Dallas Express Analysis: Who Are The Top H-1B Employers In North Texas?

From global consultancies to public universities, federal visa records show how H-1B hiring has quietly reshaped the workforce of North Texas’ largest cities over the past five years.

From January 1, 2020, through September 30, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services records show thousands of H-1B approvals across Dallas, Tarrant, Denton, and Collin counties, underscoring how private companies and public institutions alike are reshaping local labor markets through foreign-worker hiring.

Supporters argue the visa remains essential for competitiveness.

Former Republican Presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy, who has drawn national attention for defending the program, has argued that it is necessary because “American culture has venerated mediocrity,” and that foreign workers better fit the demands of American businesses, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.

However, the AFL-CIO’s 2025 H-1B fact sheet suggested that employers embrace H-1B labor as a cheaper alternative compared to Americans.

“In fiscal year 2019, 60 percent of H-1B positions were paid at the lowest two levels, meaning they were paid below the median wage for the occupation and location,” read the document.

72% of H-1B visas are awarded to workers from India, with 12% going to those from China, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.

Universities have emerged as some of the most aggressive users.

The University of Texas at Dallas spent more than $1.1 million on H-1B sponsorship costs since 2020 and secured roughly 300 approvals over that period, according to records obtained by The Dallas Express.

Because public universities are exempt from the annual H-1B cap, they can file petitions year-round, making taxpayer-funded institutions less restricted than their private-sector counterparts, who must compete for 85,000 annual visas.

The private sector visa footprint is large in Texas.

In Dallas alone, KPMG recorded 2,572 approvals, UT Southwestern Medical Center 1,326, Dallas Independent School District 1,272, and Texas Instruments 988, according to the USCIS Data Hub.

Texas Instruments has become a flashpoint. The Dallas-based semiconductor firm received up to $1.61 billion in federal CHIPS Act incentives and then laid off American workers while continuing to hire H-1B employees, according to reporting by The Dallas Express.

Prominent activists and organizations have raised concerns about the H-1B visa program in recent federal public comment periods on reforming the visa program.

Fran Rhodes, president of the True Texas Project, wrote that the program is “riddled with fraud and abuse, and puts American workers at a disadvantage, while creating a financial advantage for the companies hiring foreign workers at a lower pay scale,” reported by DX.

However, the Association of American Universities reportedly urged DHS to avoid reforms that would disrupt the pipeline from student visas to H-1B employment, warning that abrupt changes could harm research capacity and faculty recruitment.

Political pressure has intensified.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne of Texas said, “That H-1B visa program has got to either stop right now until we understand the amount of just how it’s being taken advantage of, or redone so it doesn’t exist,” in an interview with Benny Johnson, adding later, “It cannot continue in the way it has.” Afterward, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced legislation to phase out the visa over several years.

In one of the most consequential shifts yet, the administration imposed a new $100,000 fee and reweighted H-1B selection, beginning in fiscal year 2026, prioritizing higher-wage positions under a revised lottery system.

Yet the program’s future is unclear, even as a wave of Democrats, such as Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, reportedly join Republicans in calling for reform.

The Dallas Express has prepared the tables below to give Texans a sense of how the program is directly affecting their communities.

Note: Data for Irving, Grand Prairie, Dallas, and several other cities reflect consolidated USCIS entries where differences in spacing or punctuation caused the same city to appear as multiple entities. Individual employers have not been consolidated. All typos or unusual spellings in names are in the original. Each table is meant to include roughly the top 10 H-1B employers in each community, based on USCIS data.

Dallas County

Dallas

Irving

Garland

Grand Prairie

Mesquite

Tarrant County

Fort Worth

Arlington

Mansfield

North Richland Hills

Euless

Denton County

Denton

Lewisville

Flower Mound

Little Elm

The Colony

Collin County

Plano

Frisco

McKinney

Allen

Celina

Was your hometown omitted from the list? Reach out via X to @CowtownCaller with your city’s name, and journalist Kellen McGovern Jones will provide the latest USCIS data.