Meta’s 2025 work visa filings show just how much AI and senior technical talent are costing employers.
The social media giant has disclosed base salaries as high as $450,000 for software engineers and $650,000 for a VP of Engineering, AI, according to a Business Insider analysis of Meta’s 2025 filings.
According to the article, the publication researched over 5,000 federal work visa applications made by Meta in 2025. While this examination doesn’t include the full roster of employees paid by the social media giant, and it’s only reporting base salaries, it provides a benchmarking snapshot of H-1B and other visa-bound roles.
- Software engineers: base salaries ranging from roughly $124,000 to $450,000
- Research engineers: up to $400,000 in base salary
- VP of Engineering, AI: $650,000 base salary
- Data scientists: up to the mid‑$200,000 range in base salary
- Product managers: up to roughly $348,000 in base salary
Other six-figure roles include AI research scientists, machine learning engineers, product managers and data science leaders.
Read more: Inside the new weighted H-1B lottery and its impact on HR compliance
The background on H-1B
The H‑1B program originated to permit U.S. employers to bring on highly skilled foreign workers for “specialty occupation” roles that they can’t adequately fill with the U.S. workforce. Under federal rules, employers must pay H‑1B workers at least the “required wage,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Because this process requires employers to disclose the salary floor, Meta is confirming that it pays at least the indicated amounts.
That means these disclosed salaries are the minimum, not a ceiling. Meta is attesting that it pays at least these rates for comparable roles and meets or exceeds local prevailing wages. HR leaders may use these figures to capture a sense of what Meta is paying these particularly scarce roles that may not be filled by local talent.
H‑1B originated as a capped program, but a lottery mechanism was triggered when demand outweighed the supply that could come in under the cap. The design of this lottery exercise has recently moved from random to wage‑weighted.
These recent lottery changes may give greater selection odds to higher‑paid H‑1B registrations. “Imposing a $100,000 fee will force companies to rethink hiring strategies,” according to HR Executive. “Larger corporations may absorb the cost, but small and mid-sized firms will be disproportionately affected, limiting their ability to innovate and compete globally.”
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