We Compared 20 H1B Sponsors' Actual 2026 Filing Data

Key takeaways

• Amazon leads fiscal 2026 filings at 5,201 LCAs in six months. NVIDIA leads on pay at a $231,000 median.
• Roughly 57% of H1B positions are filed at Level I or Level II wages, the weakest position under weighted selection.
• Fiscal 2027 registrations fell 38.5%, so total competition is down even as the wage bar effectively rose.
• Wage level, not company size, is now the strongest predictor of selection odds.
• Change of status cases avoid the consular fee exposure entirely, which makes candidates already in the United States cheaper to sponsor.

Most "top H1B sponsor" lists you find online are running on old numbers. They rank companies by fiscal 2024 or fiscal 2025 approvals and stop there. That gap matters in 2026, because the rules changed underneath the data. Selection is now weighted by wage level, the $100,000 fee has been imposed and struck down twice, and total registrations have fallen for two cycles in a row.

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So we pulled the actual fiscal 2026 filing records for 20 of the largest H1B sponsors and compared them on the two things that now decide your odds: how many positions they are filing for, and what they are paying.

The short version: volume and wages have separated. Amazon still files the most. But a Cognizant filing and an NVIDIA filing are no longer worth the same thing in the lottery, and the pay gap between them is over $115,000 at the median.

What "2026 filing data" actually means

There are two public datasets, and people mix them up constantly.

1. LCA filings (Department of Labor). Every employer must file a certified Labor Condition Application before submitting an H1B petition. The LCA lists the exact wage, job title, and worksite. This is the closest thing to a live signal of who is sponsoring right now.
2. Petition approvals (USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub). This shows approved petitions by employer and fiscal year, split into initial and continuing employment. It is authoritative, but it lags, and it does not publish wages.

The comparison below uses DOL Office of Foreign Labor Certification disclosure data for fiscal 2026 year to date, covering October 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026.

Two caveats worth knowing: DOL publishes fiscal 2026 releases as cumulative year to date figures rather than single quarters, and no determinations were issued between October 2 and November 3, 2025 during the funding lapse, which pushes the counts slightly low. The wage figures are unaffected.

The 20 sponsors, side by side

Five things the table shows

• NVIDIA pays the highest median of the group at $231,000, more than double Infosys at $105,000.
• IT services firms are still filing at scale but at Level I and Level II wages. Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, and Capgemini together filed over 8,500 LCAs in six months, with medians between $105,000 and $132,000.
• Big Tech now out-files most outsourcing firms individually. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta each filed more than TCS.
• Sponsorship is not only a tech story. Ernst & Young was the second largest filer in the period, mostly for accounting and audit roles. JPMorgan, Fidelity, and Tesla all filed over 900.
• Wages are climbing fast. The median H1B candidate wage across all employers was $108,000 in fiscal 2022 and $120,000 in fiscal 2025. In the first half of fiscal 2026 it hit roughly $131,000.

Why the wage column matters more than the volume column now

Until this year, every eligible registration had the same odds. That ended with the weighted selection rule, published December 29, 2025 and effective February 27, 2026, in time for the fiscal 2027 cap season.

Here is how it works in plain terms:

• Each unique beneficiary gets at least one entry in the selection pool.
• Additional entries are added based on the highest OEWS wage level the offered salary clears, up to four entries total.
• If multiple employers register the same person at different wage levels, USCIS uses the lowest one.
• Registration remains beneficiary centric, and the fee is $215 per beneficiary.

Now overlay that on real filing behavior. Across all fiscal 2025 LCAs, about 18.8% were Level I, 38.7% Level II, 19.3% Level III, and 15.3% Level IV. That means roughly 57% of H1B jobs sit at the two wage levels with the fewest entries.

Practical translation: a Level IV offer can carry up to four times the selection weight of a Level I offer. Two identical candidates with identical degrees now have very different odds based purely on who is hiring them and what that job pays in that metro area.

What changed across the 2026 cycle

• Registrations kept falling. Fiscal 2026 drew about 344,000 eligible registrations, down from roughly 470,000 for fiscal 2025.
• Fiscal 2027 fell much harder. Properly submitted registrations dropped 38.5% from fiscal 2026 levels, the first cycle run under weighted selection.
• No second selection for fiscal 2027. USCIS confirmed it received enough petitions to hit both the 65,000 regular cap and the 20,000 master's cap.
• The $100,000 fee has been unstable all year. Proclamation 10973, signed September 19, 2025, applied to new petitions filed on or after September 21, 2025 that were approved for consular processing. A Massachusetts district court vacated it on June 8, 2026 as an unlawful tax. The First Circuit declined to reinstate it on July 24, 2026. The proclamation is written to expire on September 20, 2026 unless extended, and a separate D.C. case reached the opposite conclusion and is on appeal.
• The fee never touched change of status cases. If you are on F-1 OPT or STEM OPT inside the United States and your employer files a change of status, the fee was not designed to reach you. That single distinction is still the biggest cost difference between two otherwise identical candidates.

How to check any sponsor yourself in about ten minutes

If the company you care about is not in the table above, and plenty of frequently searched sponsors like Oracle and IBM are not, run this yourself. It is free.

1. Open the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub and search the employer name. Watch for subsidiaries filing under separate entities, which understates combined totals.
2. Read the "new employment" column, not the total. A company with 1,000 petitions but 40 new employment approvals is renewing existing staff, not hiring new sponsorship candidates.
3. Compare three fiscal years. One good year is noise. A steady or rising trend is a signal.
4. Cross-check DOL LCA data for the wage, job title, and worksite. This tells you the wage level, which now tells you your odds.
5. Match the worksite to your target city. California and Texas together account for about 34% of all H1B filings, and Texas has been closing the gap for years.

