docs/us_immigration/uscis_h1b_county_year

uscis_h1b_county_year

USCIS H-1B petition approval and denial counts aggregated to county and fiscal year. One row per county per fiscal year. Source is the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub (FY2009-2023), geocoded from employer city to county via ZIP crosswalk.

tier aadmin_record

grain

county-year

years

2009 – 2023

cadence

Quarterly cumulative within FY

overview

~25,895 county-year rows (county x fiscal_year, only county-years with H-1B activity).

current vintage — FY2026 Q1

history — FY2009-present (matches base table)

provenance

source & licensing

authority

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

dataset

USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub (FY2009-2023)

source url

https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/h-1b-employer-data-hub

methodology

https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/understanding-our-h-1b-employer-data-hub

license

Public domain (U.S. Federal Government work)

citation

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, DHS. H-1B Employer Data Hub, aggregated to county x fiscal year, FY2009-FY2026 Q1.

schema

fields

name	type	definition
country_idkey	string	ISO 3166 alpha-2 country code. Always "US".
county_idkey	string	5-character county FIPS code of the employer worksite.
fiscal_year	int64	Federal fiscal year (October-September) of the petition decision.
h1b_continuing_approvals	int64	Extension petitions approved for existing H-1B workers.
h1b_continuing_denials	int64	Extension petitions denied.
h1b_initial_approval_rate	float64	Share of initial petitions approved (h1b_initial_approvals / (approvals + denials)).
h1b_initial_approvals	int64	New H-1B petitions approved (first-time and cap-exempt combined).
h1b_initial_denials	int64	New H-1B petitions denied.
h1b_total_approvals	int64	Total approvals (initial + continuing).
h1b_unique_employers	int64	Number of distinct employers filing H-1B petitions in the county in that fiscal year.
state_idkey	string	2-character state FIPS code.

relationships

joins

primary key

county_id, state_id, country_id, year

common joins

dim.geographies on county_id

dol_lca_h1b_county_year on (county_id, fiscal_year)

economy_industry_employment_county_year_naics for sectoral context

usage

how to use this table

method

Aggregated from uscis_h1b_datahub by county x fiscal year, geocoded employer city -> ZIP -> county. Approvals and denials summed; rates computed at aggregate level.

do not use for

Same caveats as base; FY2020 decision-counting basis change applies.

known issues

Inherits FY2020 decision-counting change. ZIP-based geocoding misattributes campus-employer worksites.

← previousus_immigration.dol_lca_h1b_county_year next →us_immigration.uscis_h1b_employer

last updated · Jul 7, 2026