NVIDIA Corporation
+70.9%
1,393 to 2,380 certified LCAs in matched periods
DOL data · Research reviewed October 10, 2026
Who is filing, and who will sponsor you?
Compare employer filings, requested new-employment positions, and wages. Current hiring policy needs evidence for the specific job. An LCA certification does not establish a hire, a visa approval, or an open role.
FY2026 through Q3: October 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Comparison: October 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. Decisions are measured in matched nine-month windows.
Certified H-1B LCAs
392,175
-10.3% vs FY2025 through Q3
Median offered wage
$126,400
+6.6%; annualized lower wage bound
New-employment positions
275,316
+3.3%; requested positions, not hires
New-employment share
34.1%
36.6% previously; share of all requested positions
What changed in this data?
Filing counts fell while requested new-employment positions increased. Change-of-employer positions rose +36.5%. One LCA can cover multiple positions, so filing counts and requested capacity can move in different directions.
OpenAI OpCo, LLC
+165.8%
79 to 210 certified LCAs in matched periods
Anthropic, PBC
+260.4%
53 to 191 certified LCAs in matched periods
These are selected employer examples, not a market-wide AI growth rate. Smaller baselines can produce large percentage changes. Filing growth alone does not identify new hires or explain why activity changed.
Explore the numbers
The sponsorship market, in pictures
Hover or tap for values. Switch the measure to see how the employer shortlist changes. These charts show filing activity and requested positions; they do not measure job openings or individual visa odds.
Fewer filings, more movement
Percentage change puts differently sized measures on the same scale. Transfers are growing faster than requested new employment in this snapshot. More requests do not establish completed job moves.
How to read this: Bars right of the 0% line grew compared with the same months last year; bars to the left shrank. Here, total filings fell while people switching employers rose the most.
FY2025 through Q3 vs FY2026 through Q3 · decision dates October–June
View chart data
| Category | FY2025 | FY2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certified LCAs | 437,190 | 392,175 | -10.3% |
| New employment | 266,543 | 275,316 | +3.3% |
| Continuing employment | 176,264 | 170,683 | -3.2% |
| Change of employer | 96,112 | 131,167 | +36.5% |
| Amended petition | 122,378 | 141,471 | +15.6% |
Top employers change with the question
Rank legal entities by filings, new employment, or transfers. A large filer may be maintaining existing workers rather than requesting many new-employment positions.
How to read this: Gray is last year, purple is this year. Pick a button to re-rank the top 10 by total filings, new-hire requests, or people switching in from other employers.
Top 10: 14.6% of national certified LCAs
The rest is spread across other legal entities. Explore beyond familiar brands; this share does not establish current openings.
View chart data
| Category | FY2025 | FY2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com Services LLC | 12,415 | 13,707 | +10.4% |
| Google LLC | 7,764 | 7,336 | -5.5% |
| COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS US CORP | 8,577 | 5,766 | -32.8% |
| Meta Platforms, Inc | 5,564 | 5,150 | -7.4% |
| Microsoft Corporation | 7,425 | 5,107 | -31.2% |
| Ernst & Young U.S. LLP | 8,034 | 5,066 | -36.9% |
| Apple Inc. | 5,462 | 4,828 | -11.6% |
| INFOSYS LIMITED | 3,864 | 4,553 | +17.8% |
| TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED | 6,490 | 2,880 | -55.6% |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 2,847 | 2,743 | -3.7% |
Source: DOL disclosure data. All percentage changes use the previous matched period as the baseline. Pink indicates a decrease; it is not an individual difficulty score. Exact counts are available below every chart.
Biggest employer movers
Change in certified LCAs, FY2025 through Q3 → FY2026 through Q3. Only employers with at least 500 filings in the earlier period, so tiny baselines don't dominate.
How to read this: Each bar is one company. A longer bar means its LCA filings grew (or shrank) more than in the same months last year. +50% means 1.5× as many filings. Use the buttons to switch between growing and shrinking employers.
Occupation shifts
Top 15 occupations by current certified LCAs. Filing change shows reported activity; wage change compares median offered wages across each period’s job mix.
How to read this: Each bar is a job type. Green means more filings than last year, red means fewer. Switch to Median wage change to see how much the typical offered salary for that job moved.
Top worksite states
Certified LCAs by primary worksite state, matched periods. Hover for the percentage change.
How to read this: Gray is last year, blue is this year, for the same months. If the blue bar is shorter than the gray bar, that state had fewer certified LCAs this year.
FY2025 through Q3FY2026 through Q3
How do employers split their requested positions?
Position mix for the 15 largest filers. New employment is a petition category, not a count of graduate hires or open roles.
How to read this: Each row is one large employer and adds up to 100%. Green is the share requested as new employment, purple is people switching in from another employer, and gray is mostly extensions and amendments for current workers.