What this means if you are job hunting

The data points to a fairly simple strategy shift.

Target employers whose filing history matches your wage level rather than chasing the biggest names on a list. A mid-size firm filing 150 LCAs at Level III is a better statistical bet than a giant filing thousands at Level I. If you are already in the United States on OPT, say so early in the process, because a change of status case is cheaper and lower risk for the employer than a consular case.

Then apply at volume, because sponsor-friendly roles are a narrow slice of the market. That volume problem is why some candidates run the search themselves and others delegate the repetitive application work to services like Scale.jobs so their own hours go into interview prep and referrals instead of forms.

Conclusion

The 2026 numbers describe a program that is getting smaller, better paid, and more selective. Fewer registrations, higher median wages, and a selection system that rewards seniority and location premiums. For candidates, the practical move is to stop ranking employers by headline petition counts and start matching your own wage level against what specific sponsors actually file. That information is public, it is current, and it takes ten minutes to check before you send the application.

FAQ: quick answers

What is the expected approval rate for H-1B petitions in 2026?
Around 97% to 98% at the petition stage. USCIS adjudicated 415,275 H-1B petitions in fiscal 2025, approving 406,349 and denying 8,926, a 97.9% approval rate, and partial-year fiscal 2026 data tracks in the same range. Do not confuse this with the selection rate, which was about 35% for fiscal 2026. Approvals are weakest for change of employer petitions and third-party staffing placements, and strongest for extensions and cap-exempt filings.

Which companies are sponsoring H-1B employees in 2026?
Based on certified LCA filings from October 2025 through March 2026, the largest active sponsors are Amazon (5,201), Ernst & Young (3,984), Cognizant (3,436), Apple (3,267), Google (2,973), Microsoft (2,879), Meta (2,534), Infosys (2,433), Tata Consultancy Services (1,835), and JPMorgan Chase (1,796). Beyond these, NVIDIA, Intel, Tesla, Salesforce, Deloitte, Accenture, Capgemini, Fidelity, Walmart, and Adobe all file at volume. Universities, nonprofit research organizations, and government research organizations sponsor year round without the lottery.

What are the latest H-1B visa news updates?
Five things as of September 2026. The $100,000 proclamation fee was vacated on June 8, 2026, the First Circuit declined to reinstate it on July 24, and it is not being collected, with the proclamation set to expire in late September 2026 unless extended. DHS separately proposed a $103,265 fee on every cap-subject petition on August 25, 2026, with comments closing September 24. A proposed rule would eliminate the discretionary 60-day grace period after job loss. Weighted wage-based selection has been in force since February 27, 2026. Interview waivers are effectively gone for H-1B, and standard processing is running about 10 to 11 months.

How many H-1B visa applications were submitted this year?
USCIS received 343,981 eligible registrations for fiscal 2026 and selected 118,660 unique beneficiaries, about a 35% selection rate, down from 470,342 registrations the prior year. For fiscal 2027, registered March 4 to 19, 2026, USCIS has not released a precise total, but properly submitted registrations fell 38.5% from fiscal 2026, implying roughly 210,000. The cap stayed at 85,000, and USCIS confirmed on July 17, 2026 that it was reached with no second selection.

How long is an H1B visa valid?
The initial petition runs up to three years and can be extended to a six-year total. Beyond six years, extensions are possible in one-year or three-year increments if a PERM or I-140 has been filed or approved in time.

How long does H1B processing take?
Standard processing generally runs four to eight months. Premium processing guarantees action within 15 business days for roughly $2,965. Check the current USCIS fee page before filing, since this amount is adjusted periodically.

What documents are required for H1B visa stamping?
Valid passport, the I-797 approval notice, DS-160 confirmation page, MRV fee receipt, appointment confirmation, employment verification letter, recent pay stubs, the certified LCA, degree certificates and transcripts, and a compliant photo. Dependents add marriage and birth certificates for the H-4 applications.

Is the H1B dropbox still available?
Broadly, no. Interview waiver eligibility for work visa categories was cut back in September 2025 and narrowed again on October 1, 2025. Most H1B applicants and renewals now require an in-person consular interview, which is why appointment availability in India is the main bottleneck.

Can I get H1B stamping inside the USA?
Not currently. The 2024 domestic renewal pilot ended and has not been reactivated. Consular processing abroad remains the only route.

Can an H1B spouse work?
H-4 spouses can apply for an EAD only when the H1B holder has an approved I-140 or has been granted an extension past the sixth year under AC21.

What happens if I change employers?
A new employer files an H1B transfer petition. Under portability rules you can usually begin work once the petition is properly filed and receipted. You do not re-enter the lottery.

Which employers are cap exempt?
Universities and their affiliated nonprofits, nonprofit research organizations, and government research organizations. These petitions can be filed year round with no lottery, which is why academic, postdoc, and hospital-based roles are a genuine alternative path.

What happens if I lose my job?
There is a 60-day grace period, or until the end of the petition validity if that comes sooner, to find a new sponsor, change status, or depart.

Can I travel on an H1B?
Yes, with a valid visa stamp and a current I-797. Short trips under 30 days to Canada or Mexico may qualify for automatic visa revalidation in some circumstances, though the rules exclude several situations, so confirm before you travel.