Data story · 2024-10-01 → 2026-03-31
Who kept sponsoring H-1B after the $100K fee — and who quietly cut
"We sponsor visas" is a promise; filings are a record. We compared every major employer's certified H-1B LCA filings in the same six-month fiscal window before and after the September 2025 fee proclamation and the weighted lottery. Across all employers, certified filings went from 228,204 to 199,471 (-13%). The company-level moves are where the signal is.
Cut sharpest (−15% or more)
| Employer | Oct 2024–Mar 2025 | Oct 2025–Mar 2026 | Change | Median base now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WAL-MART ASSOCIATES | 1,751 | 791 | -55% | $150,080 |
| 6,534 | 2,974 | -54% | $193,440 | |
| Qualcomm Technologies | 1,439 | 666 | -54% | $152,506 |
| IBM Corporation | 1,233 | 597 | -52% | $129,508 |
| ServiceNow | 616 | 309 | -50% | $165,096 |
| Intel Corporation | 2,037 | 1,171 | -43% | $133,432 |
| LTIMindtree Limited | 1,182 | 712 | -40% | $100,798 |
| Microsoft | 4,698 | 2,879 | -39% | $180,710 |
| Amazon Web Services | 2,004 | 1,232 | -39% | $152,200 |
| Ernst & Young U.S. | 6,261 | 4,098 | -35% | $151,115 |
| Amazon Development Center U.S. | 1,116 | 737 | -34% | $155,000 |
| Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) | 2,589 | 1,838 | -29% | $91,874 |
| Oracle America | 634 | 452 | -29% | $140,920 |
| Amazon | 7,254 | 5,201 | -28% | $155,000 |
| HCL AMERICA | 962 | 688 | -28% | $123,500 |
Grew anyway (+15% or more)
| Employer | Oct 2024–Mar 2025 | Oct 2025–Mar 2026 | Change | Median base now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fidelity Technology Group, LLC d/b/a Fidelity Investments | 546 | 1,091 | +100% | $125,119 |
| PayPal | 544 | 921 | +69% | $170,000 |
| Infosys | 1,452 | 2,435 | +68% | $92,581 |
| LinkedIn Corporation | 619 | 780 | +26% | $179,079 |
| WIPRO LIMITED | 836 | 1,044 | +25% | $106,330 |
| COMPUNNEL SOFTWARE GROUP | 952 | 1,184 | +24% | $113,000 |
| NVIDIA | 1,015 | 1,259 | +24% | $188,293 |
Full table (47 employers with a FY2025 baseline)
Wage and wage-level figures come from the DOL OFLC LCA Disclosure Data, FY2026 Q2 (H-1B only) public release (FY2026 Q2 (Oct 2025 – Mar 2026 decisions)). LCA filings are wage attestations filed with the Department of Labor — they are not petitions, lottery selections, or hires, and one filing can cover multiple positions. Projected lottery selection rates come from the DHS weighted-selection final rule analysis and are illustrative, not a guarantee.
Method: certified H-1B LCA filings per employer, decisions October–March of each fiscal year, matched by normalized employer name (employers under ~100 FY2025 filings excluded). Filing counts are attestations, not hires; a shift can also reflect reorganized filing entities. Context: the $100K fee explained and the weighted lottery.
Holding an offer from any of these?
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