creating new roles as part of its public policy team as BlackRock and Fink personally face challenges.
Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
Certified applications: 294
Employees worldwide: Approximately 22,000 per the firm's website.
Like Morgan Stanley, BlackRock only provides the level of roles hired. The bulk of roles culled by Business Insider were at the associate or vice president level, though there are also more than 20 director-level applications.
16. State Street
A State Street Global Advisors banner hangs outside the New York Stock Exchange in March 2021.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Certified applications: 213
Employees worldwide: Approximately 53,000 as of the first quarter of 2025
State Street's visa applications were largely focused on technology hires, though financial roles were also on the menu. Non-financial roles included applications for a head of internal liquidity stress testing in treasury and a global head of liquidity risk oversight.
17. Vanguard
Vanguard Group logo
Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Certified applications: 209
Employees worldwide: Approximately 20,000 per the firm's website as of the end of 2024
A large chunk of Vanguard's applications were for application engineering and other technical roles. The asset management firm also had applications for a fixed-income trader, a head of wealth management and advice, and a head of fraud, strategy, and analytics.
18. Moody's
Moody's logo
Emmanuel Dunand/Getty Images
Certified applications: 199
Employees worldwide: 15,838 at the end of 2024
The ratings and research powerhouse joins the rest on the list with a focus on technologists. Senior software engineers and staff software engineers lead the way in certified applications. Some non-technical applications included a director-level sales manager, a credit associate, and a commercial real estate researcher.
19. Truist
Truist Financial Corporation logo displayed on a smartphone.
Rafael Henrique/ SOPA Images/ LightRocket/ Getty Images
Certified applications: 185
Employees worldwide: 38,335 as of the end of 2024
Software engineering roles made up roughly half of Truist's applications reviewed by Business Insider. Most other roles were tech-focused, such as a senior data analyst in liquidity and regulatory reporting, though there were some rare non-tech roles, such as Treasury market and liquidity risk officer.
20. Discover
Discover CD Rates 2025: CDs with no minimum opening deposit
Discover; Business Insider
Certified applications: 144
Employees worldwide: 21,000 as of the end of 2024
Discover joins the ranks of others on this list with roughly 100 applications mentioning data science. Other interesting technical roles included a lead robotic process automation analyst.
