From JPMorgan to BlackRock: The 15 financial firms that file the most H-1B immigrant work visas
Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
- Financial firms seek to hire thousands of skilled foreign workers through H-1B visas each year.
- President Trump's immigration crackdown is raising questions about the future of such visas.
- See which financial firms file for the most H-1B visas, according to publicly available data.
As President Donald Trump follows through on his campaign promises to crack down on immigration, questions remain about what might happen to skilled workers who come to the US on H-1B visas.
Trump targeted the H-1B visa program in his first term when he signed the "Buy American, Hire American" executive order to rein in potential abuses. Ahead of the second term, however, he told the New York Post that he "always liked the visas," which US companies use to hire foreign workers with specialized skills, often in science and technology.
"I've been a believer in H-1B," he told The Post in December. "I have used it many times. It's a great program."
Still, the future of the program remains very much up in the air: Last week two Republican senators introduced a joint resolution to strike down a Biden-era rule allowing such visas to be automatically extended for 540 days, instead of 180 days.
As such, Business Insider has run the numbers to find out which US financial services companies stand to be most impacted if these visas are tamped down again. BI used data from the Department of Labor and US Citizenship and Immigration data to analyze which financial giants file the most H-1B requests. The data runs through the 2024 government fiscal year (the fourth quarter of 2023 through the third quarter of 2024) and is collected from applications submitted by businesses that wish to sponsor a skilled worker's visa.
We found that some of the largest banks, credit card companies, and asset managers are among the most active sponsors of these visas, including JPMorgan and BlackRock. While many of the filings seek tech and software workers, some firms have used them to hire investment bankers or investment professionals.
Of course, not all filings lead to a foreign-worker hire and some filings may actually be for the same hire as firms will refile to reflect amendments or to extend an existing visa. Still, the publicly available data provides a good indication of the H-1B visa demand among major companies.
The firms listed either did not respond to a request for comment or declined to comment on the record.
Check out which financial firms are sponsoring the most H-1B visas, including the types of roles they are seeking to fill:
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Total certified H-1B filings: 1,990
Total employees worldwide: 317,233 as of the end of 2024
Types of filings: More than 1,500 filings are for workers with "software" in their title. The firm also hired for roles like a vice president of investment banking, an executive director of liquidity risk management, and a managing director of client fraud prevention
Getty Images
Total certified H-1B filings: 1,839
Total employees worldwide: More than 76,000 per a January press release
Types of filings: More than 40% of filings contain the word software in their job title, and many other filings are related to tech as well, such as a director-level AI employee. The company also filed for a director of quantitative analysis and even some accounting roles through the program.
Michael Kovac
Total certified H-1B filings: 1,443
Total employees worldwide: 46,500
Types of filings: Slightly more than a quarter of Goldman's filings are for roles that contain the word software. The company has also hired some divisional COO and CFOs through the program, as well as managing directors in areas like banking and financial crime control.
Courtesy of Citi
Total certified H-1B filings: 1,058
Total employees worldwide: 239,000
Types of filings: Many of the filings are for tech roles, like software engineering, application development, and information technology roles. Other filings include a regulatory risk group manager and even a trader.
J. David Ake, Getty Images
Total certified H-1B filings: 758
Total employees worldwide: 51,987 at the end of 2023
Types of filings: Most of Capital One's filings are for tech roles, as well as adjacent roles like a quantitative analysis manager and a range of data science roles.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Total certified H-1B filings: 642
Total employees worldwide: More than 80,000 per its website
Types of filings: Morgan Stanley does not include job title information in their filings, only the level of seniority. The filings range from the associate level all the way up to managing director.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Total certified H-1B filings: 609
Total employees worldwide: Approximately 85,000 per its corporate website
Types of filings: Most of Barclay's filings are for tech roles, but the company has also hired for director roles in global markets, equity derivatives structuring and for a credit desk quant role.
BI Intelligence
Total certified H-1B filings: 587
Total employees worldwide: 31,600 as of a December 4, 2024 report
Types of filngs: The vast majority of filings are for tech roles, like a senior machine learning engineer and a wide variety of software engineers. Other filings include a senior M&A manager and a senior finance manager.
Thomson Reuters
Total certified H-1B filings: 575
Total employees worldwide: 74,000 per a 2024 press release
Types of filings: Nearly a third of AmEx's filings are for manager roles, the vast majority of those are in tech and data science portions of the business. The company has also filed for director roles in investment management and marketing analytics through the program.
REUTERS / Bobby Yip
Total certified H-1B filings: 500
Total employees worldwide: 213,193 as of the end of last year
Types of filings: Similar to others on the list, most of Bank of America's H-1B filings are for tech roles, but the company has also hired a credit senior officer at a director role, and an associate general counsel and VP who works with financial derivatives.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Total certified H-1B filings: 453
Total employees worldwide: 220,167 employees as of the end of Q3 2024
Types of filings: Nearly 300 of Wells Fargo's filings are for roles with software in the title, but the firm had also filed for roles like a construction management director and a lead securities trader.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Total certified H-1B filings: 447
Total employees worldwide: 33,400 employees at the end of 2023 per an annual report
Types of filings: Mastercard has made 220 H-1B filings for roles with software in the title, while another 64 include product in the name. Other filings include roles like a vice president of marketing, strategy, and operations, and a commercial counsel role.
REUTERS/Jim Young
Total certified H-1B filings: 429
Total employees worldwide: 32,100 employees as of the end of the third quarter of last year
Types of filing: More than 80% of roles have software in the name, though the company has also filed for director roles in business strategy, market risk management and treasury capital markets.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Total certified H-1B filings: 354
Total employees worldwide: more than 20,000 globally
Types of filings: The vast majority of BlackRock's H-1B filings only note the role level. Some specific roles were highlighted, like an external relationship management associate and a sustainable investing associate.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
Total certified H-1B filings: 294
Total employees worldwide: 109,396 as of end of third quarter last year
Types of filing: UBS has filed for a range of tech roles as well as direct business roles, such as an alternative investments strategy director and director of investment banking.
