Top H1-B Visa Sponsors: Statistics by companies and industry

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”

The Statue of Liberty carries the famous Lazarus’ poem whose lines are quoted above. The sentiment resonates with the millions of immigrants housed in USA, looking for the good life.

And that good life is afforded by its excellent education system that attracts millions of international students all over the world and the ability for thousands of employers to recruit solid international talent.

Employers in the US are able to sort their required talent across the globe and within the international population in the country under the non-immigrant visa permit of H1B.

According to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) page, the “H1B is applicable to individuals who are able to provide services that require a meritorious background, in relation to research associated with the Department of Defense, and other specialized jobs”.

So, what happens to your American dream if you don’t get your H1B? Watch our fun MBA Rap video (with a serious message) to find out.

MBA Rap Video
 

How does an H1B work?

 
The basic idea is that the employer interested in talent acquisition among non-American citizens sponsors the applicants through the US Immigration system.

The employer pays for the visa and files a Labor Condition Application with the United States Department of Labor.

If that is approved, the employer then files a Form I-129, or a petition for an H1B for the applicant.

If an I-129 is approved, the employee is legally allowed to work with the sponsoring company and apply for the H1B visa.

If granted, the applicant (employee) is allowed to work with the sponsoring employer in the US for a period of three years.

After the first three years, the employee gets a chance to be sponsored again for another three (with certain exceptions for further extensions).

And if an applicant happens to lose his job on an H1B visa, he gets up to 60 days to look for another H1B job offer or depart for his home country.

Under the regular category, the USCIS allows up to 65,000 (H1B cap) H1B visas for bachelor’s degree holders with an additional 20,000 available for Master’s (or higher) international students with a US degree.

The H1B cases are then subject to a lottery, to be selected, with the Master’s degree holders from USA getting two bites at the apple, once in the regular 65,000 cap and a second one for the 20,000 extra slot.

Let us say that H1B rejection is quite common. As is rejection in the F1 visa category like this MBA admit with scholarship had to face.

Read how the H1B lottery system makes selection hard for Indian MBA students

H1B is a dual intent visa, which essentially means that unlike the F1 student visa, applicants don’t have to “hide” their intention to stay back in the USA.

So, even though this is a temporary working permit “deal”, the H1B visa holder can concurrently apply for a Green Card legally.

And, unlike the past history of indentured slavery to one sponsoring company until a GC is approved, the new rules allow applicants to change jobs between H1B sponsoring companies while in wait for the green card.
 

Criticism of H1B

 
H1B is fraught with criticism for outsourcing cheap labor in place of good ol’ American talent. Critics have cited that large organizations often mislead showing the lack of employable talent within the country as a good excuse to fetch H1B employees.

Even though legally H1B workers are supposed to get paid the same as regular employees, companies often find loopholes or drive up the supply of workers to circumvent the need to pay same, often getting away with lower wages.

Critics also cite the fact that a large number of H1B slots are filled not by high level STEM workers but rather entry level IT employees, mostly from India, working in companies that are the classic outsourcing hubs like TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, etc.

So instead of bringing in the cream of talent, the H1B program seems to be employed in getting cheap labor, as an HBR article puts it.

On the other hand, the H1B program has proven to be beneficial to America and American economy over the years.

This is justified by the fact that there is indeed shortage of extremely high skilled talent needed to boost the research, innovation, and productivity in fields such as technology, science, medicine, and business, that ultimately creates progress.

While the debate is ongoing, it is clear that the H1B program is alive and well, running each year for the benefit of both corporations and international talent, looking for better opportunities.

And here is a list of some of the top 50 recruiters in the past few years obtained from the USCIS database.
 

Industries with top H1B Recruiters

 
Not all industries are created equal in the eyes of the US immigration system. We have listed the statistics for some of the top industries, classified under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), with the highest number of Initial Approvals in H1B applications. Use it as the initial database for your research.

[Definitions quoted from the USCIS H1B Employer page: “Initial Approval: H-1B petitions with “New employment” or “New concurrent employment” selected on Part 2, Question 2 of the Form I-129 whose first decision is an approval.

