Understanding Our H-1B Employer Data Hub
On April 1, 2019, USCIS launched the H-1B Employer Data Hub to provide information on employers petitioning for H-1B workers. The data hub provides an additional layer of transparency to the H-1B program by allowing the public to search for H-1B petitioners by fiscal year, NAICS code, employer name, city, state, or ZIP code. USCIS processes an average of 8 million applications, petitions, and requests annually. These include more than half a million Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, petitions for H-1B workers and other employment-based nonimmigrant workers. We receive numerous requests from Congress, research institutions, the media, and the public about the H-1B program and who uses it. We strive to make as much data about our operations available to the public as possible. We do so to improve understanding of the immigration system and our role in it, as well as to comply with our reporting mandates.
How USCIS Collects the Data
Employers petitioning for temporary foreign workers in specialty occupations must have a certified Labor Condition Application from the Department of Labor and then must submit a Form I-129 to USCIS. Data provided in the H-1B Employer Data Hub are collected from fields on an employer’s Form I-129 or adjudicative decisions. The approval and denial data in the data hub reflects USCIS’ first decision. Subsequent decisions, such as on an appeal or revocation, are excluded. The data does not include petitions that are pending adjudication when USCIS generates the data.
Data Accuracy
We strive to ensure that the data in our electronic systems are accurate, but because we transfer data from paper forms into the electronic systems manually, data entry errors may occur. Additionally, information provided on a paper form is reported by the applicant, petitioner, or requestor (or their representative or preparer), so there may be errors on the forms when we receive them. For example, an applicant may mix up numbers in their tax identification number.
Data entry and petitioner errors may result in a missing and/or erroneous employer name, tax ID, state, city, or ZIP code in our electronic systems.
How the Data Hub Is Organized and Maintained
The counts of initial approval, initial denial, continuing approval, and continuing denial are aggregated by distinct completion fiscal year, two digit NAICS code, tax ID, state, city, and ZIP code. For example, one employer with multiple addresses in a given fiscal year will have multiple rows in the data. The most common spelling of employer name per unique tax ID is used.
We anticipate updating the H-1B Employer Data Hub quarterly and providing downloadable data files. For example, data for the first quarter (October-December) of a fiscal year will be provided in April of the fiscal year.
H-1B Employer Data Hub Glossary
| Data Field | Data Field Description |
|---|---|
| Fiscal Year | The fiscal year in which USCIS first recorded an approval or denial in the electronic systems. USCIS follows the U.S. Federal Government fiscal year (FY) calendar, so data sets presented by fiscal year cover Oct. 1 of one year to Sept. 30 of the next year. Applications and petitions USCIS receives on a given date are generally adjudicated on a later date. Therefore, data in the H-1B Employer Data Hub reflect the date we adjudicated the application or petition rather than the date received. |
| Employer Name | Petitioner’s firm/employer name from I-129, Page 1, Part 1, Question 2 of the current form. |
| 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. |
| Continuing Approval | H-1B petitions with anything other than “New employment” or “New concurrent employment” selected on Part 2, Question 2 of the Form I-129, whose first decision is an approval. This includes, for example, continuing employment, change of employer, and amended petitions. |
| Continuing Denial | H-1B petitions with anything other than “New employment” or “New concurrent employment” selected on Part 2, Question 2 of the Form I-129 whose first decision is a denial. This includes, for example, continuing employment, change of employer, and amended petitions. |
| NAICS | North American Industry Classification System Code: A character string that stands for an industry classification within the North American Industry Classification System from the Form I-129, Page 19, Section 1, Question 6. Data are presented at the two-digit level. For more information on the NAICS, visit the U.S. Census Bureau’s North American Industry Classification Code webpage. NAICS code 99 means the industry is unknown. Any petition that had a blank code was assigned as 99 as well. |
| Tax ID | The last four digits of the Petitioner’s Tax ID Number from the Form I-129, Page 1, Part 1, Question 5. |
| State | Petitioner’s state from the Form I-129, Page 1, Part 1, Question 3. This is the State indicated in the mailing address of the employer and is not necessarily the beneficiary(ies) work location |
| City | Petitioner’s city from the Form I-129, Page 1, Part 1, Question 3. This is the City indicated in the mailing address of the employer and is not necessarily the beneficiary(ies) work location. |
| ZIP | Petitioner’s five-digit ZIP code from the Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, Page 1, Part 1, Question 3. This is the ZIP code indicated in the mailing address of the employer and is not necessarily the beneficiary(ies) work location. |