New employmentChange of employerContinuing / amended / other
Pay vs. filing volume
The 50 largest filers. Higher dots pay more (median offered wage); bubble size is requested new-employment positions. Green = filings grew, red = filings fell, gray = flat or no prior baseline. Offered wages are not total compensation.
How to read this: Each dot is a company. Further right means more filings; higher up means a higher typical offered salary; a bigger dot means more new-employment requests. Hover a dot to see the company name.
Announced October 8, 2026
Eight employers suspended from PERM green card sponsorship
The Labor Department said it will not accept new PERM applications, or process pending ones, from Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini. Officials cited active federal investigations. PERM is the first step of an employer-sponsored green card. It is separate from the H-1B visa, and the announcement did not say H-1B petitions are affected.
These eight, combined H-1B LCAs
-29.2%
33,304 → 23,586 certified LCAs
Whole market
-10.3%
437,190 → 392,175 certified LCAs
Their share of all H-1B LCAs
6.0%
The other 94% comes from thousands of other employers
The filing drop came before the suspension
This LCA data covers decisions through June 30, 2026. The suspension was announced October 8, 2026. The suspension did not cause these declines, and the data cannot explain them. A suspension is not a finding of fraud. No company has been charged, and Microsoft has disputed officials' claims.
H-1B filings by suspended employer
Certified H-1B LCAs from each company's main filing entity, matched nine-month periods.
How to read this: Gray is last year, blue is this year. When the blue bar is shorter, that company filed fewer H-1B LCAs this year. Six of the eight filed fewer.
FY2025 through Q3FY2026 through Q3
Compared with the whole market
Percentage change in certified H-1B LCAs. The amber line marks the whole-market change.
How to read this: Bars left of zero shrank, bars right of zero grew. Anything left of the amber line fell faster than the market overall. Together, these eight fell about three times as fast.
| Employer | Filing entity | FY2025 through Q3 | FY2026 through Q3 | Change | New-employment share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cognizant | COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS US CORP | 8,577 | 5,766 | -32.8% | 0% |
| Microsoft | Microsoft Corporation | 7,425 | 5,107 | -31.2% | 30% |
| Infosys | INFOSYS LIMITED | 3,864 | 4,553 | +17.8% | 5% |
| TCS | TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED | 6,490 | 2,880 | -55.6% | 7% |
| Wipro | WIPRO LIMITED | 1,627 | 1,535 | -5.7% | 6% |
| Capgemini | Capgemini America Inc | 2,076 | 1,468 | -29.3% | 7% |
| HCL | HCL AMERICA INC | 2,236 | 1,249 | -44.1% | 27% |
| Adobe | Adobe Inc. | 1,009 | 1,028 | +1.9% | 45% |
If you work at one of these companies
New and pending PERM cases are on hold. That matters for H-1B workers near the six-year limit: extensions past six years generally depend on a PERM filed at least 365 days earlier or an approved I-140. Ask an immigration attorney how the hold affects your dates.
If you are job hunting
Add one question for any employer: will you sponsor a green card later, and is your PERM program currently active? H-1B sponsorship and green card sponsorship are separate decisions.
Reviewed October 11, 2026. As of that date, the Labor Department had not posted a written notice of the suspension, so its exact scope could change. Sources: Samper Law summary of the announcement · Ellis Immigration summary · DOL foreign labor certification announcements.
The graduate path
Who has more room, and who faces a tighter clock?
A U.S. graduation can create a temporary work-authorized bridge. The degree, employer and calendar determine how useful that bridge is.
More time to build a sponsorship path
Up to 36months
Graduation12 months2436
Eligible F-1 graduates can receive up to 12 months of OPT plus a 24-month STEM extension. The extension requires an eligible degree, an E-Verify employer, a training plan and approval.
More time can help with recruiting and cap-season timing. It does not guarantee three lottery attempts, selection or employer sponsorship.
USCIS eligibility rulesA master's degree changes a different part of the path
Regular-cap consideration unless you qualify for a separate exemption.
This advantage is separate from STEM OPT. A non-STEM U.S. master's can qualify for the advanced-degree exemption; an eligible U.S. STEM bachelor's can qualify for STEM OPT. A foreign master's does not qualify for the U.S. advanced-degree exemption.
The FY2025 report says 57.5% of approved beneficiaries held a master's degree. It does not identify all degrees as U.S. degrees, measure new graduate odds, or prove that buying a degree improves your outcome.
USCIS H-1B cap and degree rulesThe market split: fewer filings, more requested new positions
Certified LCAs changed -10.3% while new-employment positions changed 3.3%. Some employers request several positions on one LCA. This is a mixed signal, not evidence that fresh graduates have more offers.
Data science and software are moving differently
Software Developers: -13.8% filings. Data Scientists: 22.0% filings. These occupation-level changes suggest where to investigate employers. They do not prove that switching your title improves immigration eligibility.