Initial Denial: H-1B petitions with “New employment” or “New concurrent employment” selected on Part 2, Question 2 of the Form I-129 whose first decision is a denial.”]

Industries (NACIS classification) with the most Initial Approvals of LCA in 2020

Industry	Initial Approvals	Initial Denials
Professional and Technical Services (all professional and technical requiring specialization – from consulting and computer services to legal services)	65,084	15,214
Educational Services	11,583	251
Tech Manufacturing	9,549	344
Information	8,140	407
Retail Trade	6,683	299
Finance and Insurance	6,628	283

 

Top H1B Recruiters

 
And here are some of the top companies with the most LCA applications approvals in the recent past.

Do keep in mind that a lot of the companies have sub-divisions that file LCAs in separate NACIS categories. For instance, although Amazon LLC may have the most LCAs under Retail Trade, there are more Amazon applications under the hat of Tech Manufacturing, Wholesale Trade, Information, Finance, Technical Services, and more, that may shoot up the total LCA approvals even further.

For the purpose of the list below though we will stick to the dominant categories under the broad company name.

Company	Initial Approvals 2021	Initial Denials 2021	Industry (NACIS)	Visa Approvals in 2020
Amazon	5,421	115	Retail Trade	4,689
Infosys Limited	5,255	220	Professional and Technical Services	3,512
Tata Consultancy Services Limited	3,062	129	Professional and Technical Services	2,409
Wipro Limited	1,624	80	Professional and Technical Services	1,004
Cognizant Technology Solutions US	1,481	19	Professional and Technical Services	2,000
Google LLC	1,453	16	Professional and Technical Services	1,682
IBM Corporation	1,398	51	Professional and Technical Services	1,283
Microsoft Corporation	1,240	14	Information	1,789
HCL America Inc	1,209	35	Professional and Technical Services	1,303
Facebook Inc	1,189	7	Information	1,169
Tech Mahindra Americas Inc	1,088	59	Professional and Technical Services	863
Apple Inc	1,071	20	Manufacturing	748
Accenture LLP	1,067	50	Professional and Technical Services	1,140
Capgemini America Inc	888	34	Professional and Technical Services	1,413
Amazon	749	2	Information	22
Goldman Sachs	640	11	Finance and Insurance	399
Deloitte Consulting LLP	544	23	Professional and Technical Services	776
Oracle America Inc	535	3	Information	505
Intel Corporation	522	9	Manufacturing	743
Ernst Young US LLP	485	17	Professional and Technical Services	520
Mindtree Limited	466	22	Professional and Technical Services	243
Hexaware Technologies Inc	423	23	Professional and Technical Services	247
Cisco Systems Inc	416	12	Manufacturing	488
Qualcomm Technologies Inc	410	5	Manufacturing	464
Walmart Associates Inc	375	7	Retail Trade	435
McKinsey Company Inc US	365	25	Professional and Technical Services	228
Citibank	325	14	Finance and Insurance	266
JP Morgan Chase Co	289	12	Management of Companies and Enterprises	291
Atos Syntel Inc	284	8	Professional and Technical Services	217
Deloitte & Touche LLP	255	16	Professional and Technical Services	279
NVIDIA Corporation	254	2	Manufacturing	188
Tesla Inc	249	2	Manufacturing	226

Source: USCIS.gov H1B Employer Data Hub
 
STEM, Computer Science, and Business related jobs dominate the H1B scene with a major chunk taken over by companies that specialize in outsourcing IT consultation work like TCS, Infosys, etc.

The visa systems in the US offer incredible opportunities for learning and career advancements.

If you are thinking of expanding your horizons across the oceans, we suggest you further acquaint yourself with the requirements, eligibility, and regulations surrounding them, whether a non-immigrant work visa like H1B, dependent visa like H4, student visa like F1 or J1, or others.

Research your interests and drop us a line at info[at]mbacrystalball[dot]com if you need professional help to apply to international MBA and masters programs.

Here are a few related articles that you might find enlightening.

– F1 to H1B visa conversion process
– F1 visa requirements and Step by step student visa process
– H1B to F1 visa conversion process
– F1 visa interview Q&A
– Can a student visa be revoked, cancelled or reinstated?
 
Source: 1, 2, 3