State comparison

Illinois vs Washington

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

Illinois and Washington are two of the largest H-1B sponsoring states in the US. Illinois leads with 428,170 total H-1B filings compared to Washington's 407,237 filings — a difference of roughly 21,000 petitions. Both states are major employment centers for technology, finance, and professional services, attracting significant international talent through H-1B visa sponsorship.

The gap between them reflects Illinois's larger overall workforce and its concentration of major corporate headquarters in Chicago, though Washington — home to Seattle's tech industry — remains a strong contender. Each state's H-1B activity reflects its regional economy and the sectors that depend most heavily on temporary foreign workers.

Illinois vs Washington H-1B
H-1B filings by state
Illinois H-1B sponsorship
Washington state H-1B
state H-1B comparison

State A

Illinois

ILRank #5

State B

Washington

WARank #6

Key metrics

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

Metric	Illinois	Washington
Total filings	428,170▲	407,237
National share %	4.59%▲	4.36%
Rank nationally	#5▲	#6
Top sponsor	INFOSYS LIMITED	Microsoft Corporation
Top sponsor share	4.4%	20.6%
Top occupation	Software Developers	Software Developers

Filings by fiscal year

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

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	8,181

Washington

Time series
Period	Value
FY2010	11,235
FY2011	11,359
FY2012	13,218
FY2013	15,493
FY2014	17,921
FY2015	21,665
FY2016	23,151
FY2017	25,476
FY2018	26,842
FY2019	4,453
FY2020	32,427
FY2021	44,510
FY2022	38,067
FY2023	37,614
FY2024	34,089
FY2025	36,307
FY2026	13,410

Top 5 sponsors — Illinois

1INFOSYS LIMITED11,7364.4%
2TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED9,5403.5%
3CAPGEMINI AMERICA INC8,4213.1%
4COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS US CORP6,6402.5%
5Deloitte Consulting LLP5,0251.9%

Top 5 sponsors — Washington

Top 5 occupations — Illinois

115-1252Software Developers111,510
215-1211Computer Systems Analysts48,852
315-1299Computer Occupations, All Other30,839
415-1251Computer Programmers21,463
515-1253Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers17,760

Top 5 occupations — Washington

115-1252Software Developers175,532
215-1299Computer Occupations, All Other32,568
315-2051Data Scientists24,866
415-1211Computer Systems Analysts20,133
515-1253Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers19,807

Swap an entity

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