A university path can remove the annual cap hurdle
Qualifying universities, affiliated nonprofit entities, nonprofit research organizations and government research organizations may support cap-exempt H-1B employment. A later move to a cap-subject employer generally needs cap eligibility. An employer name alone does not establish exemption.
More time still comes with constraints
Initial post-completion OPT permits at most 90 days of unemployment; the combined OPT and STEM extension limit is 150 days. A STEM employer must participate in E-Verify and satisfy training requirements. Ask about OPT acceptance, STEM OPT support and future H-1B sponsorship separately. "We accept OPT" does not promise the later steps.
Under FY2027 weighted selection, relative occupation-and-location wage level matters. Entry-level wage offers receive less weight than higher wage levels when selection is needed. A high dollar salary in San Francisco does not by itself establish a high wage level. Filing growth and offered pay do not determine your individual selection probability.
USCIS STEM OPT requirementsRules reviewed October 10, 2026. OPT time is subject to eligibility, application approval, EAD dates and maintained status. The interactive view illustrates pathways; it does not make an individual eligibility determination.
Meta, Google, and the remaining-OPT claim
No reviewed public employer statement confirms a blanket sponsorship stop or a universal 24/36-month requirement. Historical filing activity and job-specific restrictions can coexist.
Meta
Company-wide restriction unverified
5,150 certified LCAs · 2,055 new-employment positions in FY2026 through Q3
- Current initial sponsorship:
- Unknown for a current opening
- H-1B transfer support:
- Verify the specific requisition
- Minimum remaining OPT:
- No verified public threshold
Candidate reports describe rejection with less than two years of OPT remaining. No public employer statement establishes a company-wide rule or its current scope.
Candidate report, September 2024. AnecdotalCompany-wide restriction unverified
7,336 certified LCAs · 4,160 new-employment positions in FY2026 through Q3
- Current initial sponsorship:
- Unknown for a current opening
- H-1B transfer support:
- Verify the specific requisition
- Minimum remaining OPT:
- No verified public threshold
The public hiring-process guidance does not confirm a blanket sponsorship stop or a minimum remaining OPT duration. Filing history cannot settle eligibility for a current job.
Google hiring process. No OPT threshold statedEmployer comparison
At least 20 certified LCAs in either period. Legal entities remain separate.
This filter describes filing history. Current sponsorship eligibility is unknown for these employers.
| Employer | Current LCAs | Previous LCAs | Change | New positions / share | Median wage | Top state |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com Services LLCSoftware Developers | 13,707 | 12,415 | +10.4% | 8,51019.4% of positions | $159,00013,707 wage cases | WA |
| Google LLCSoftware Developers | 7,336 | 7,764 | -5.5% | 4,16048.2% of positions | $193,0007,331 wage cases | CA |
| COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS US CORPComputer Systems Engineers/Architects | 5,766 | 8,577 | -32.8% | 110.2% of positions | $111,0305,766 wage cases | TX |
| Meta Platforms, IncSoftware Developers | 5,150 | 5,564 | -7.4% | 2,05515.1% of positions | $214,0325,147 wage cases | CA |
| Microsoft CorporationSoftware Developers | 5,107 | 7,425 | -31.2% | 1,62229.7% of positions | $177,0005,106 wage cases | WA |
| Ernst & Young U.S. LLPAccountants and Auditors | 5,066 | 8,034 | -36.9% | 1,16222.9% of positions | $155,8525,065 wage cases | TX |
| Apple Inc.Software Developers | 4,828 | 5,462 | -11.6% | 5,98641.8% of positions | $173,9074,828 wage cases | CA |
| INFOSYS LIMITEDComputer Systems Engineers/Architects | 4,553 | 3,864 | +17.8% | 4284.8% of positions | $92,5814,552 wage cases | TX |
| TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITEDComputer Systems Engineers/Architects | 2,880 | 6,490 | -55.6% | 1986.9% of positions | $92,3942,877 wage cases | TX |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co.Software Developers | 2,743 | 2,847 | -3.7% | 79010.7% of positions | $160,1002,743 wage cases | NY |
| Deloitte Consulting LLPSoftware Developers | 2,613 | 3,203 | -18.4% | 4438.3% of positions | $143,0622,612 wage cases | TX |
| Tesla, Inc.Manufacturing Engineers | 2,563 | 2,326 | +10.2% | 1,16138.5% of positions | $150,0702,563 wage cases | CA |
| Amazon Web Services, Inc.Software Developers | 2,438 | 3,171 | -23.1% | 1,05811.2% of positions | $155,9002,438 wage cases | WA |
