Our H-1B visa data methodology

Data Source

All data comes from the DOL ETA Foreign Labor Certification Performance Data, quarterly disclosure files published by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. These files contain Labor Condition Application (LCA) records submitted by employer filers. A record does not establish that an employer sponsored a worker or that USCIS approved a petition.

Our database spans FY2023 through FY2026 and is updated quarterly when new disclosure files are released.

What is a Labor Condition Application?

Before an employer can petition USCIS for an H-1B nonimmigrant worker visa, they must first file a Labor Condition Application with the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. The LCA process certifies that the employer will pay at least the prevailing wage for the occupation in the geographic area and that hiring the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed US workers. Each LCA record in the disclosure data includes the following fields:

• Employer name and location
• Job title (SOC occupation code)
• Offered wage and wage unit
• Prevailing wage level (Level I–IV)
• Work site location (city, state)
• Begin and end dates
• Number of workers covered
• Certification status (Certified, Certified - Withdrawn, Denied, Withdrawn)

How We Count the Certification Rate

Every certification rate on this site, the site-wide figure on the home page and the per-employer, per-occupation, per-state and per-metro rates, is computed over the same population and the same status definition, so the numbers stay comparable when you move between pages.

• Numerator: LCAs with status Certified or Certified - Withdrawn. DOL certified both; the second group was withdrawn by the employer after certification, so leaving it out would understate how many filings cleared the Labor Department review.
• Denominator: all disclosed LCAs in the same fiscal-year range, including Denied and Withdrawn. We do not drop dispositions from the denominator to flatter a rate.
• Fiscal years: FY2023 through FY2026, identical for every aggregate shown as a ratio, percentage, or side-by-side comparison.

This is the DOL Labor Condition Application step only. It is not a USCIS H-1B approval rate, and the two should not be compared: USCIS adjudicates the petition after the LCA is certified.

Processing Pipeline

We download quarterly DOL ETA disclosure files (typically CSV format) and process them as follows:

• Name normalization: Employer names are normalized (trimming whitespace, standardizing common suffixes like Inc, LLC, Corp) to enable consistent aggregation across quarters and fiscal years.
• Employer profiles: All LCA records for a normalized employer are aggregated into a single profile showing LCA filing counts, offered-wage ranges, top occupations, and geographic distribution.
• Occupation views: LCA records are grouped by SOC occupation code to show which roles attract the most H-1B filings and the associated salary ranges.
• Metro and state views: Work site locations are used to build geographic breakdowns of H-1B filing activity.

Limitations

• An LCA filing does not guarantee that the H-1B petition was approved or that a worker was hired. LCA certification is a prerequisite, not the final approval step.
• A certification or denial rate reflects DOL's wage/attestation review of paperwork, not an assessment of an employer's conduct, compliance history, or trustworthiness. A below-average rate should not be read as evidence of wrongdoing.
• Employer name normalization is imperfect, the same organization may appear under slightly different names across quarters, particularly for large multinationals with many subsidiaries.
• Salary data is the offered wage from the LCA, not the worker's final compensation.
• Work site city/state reflects where the work is performed, which may differ from the employer's headquarters location.

Data Collection Method

The Department of Labor publishes LCA disclosure files quarterly, containing every Labor Condition Application processed during the reporting period. These files are available as CSV downloads from the DOL ETA Office of Foreign Labor Certification website. Each record represents a single LCA submission with all fields as reported by the employer. DOL does not independently verify employer-reported wage offers or job descriptions, the data reflects what employers attest to when filing. We download each quarterly release and process it to build cumulative multi-year views.

Update Schedule

DOL publishes new LCA disclosure files quarterly, typically within 1-2 months after the quarter ends. We update our database when each new quarterly file is released. Between releases, newly filed LCAs will not appear in our database. Historical quarterly data remains stable across updates, DOL does not retroactively modify prior quarter disclosure files. Dated pipeline refreshes and processing corrections are listed on the changelog.

Additional Data Sources

Beyond the DOL LCA disclosure data described above, two sections of the site draw on separate federal data feeds:

• USCIS Processing Times (/processing-times): sourced from the USCIS Processing Times Tool, published monthly by US Citizenship and Immigration Services. These are separate from the DOL LCA data and reflect case-processing speed by form type and service center, not the H-1B process volume.
• Visa Wait Times (/wait-times): sourced from the State Department Global Visa Wait Times report, tracking interview wait times by embassy and consulate worldwide.

Not Affiliated

PlainVisa is not affiliated with the Department of Labor, USCIS, or any government agency. We are an independent data portal presenting publicly available DOL disclosure data in a more accessible format.