H-1B jobs by state: what US postings say, 16 states
Where you apply changes what the posting says about visas. Across 20,829 US postings with a readable single state, restriction wording runs from 3.5% in Arizona to 50.6% in Virginia, and explicit sponsorship wording shows up in more than a handful of postings only in California and New York.
By OfferMagnet · · 4 min read
The short answer
- of California postings state sponsorship, the highest of any state
- 1.0%
- of New York postings restrict, the lowest among the large markets
- 4.0%
- of Virginia postings restrict, mostly citizenship and clearance wording
- 50.6%
The state that looks open or closed is often one or two employers. Virginia and Washington, DC are high because government contractors post there in volume and write citizenship and clearance requirements into most listings. California and New York look open because the lower restriction rate comes from technology employers.
Read every row as "what employers who post there tend to write", not "what the state allows". Visa rules are federal.
16 states and DC
| State | Postings | Sponsors | Relocation only | Restriction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 5,857 | 1.0% | 1.8% | 8.9% |
| New York | 3,740 | 0.3% | 2.0% | 4.0% |
| Texas | 1,374 | 0.0% | 2.5% | 13.2% |
| Massachusetts | 941 | 0.0% | 13.6% | 5.1% |
| Virginia | 903 | 0.0% | 4.1% | 50.6% |
| Illinois | 660 | 0.0% | 1.7% | 27.3% |
| Washington | 577 | 0.2% | 2.9% | 7.8% |
| North Carolina | 547 | 0.4% | 3.7% | 34.7% |
| Washington, DC | 540 | 0.4% | 3.5% | 46.3% |
| Arizona | 490 | 0.0% | 0.8% | 3.5% |
| Ohio | 433 | 0.0% | 1.2% | 20.3% |
| Colorado | 422 | 0.0% | 1.9% | 23.0% |
| Florida | 406 | 0.0% | 1.5% | 28.6% |
| Georgia | 388 | 0.0% | 3.1% | 6.2% |
| Pennsylvania | 340 | 0.0% | 3.8% | 8.5% |
| New Jersey | 285 | 0.0% | 2.8% | 6.7% |
California and New York
These two states hold 46% of the readable postings. California is the only large state where explicit sponsorship wording shows up in more than 1% of postings (57 of 5,857), and New York has the lowest restriction rate of the big markets (4.0%). If you need a visa and want the most volume with the least written resistance, this is it.
Texas, Illinois, Florida, Colorado and North Carolina
Restriction rates between 13% and 35%. These are states with heavy enterprise, finance and defense hiring, where larger employers use standard legal language about work authorization. None of the five has more than a handful of postings that state sponsorship, so a visa search here depends on the employer, not the state.
Virginia and Washington, DC
Half of the postings restrict. In Virginia, two employers account for 81% of the restriction postings (370 of 457): a federal-services contractor and a bank. Without those 370 postings the state's restriction rate would be 9.6% of the 903, not 50.6%. The point is practical: in these two markets a random posting is likely to be closed to you, and the open ones are worth finding by employer.
Massachusetts
The unusual one. It has the most relocation language of any large state (13.6%), but no postings that state visa sponsorship. Relocation help is not sponsorship, and a relocation line can describe a move within the US.
Ten cities
| City | Postings | Sponsors | Relocation only | Restriction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | 2,163 | 0.5% | 1.2% | 5.3% |
| San Francisco, CA | 1,948 | 2.7% | 1.4% | 1.9% |
| Boston, MA | 680 | 0.0% | 17.9% | 5.3% |
| Washington, DC | 526 | 0.4% | 3.6% | 46.6% |
| Chicago, IL | 474 | 0.0% | 0.8% | 23.4% |
| San Jose, CA | 458 | 0.0% | 0.9% | 1.3% |
| Mountain View, CA | 435 | 0.0% | 3.7% | 0.0% |
| San Mateo, CA | 394 | 0.5% | 2.5% | 0.0% |
| Seattle, WA | 298 | 0.3% | 1.0% | 4.0% |
| South San Francisco, CA | 296 | 0.0% | 0.7% | 1.0% |
San Francisco is the standout: 2.7% of postings state sponsorship and only 1.9% restrict. The Silicon Valley cities (San Jose, Mountain View, San Mateo, South San Francisco) have almost no restrictions at all, which tells you the employers posting there simply do not write them. Chicago, at 23.4%, is the opposite.
What we counted and what we could not
OfferMagnet reads postings from company careers pages on Greenhouse, Workday and Ashby. This study uses US postings first seen between 19 September and 17 October 2026, minus the three largest employers, which is 69,733 postings. Only 20,829 of them have a location we could read as a single state, because many list several offices or just "Remote". Method details are in the visa sponsorship study.
What to do with this
- Start with California and New York if you need a visa. More volume, fewer written restrictions.
- In Virginia, Washington DC, Florida and Illinois, filter by employer. The state average hides a few very closed employers and some open ones.
- Do not read a zero as a no. Sponsorship wording is under 1% almost everywhere. Silence is the default, not a refusal.
- Ask about the specific team. Offices in the same state write different things.
FAQ
›Which state has the most H-1B friendly job postings?
California, by this data: 1.0% of its postings state sponsorship, the highest of any state, and San Francisco reaches 2.7%. The numbers are small everywhere because most postings say nothing about visas.
›Why are Virginia and Washington, DC so restrictive?
Because government and defense contractors post heavily there and write US citizenship and clearance requirements into their listings. It describes the employers, not the state.
›Does a state with 0% sponsorship wording not sponsor?
No. It means none of the postings we could read there state it. Employers in every state sponsor visas, often without saying so in the posting.
›Is there a page per state?
Not yet. This post covers the 16 largest and we will add state pages as the data grows.
Method and sources
- Source: OfferMagnet's own index of public job postings from Greenhouse, Workday and Ashby. 69,733 US postings from 1,403 employers after setting aside the three with the most postings.
- State and city come from the posting's location field. Only postings with one location we could read as a US state or DC are used (20,829). A location written as "New York" is read as the state.
- Restrictions use fixed phrase matching on the full text. Sponsorship statements are matched on the first 4,000 characters with negations excluded, so they are a floor.
- We report counts of postings, not people. No applicant or customer data is used.