| Amazon Development Center U.S., Inc.Software Developers | 2,433 | 2,300 | +5.8% | 1,79230.7% of positions | $162,6002,433 wage cases | WA |
| NVIDIA CorporationSoftware Developers | 2,380 | 1,393 | +70.9% | 6,09258.1% of positions | $186,4722,380 wage cases | CA |
| Fidelity Technology Group, LLC d/b/a Fidelity InvestmentsSoftware Developers | 2,196 | 1,213 | +81.0% | 1697.7% of positions | $129,0422,196 wage cases | NC |
| WAL-MART ASSOCIATES, INC.Software Developers | 2,166 | 3,324 | -34.8% | 61928.6% of positions | $148,3352,165 wage cases | AR |
| Grandison Management, Inc.Occupational Therapists | 1,967 | 1,432 | +37.4% | 19,67025.0% of positions | $73,7151,967 wage cases | IL |
| COMPUNNEL SOFTWARE GROUP, INCSoftware Developers | 1,939 | 1,635 | +18.6% | 28214.2% of positions | $113,0001,939 wage cases | TX |
| Intel CorporationElectronics Engineers, Except Computer | 1,731 | 2,512 | -31.1% | 1,87467.9% of positions | $133,4321,730 wage cases | OR |
| Salesforce, Inc.Software Developers | 1,536 | 1,471 | +4.4% | 28612.8% of positions | $197,1961,536 wage cases | CA |
| WIPRO LIMITEDComputer Programmers | 1,535 | 1,627 | -5.7% | 885.6% of positions | $109,0521,535 wage cases | TX |
| Capgemini America IncSoftware Developers | 1,468 | 2,076 | -29.3% | 1037.0% of positions | $131,0001,468 wage cases | TX |
| Accenture LLPComputer Systems Analysts | 1,453 | 2,261 | -35.7% | 654.4% of positions | $146,4001,450 wage cases | TX |
| TT Commerce & Global Services LLCSoftware Developers | 1,301 | 0 | No prior baseline | 49124.9% of positions | $189,5921,301 wage cases | CA |
What employers requested
Worker positions requested on certified LCAs. These are not unique workers or completed hires.
| Category | Current | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| New employment | 275,316 | 266,543 |
| Continuing employment | 170,683 | 176,264 |
| Change of employer | 131,167 | 96,112 |
| Amended petition | 141,471 | 122,378 |
| New concurrent employment | 2,239 | 2,593 |
| Change in previous employment | 88,815 | 65,996 |
A confirmed policy change
Wage-weighted H-1B cap selection took effect February 27, 2026 for FY2027. Raw salary alone does not determine wage level; occupation and work location matter. These historical filing counts do not estimate an applicant's selection odds.
USCIS announcementAsk about the actual job
Post-completion OPT can provide up to 12 months. An eligible STEM extension adds up to 24 months. Your remaining time comes from your authorization dates and eligibility, rather than a fresh three years when changing employers.
- Does this requisition accept my current OPT EAD?
- Will the employer support STEM OPT, including E-Verify and Form I-983?
- Will it submit an H-1B cap registration and petition if selected?
- Does it accept an existing H-1B transfer?
- Is there a minimum remaining authorization period? Ask for the exact months and a written answer tied to the job ID.
Sources and calculation notes
These figures use DOL disclosure data: FY2026 from the official workbook and historical comparison files from the surviving GitHub mirror. Mirrors can differ from later official revisions. Only H-1B cases with a latest disclosed status of Certified and a decision in the stated window are included. H-1B1, E-3, withdrawn, and denied cases are excluded. Case numbers are deduplicated before filtering. A later release can revise a case's status or date.
Wages use WAGE_RATE_OF_PAY_FROM, annualized at 2,080 hours, 52 weeks, 26 biweekly periods, or 12 months. Annual values outside $20,000–$2,000,000 or with unknown units are excluded from wage calculations. Medians use valid cases with equal weight per LCA; they are not total compensation, inflation-adjusted wages, or a comparison of equivalent jobs. State uses the primary WORKSITE_STATE, not employer headquarters or all additional worksites.
Employer names are normalized for case, whitespace, and trailing punctuation. Affiliates remain separate. The employer table omits entities below 20 filings in both periods; national totals include them. Zero previous filings produce no percentage baseline. A missing employer row does not prove absence of sponsorship.
LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2026_Q3.csv.gz: 437,496 nonempty records, 437,496 unique cases, 0 duplicate rows.
Observed decision dates: 2025-10-01 to 2026-06-30. Compared window: 2025-10-01 to 2026-06-30.
LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2025_Q1.csv.gz, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2025_Q2.csv.gz, LCA_Disclosure_Data_FY2025_Q3.csv.gz: 827,189 nonempty records, 479,005 unique cases, 348,184 duplicate rows.
Observed decision dates: 2024-10-01 to 2025-06-30. Compared window: 2024-10-01 to 2025-06-30.