H-1B1 sponsorship is not spread evenly across the US. It clusters, harder than most people expect. Here’s what the filing data shows if you’re deciding where to point a job search.
The top states by filing volume
| State | Filings | Employers | Median salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 3,156 | 1,074 | $141,249 |
| New York | 2,328 | 883 | $128,002 |
| Washington | 737 | 144 | $144,726 |
| Texas | 532 | 225 | $110,862 |
| Massachusetts | 352 | 162 | $112,986 |
| Illinois | 259 | 124 | $97,000 |
| New Jersey | 168 | 81 | $145,000 |
| Pennsylvania | 126 | 65 | $141,000 |
| Virginia | 123 | 41 | $114,026 |
| Florida | 106 | 53 | $82,875 |
California and New York together account for roughly 63% of every certified filing in the dataset, 5,484 out of 8,769. Everything after that is a long tail. Only 40 states clear the five-filing threshold needed for a state page, and near the bottom one employer can swing the median by twenty thousand dollars.
Pay does not follow volume
The intuitive assumption is that the busiest sponsorship states also pay the best. They don’t. Illinois has 259 filings at a $97,000 median. New Jersey has a third fewer filings, 168, at a $145,000 median. Washington’s $144,726 median beats California’s $141,249 on less than a quarter of the volume.
What drives the gap is who files, not how hot the local market is. Washington’s list is more or less Amazon (199 filings) and Microsoft (137), two companies that pay well above the national median and file from Seattle-area worksites. Illinois is led by Deloitte and Ernst & Young filing consulting roles, with a scatter of small design and IT firms behind them.
Cost of living does the rest of the work. Florida’s $82,875 median is the lowest in the top ten, and its biggest filers are small telecom and services firms rather than big tech. That’s a question of employer mix, not a hostile market.
Employer count matters as much as filing count
California’s 3,156 filings come from 1,074 distinct employers. That breadth is the real advantage if you’re job hunting: you aren’t competing for slots at three companies. New York is similar, 2,328 filings across 883 employers.
Washington is the reverse case. 737 filings, only 144 employers, and Amazon plus Microsoft account for close to half the total between them. High median, narrow door.
Worth stating once: these are worksite states, meaning where the job is located, not where the company is headquartered. JPMorgan is New Jersey’s largest filer with 18 filings, which reflects Jersey City offices rather than a New York bank moving house.
What this means for your search
For sheer number of doors, California and New York win. If you care more about pay relative to competition, Washington and New Jersey look better on paper, though Washington’s short employer list makes it riskier than the headline median suggests.
Read all of it as history. Every number comes from an LCA an employer filed at some point, not a live vacancy or a confirmed hire. Build a target list from it, then check what those companies advertise now on our roles directory or companies directory.
Data source: US Department of Labor LCA disclosure files through Q2 2026, filtered to certified H-1B1 Singapore filings and aggregated by primary worksite state. States with fewer than 5 filings are excluded as unreliable small samples.