How to Research an H-1B Employer's Sponsorship Record

Start with the record, not the recruiting pitch

A job offer usually comes with a verbal pitch about how routine the H-1B or green-card sponsorship will be. The public disclosure files let you check that pitch against an employer's actual, government-recorded history rather than take it on faith. None of the figures below predicts what will happen with any individual case — they describe what an employer's petitions and filings have looked like in aggregate. Four things are worth checking for any employer you are evaluating: approval trends, PERM follow-through, wage percentile, and worksite placement.

Check approval trends

USCIS's H-1B Employer Data Hub reports, per employer and fiscal year, how many initial and continuing H-1B petitions were approved and denied. The resulting approval rate is a simple ratio — approvals divided by approvals plus denials — computed separately for initial petitions (new hires or first-time H-1B status) and continuing petitions (extensions, amendments, and similar filings). The guide on approval rates explained covers what moves this number and what it does not capture, such as petitions withdrawn before a decision was reached. Look at the trend across several fiscal years rather than a single year, since one year's rate can be affected by a small number of cases at a smaller employer.

Check PERM follow-through

If the job comes with an expectation of green-card sponsorship, check whether the employer's PERM filing history backs that up. The guide on PERM and green-card stages walks through the process end to end; the number to look for is how many distinct PERM labor certifications the employer has filed relative to its H-1B approval volume over the same period. An employer that wins large numbers of H-1B petitions but files comparatively few PERM cases may simply sponsor differently than one that files close to one PERM case per H-1B hire — the ratio does not say why, but it is a checkable, comparable fact rather than a promise made in an interview.

Check wage percentile and prevailing-wage level

Every LCA filed in support of an H-1B petition names a prevailing-wage level, from least to most experienced, and an offered wage, both drawn from the Department of Labor's LCA disclosure files. The guide on reading an LCA explains what each field on the form means. Comparing an employer's typical wage against the broader market for the same occupation, state, and year — a wage percentile — tells you roughly where that employer's pay sits relative to other certified filings for similar roles; a heavy concentration of filings at the lowest wage level tells you the employer is frequently certifying at the entry end of the DOL wage scale for the stated requirements, a separate fact from whether the actual offered wage is competitive for the role.

Check worksite placement

LCAs also name where the work will actually be performed, including whether a secondary or client worksite is listed — common in consulting and staffing arrangements, where the sponsoring employer is not the site where the work happens. The guide on third-party worksites in LCA data explains what the disclosure files show about this pattern and why it appears at some employers far more than others. Knowing whether a role is likely to be performed on the sponsoring employer's own site or at a client's site is useful context for what day-to-day reporting lines and site rules will look like once the job starts.

Where each number comes from

Every figure described above traces back to one of two public file sets: USCIS's H-1B Employer Data Hub for approvals and denials, and the Department of Labor's OFLC disclosure files for LCA wage, worksite, and prevailing-wage data and for PERM case data. Both are free, public, and updated on a regular schedule; neither is compiled or edited by any employer. VisaBench's methodology page states the exact formula and minimum-volume floor behind every benchmark, including the ones referenced in this guide, so you can see precisely how a number on any employer page was computed.

Questions worth asking a recruiter or hiring manager

• How many H-1B petitions has the company filed and had approved in the role's function or business unit over the last few fiscal years?
• Does the company typically start a PERM case for employees in this role, and after roughly how long from the start date?
• Will the work be performed at the company's own site or at a client or third-party site?
• What wage level does the company typically use for this job title and location?
• What is the company's standard practice if a project or team is affected by a layoff while a petition or PERM case is pending?

None of these questions requires the recruiter to disclose anything confidential — every one of them can be checked, independently, against the public record once you know the employer's name.

Put it together on one employer page

Rather than pulling each figure from a separate government file, employer pages on VisaBench compile approval trends, PERM follow-through, wage percentile, and worksite placement for a single employer in one place, with sources and periods stated for every number. One example is the Microsoft employer page, and the full ranking of top H-1B sponsors lists the largest sponsors by approval volume with links into each one's full record. Reading a few employer pages side by side is usually faster than reading the raw government files directly, though the raw files remain the underlying source for every number shown.

This guide is general information, not legal advice; consult a licensed immigration attorney about your case. Sponsorship history is one input among several worth weighing before accepting a position or an offer.