JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon isn’t completely sold on President Donald Trump’s move to impose hurdles on skilled foreign workers entering the U.S.
Trump announced in a proclamation a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas, which let U.S. employers temporarily hire non-U.S. workers, typically for specialized tech-sector jobs. The fresh six-figure, one-time fee will apply to new visas, not those with existing or renewed visas.
Dimon said while he’s in favor of “merit-based immigration,” the move will elicit resistance from U.S. companies that rely on expertise from non-U.S. employees.
“I would beg the president. He has accomplished border control—that’s great. I mean, I think all nations want real border control; that helps make a nation. But after that, we should have good immigration,” he told CNBC at JPMorgan’s 10th annual India Investor Conference on Tuesday. “I think there will be some pushback on the H-1Bs.”
JPMorgan is among the top companies in the U.S. to sponsor the H-1B visa, with 1,990 total certified H-1B filings in fiscal 2024, Business Insider reported, citing publicly available U.S. data. The bank will speak with stakeholders and policymakers about the shift, the Times of India reported.
The JPMorgan boss joins a chorus of CEOs pushing back against the proclamation, warning it would prevent U.S. companies from accessing top global talent, particularly to fill in-demand STEM positions. Others, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, have supported the measure as a way to ensure that only the highest talent is able to enter the country for work.
Dimon has said that for JPMorgan, H-1B visas allow the company to be nimble in moving employees to positions around the world.
“For us, visas matter because we move people around globally—experts who get promoted to new jobs in different markets,” he told the Times of India.
“The challenge is that the U.S. still needs to remain an attractive destination,” he added. “My grandparents were Greek immigrants who never finished high school. America is an immigrant nation, and that’s part of its core strength.”
JPMorgan’s broader warning
JPMorgan economists have further warned of the broader labor market impact of a $100,000 H-1B visa fee. In a report published Tuesday, bank analysts projected up to 5,500 fewer work authorizations per month as a result of the fee, unless all affected workers were able to get authorization through other means. Analysts calculated the figure by identifying 141,000 approved petitions for new employment in fiscal 2024, 65,000 of which required consular processing likely to be impacted by the $100,000 fee.
Constraints like H-1B visas have historically had unintended consequences on efforts to curb outsourced labor. A 2023 study by Britta Glennon, an assistant professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, found barriers such as H-1B visas have actually encouraged the offshoring of high-skilled jobs for U.S. multinational companies, which are able to hire more foreign labor at their non-U.S. affiliates. About 80% of the research and development business in the U.S. comes from U.S. multinational firms.
“Artificial constraints on resources result in firms circumventing restrictive policies in ways that may not be anticipated by policymakers,” the study said.
A new visa fee could also “make it less attractive for foreign students to come to the United States to study,” the JPMorgan report said, as it may reduce the chance of graduates from outside the U.S. to find a stateside job after graduation.
These negative consequences may not come to fruition, according to the JPMorgan analysts. For example, more foreign students may choose to attend institutions of higher education in the U.S. because the H-1B visa applies only to applicants “currently outside the U.S.,” and the number of visa petitions processed within the U.S. correlates with the number of individuals switching visa types, the majority of whom are students.
The imposed fee would also likely not immediately impact the U.S. labor market, according to JPMorgan, as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in July it had reached its H-1B cap for fiscal 2026. USCIS will open its applications for fiscal 2027 next April.
