Methodology — how every number is computed

Every figure on VisaBench is computed from public government disclosure files by deterministic code — no estimates, no adjustments, no manual edits. This page states each formula, its data source, the minimum-volume floors that suppress noisy values, and the known limitations. When a benchmark is missing on an employer page, it is because the data does not clear these floors, never because it was removed.

Data sources

All sources are public and free: the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub (approvals and denials per employer per fiscal year), and the Department of Labor OFLC disclosure files for LCA (wages, worksites, prevailing-wage levels) and PERM (green-card labor certifications). Each employer page's sources section states the exact fiscal periods used, and every page carries a "data through" stamp. For a field-by-field walkthrough of the source files, see how to read an LCA and reading the USCIS Employer Data Hub.

G1 — Approval rate

Initial approval rate = initial approvals ÷ (initial approvals + initial denials) for one employer and one fiscal year, from the USCIS Data Hub. Continuing-petition approval rate is computed separately with the continuing columns. A rate is shown as not published — never as zero — when the denominator is zero. Rounding rule (applies to every percentage on the site): values display to the nearest whole percent, except that a rate between 99.5% and 100% or between 0% and 0.5% keeps one decimal — a record with any denials is never shown as 100%, and a nonzero rate is never shown as 0%. Trend tables show the five most recent fiscal years; totals labeled "on record" always cover every year in the files.

G2 — PERM follow-through rate

Distinct PERM labor certification filings over the trailing three fiscal years ÷ initial H-1B approvals over the same window. It approximates how often an employer that wins H-1B petitions goes on to start the green-card process. Floor: at least 10 initial approvals in the window, otherwise not published. The ratio can exceed 100%: PERM filings also cover workers hired in earlier years or on other visa types, so it is a filing-intensity ratio, not a probability. A PERM filing is not a green card; certification is an early step — the PERM stages guide walks the full path.

G3 — Advanced-degree mix (proxy)

Share of the employer's PERM filings whose minimum education requirement is a master's degree or higher. This is a proxy for EB-2 versus EB-3 mix — the disclosure files do not state the visa category directly. Vintage limitation: DOL's PERM disclosure files stopped publishing worker education after the FY2024 file, so this share is computed only over filings from vintages that carry the field, and the denominator counts only those filings. Floor: at least 10 such filings in the window.

G4 — Backlog exposure

Share of the employer's PERM filings for beneficiaries born in India or China, the two countries with the longest employment-based green-card queues. For a reader born in one of those countries, this approximates the queue they would join at that employer. Same floor and same vintage limitation as G3: citizenship left the DOL disclosure files after the FY2024 vintage, so the share is computed only over filings that carry it.

G5 — Wage percentile

The employer's median certified wage in its highest-volume occupation (SOC code) and worksite state is placed against the distribution of all certified H-1B wages for that same occupation, state and fiscal year. A 40th percentile means 40% of the market's certified wages for that occupation and state fall below the employer's median. Floors: at least 10 certified LCA rows for the employer and at least 50 wage records in the market cell. Current limitation: the comparison cell is occupation × state; a metro-level cell will replace it when the worksite-to-metro mapping is complete.

G6 — Prevailing-wage Level I share

Share of the employer's certified LCAs rated at prevailing-wage Level I, the lowest of the four DOL wage levels. Stated as a fact; readers can compare it against the market and the employer's job titles. Floor (shared with G7): at least 10 certified LCA records in the latest fiscal year on file, otherwise not published.

G7 — Third-party placement share

Share of certified LCAs that name a secondary worksite entity — positions performed at a client site rather than the employer's own location. Common in consulting and staffing business models; the number is stated without judgment. Same 10-record floor as G6.

G8–G10 — Layoffs, compliance, score

WARN layoff notices joined to sponsors (G8), Department of Labor H-1B enforcement findings and debarments (G9), and the composite VisaBench Score (G10) publish with a later data refresh. The score's weights will be stated on this page in full before the first score appears.

Employer identity resolution

The same company appears under many spellings across files and years. Names are canonicalized (case, punctuation, legal suffixes, conjunctions, spaced initialisms), then matched against a hand-curated alias table; ambiguous near-matches are reviewed by a person before any merge. The standing rule: an unmerged duplicate understates a company, which is safe; a wrong merge attributes one company's record to another, which is not. Because government files also truncate and vary names in ways no rule fully unifies, an employer's filings can be split across related name entries despite this pipeline — which is why zero-filing statements on employer pages are always scoped to "under this employer name", why an automated check blocks publishing when a zero-filing page has a likely name-sibling with real filings, and why every employer page states how many raw name spellings roll up into its figures. If a split misrepresents an employer, the corrections channel merges it in the next build.

Known limitations

LCA certifications are not hires — one certification can cover multiple workers, and certified positions may never be filled. USCIS approvals count petitions, not people. PERM education requirements are a proxy, not the visa category. Fiscal-year files are cumulative and revised by the agencies; VisaBench reloads each quarter and stamps every page with the period used. If you find an error, use the corrections channel — reports are reviewed within 5 business days. Recent rankings are on the top sponsors page.

This page and every benchmark are informational only, not legal advice; consult a licensed immigration attorney for decisions about your case.