Houston’s Top H-1B Employers Revealed: Baylor College Of Medicine Tops List

A newly refreshed federal database shows that hospitals, universities, and multinational corporations led H-1B visa approvals in Houston from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2025, according to data released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and compiled by The Dallas Express.

The federal agency did not release approvals from the final months of 2025 until recently, and the dataset was not updated to reflect the full six-year period.

Baylor College of Medicine ranked first among Houston-based petitioners with 898 approvals during the period. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center followed with 869 approvals, while Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company placed third with 845.

The figures reflect only petitioners listing their city as Houston and do not include employers in surrounding communities within the greater metropolitan area.

Here is the consolidated table based on refreshed USCIS data and compiled by The Dallas Express:

*Asterisk indicates that the company name was consolidated from multiple nearly identical entries in the document (due to spacing, abbreviation, or minor spelling variations such as “DISTRIC” vs. “DISTRICT”) that appear separately; the counts for those entries were summed for the consolidated total. Similarly, the data has been produced by consolidating multiple entries for the City name “Houston,” as well as at least one entry for “Cypress Houston.”

Beyond the top three, the rankings show a mix of engineering firms, public school systems, consulting companies, and major energy services providers. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc recorded 537 approvals, Harmony Public Schools 504, and the University of Houston 498.

The Houston Independent School District appears at No. 11 with 303 approvals. The presence of multiple public and nonprofit institutions mirrors trends seen in other Texas cities, where universities and school districts rank among the largest H-1B petitioners.

Nationally, approximately 72% of H-1B visas are awarded to workers from India, with roughly 12% going to workers from China, according to annual USCIS data.

The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in certain occupations that typically require at least a bachelor’s degree for up to 6 years and sometimes longer.

The H-1B visa program’s proponents, such as Ohio Republican gubernatorial contender Vivek Ramaswamy, have argued that it is necessary because “American culture has venerated mediocrity,” and that foreign workers are better suited to meet the demands of American employers, per The Dallas Express.

However, recent research suggests that H-1B workers are a relatively less expensive source of labor than American workers.

“On average, H-1B workers earn 16 percent less than comparable natives,” a recent working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research and Harvard economist George J. Borjas reportedly found.

In December, a federal judge ruled that certain policies from Cognizant Technology Solutions had a disparate impact on some U.S. workers, according to prior reporting by The Dallas Express. Plaintiffs in that case alleged that the company structured its workforce in ways that disadvantaged some non-Visa employees, claims that company representatives disputed and indicated they plan to appeal.

The release of the refreshed Houston data comes as Governor Greg Abbott’s order halting new H-1B petitions at Texas state agencies and public universities remains in effect. Abbott directed agencies on January 27 to freeze new filings and submit reports detailing their use of the program, citing what he described as “recent reports of abuse in the federal H-1B visa program,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express. The pause is set to continue until the end of the Texas Legislature’s 90th Regular Session on May 31, 2027.

The Dallas Express reached out to Baylor College of Medicine for comment on its use of the H-1B program but did not receive a response by the time of publication.