State comparison

California vs Illinois

H-1B filing geography compared side-by-side. Volume, national share, top sponsoring employers and most-filed occupations. Built from the same DOL LCA data that drives every page on H1B Report.

Summary

California and Illinois represent two distinct H-1B sponsorship markets. California dominates in total filings with 1,684,275 H-1B applications compared to Illinois's 428,170—nearly four times the volume. This reflects California's larger tech and professional services sectors, concentrated around the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

Illinois, while significantly smaller in H-1B sponsorship activity, remains a meaningful market for visa-based employment in the Midwest. The state's filings are anchored in Chicago and surrounding areas, serving healthcare, finance, and technology employers. The disparity in filing volume illustrates the geographic concentration of H-1B sponsorship in high-tech coastal regions versus more distributed Midwestern employment patterns.

California vs Illinois H-1B
H-1B filings by state
California Illinois sponsorship
state H-1B comparison
H-1B applications

State A

California

CARank #1

State B

Illinois

ILRank #5

Key metrics

National share is each state’s portion of total US H-1B filings.

Metric	California	Illinois
Total filings	1,727,358▲	438,152
National share %	18.07%▲	4.58%
Rank nationally	#1▲	#5
Top sponsor	Google LLC	INFOSYS LIMITED
Top sponsor share	4.6%	4.3%
Top occupation	Software Developers	Software Developers

Filings by fiscal year

Year-over-year H-1B demand in each state.

California

Time series
Period	Value
FY2010	63,120
FY2011	65,699
FY2012	76,412
FY2013	83,865
FY2014	98,525
FY2015	115,758
FY2016	119,754
FY2017	119,409
FY2018	128,477
FY2019	16,784
FY2020	116,018
FY2021	177,848
FY2022	123,097
FY2023	123,478
FY2024	102,108
FY2025	110,926
FY2026	86,080

Illinois

Time series
Period	Value
FY2010	17,542
FY2011	18,596
FY2012	22,351
FY2013	24,513
FY2014	27,412
FY2015	32,770
FY2016	35,186
FY2017	32,082
FY2018	31,959
FY2019	4,058
FY2020	27,702
FY2021	39,044
FY2022	29,930
FY2023	27,890
FY2024	23,732
FY2025	25,222
FY2026	18,163

Top 5 sponsors — California

1Google LLC47,4704.6%
2INFOSYS LIMITED31,7633.1%
3Apple Inc.23,1722.2%
4Meta Platforms, Inc11,7681.1%
5Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.11,0691.1%

Top 5 sponsors — Illinois

1INFOSYS LIMITED11,9854.3%
2TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED9,6923.5%
3CAPGEMINI AMERICA INC8,5883.1%
4COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS US CORP6,8022.4%
5Deloitte Consulting LLP5,1031.8%

Top 5 occupations — California

115-1252Software Developers590,102
215-1211Computer Systems Analysts107,957
315-1299Computer Occupations, All Other107,104
415-2051Data Scientists71,013
515-1253Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers70,860

Top 5 occupations — Illinois

115-1252Software Developers114,240
215-1211Computer Systems Analysts49,700
315-1299Computer Occupations, All Other31,663
415-1251Computer Programmers21,879
515-1253Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers18,143

Swap an entity

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