Who Sponsors Visas in Boston (H-1B · LCA, Measured)
We counted all 1,365 H-1B sponsoring employers in Massachusetts. Seven in ten approved nobody new this year, and Korean companies do not sponsor in Boston. Includes offered wages by role and the hospital-versus-company gap.
First: what these numbers leave out
Everything below covers H-1B only. L-1 intracompany transfers, E-2 treaty investor visas, green card holders, U.S. citizens and people working on OPT do not appear at all. So "no sponsorship record" does not mean "does not employ foreign nationals". It means "is not hiring new foreign workers through H-1B".
1. Having sponsored is not the same as sponsoring now
1,365 employers in Massachusetts sponsored H-1B workers. That looks like a long list of options until you separate the two groups: 946 of them approved nobody new that year. They renewed people they already had.
2. Where, and in which industries
| City | Employers | New approvals |
|---|---|---|
| Boston | 360 | 307 |
| Cambridge | 149 | 158 |
| Somerville | 30 | 112 |
| Southborough | 8 | 54 |
| Woburn | 27 | 44 |
| Waltham | 77 | 28 |
Somerville shows 112 approvals across only 30 employers because Mass General and Brigham register there.
Three sectors account for most of it:
- Professional, scientific and technical services (NAICS 54) — 590 employers, 419 approvals
- Health care and social assistance (62) — 131 employers, 292 approvals
- Educational services (61) — 86 employers, 277 approvals
3. Hospitals and universities are the realistic route
| New | Employer |
|---|---|
| 58 | Mass General (General Hosp Corp) |
| 52 | Harvard University |
| 44 | MIT |
| 40 | Virtusa Corporation |
| 38 | Children's Hospital Corporation |
| 34 | Brigham and Women's Hospital |
| 33 | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute |
| 30 | Boston University |
| 26 | UMass Chan Medical School |
| 21 | Northeastern University |
4. But they pay less — for the same job title
The employers easiest to get sponsored by are the ones that pay least. Hospitals, universities and research institutes offer 40–70% below companies for the same occupation, because postdoctoral and staff-researcher roles sit there.
| Occupation | Hospital · university · institute | Company |
|---|---|---|
| Medical Scientists | $71,406 | $126,006 |
| Biochemists / Biophysicists | $75,000 | $115,000 |
| Business development / marketing | $75,000 | $93,434 |
These are median offered wage floors as filed by the employer, not actual pay. Certified Massachusetts filings for FY2025; hourly and weekly rates annualised.
5. Offered wages by role (companies)
| Role | Median | 25th–75th |
|---|---|---|
| Natural sciences managers | $184,000 | $140,795 – $221,708 |
| Medical scientists | $126,006 | $104,416 – $147,576 |
| Biochemists / biophysicists | $115,000 | $101,026 – $133,551 |
| Business development / marketing | $93,434 | $66,560 – $137,500 |
| Accountants and auditors | $90,000 | $83,000 – $117,645 |
| Compliance officers | $75,982 | $65,000 – $125,250 |
| Human resources | $71,000 | $67,205 – $100,000 |
The Massachusetts median across all filings is $121,000 (25th $91,520 · 75th $150,297 · 90th $185,200).
6. Korean companies do not sponsor in Boston
Korean companies are visibly present in Boston, so it is natural to assume they solve the visa problem. The data says otherwise.
Exactly one Korean-affiliated employer sponsored H-1B workers in Massachusetts — LG Energy Solution Vertech in Westborough — and it had zero new approvals. Widening to LCA filings, which precede the petition, gives six entities and eight filings, all in energy and semiconductors: LG Energy Solution, Samsung Semiconductor, Hanwha Q Cells.
Not one Korean pharmaceutical or biotech company in Boston has an H-1B sponsorship record.
That includes Samsung Biologics, Yuhan and Genosco, Daewoong, Chong Kun Dang, Orum Therapeutics, LigaChem Biosciences, AVEO (LG Chem), and the pharmaceutical companies based at the Cambridge Innovation Center. Their Boston sites are research and business development outposts rather than hiring centres.
7. Korean companies sponsor elsewhere
Their U.S. hiring centres are in semiconductors, electronics and automotive, in other states.
| Employer | New / continuing | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Austin Semiconductor | 2 / 79 | Austin, TX |
| Samsung Electronics America | 2 / 59 | Ridgefield Park, NJ |
| Samsung Semiconductor | 0 / 49 | San Jose, CA |
| SK Hynix NAND (Solidigm) | 1 / 19 | San Jose, CA |
| Samsung Research America | 1 / 16 | Mountain View, CA |
Nationally, Korean biotech shows up three times: Lotte Biologics USA (Syracuse NY), Kolon TissueGene (Rockville MD) and DSK Biopharma (Cary NC).
Where these numbers come from
- Sponsorship counts — USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, FY2023, the most recent fiscal year USCIS publishes as a bulk file. Massachusetts worksites extracted from 33,332 national rows.
- Wages — U.S. DOL OFLC LCA disclosure data, all four FY2025 quarters (2024-10-01 to 2025-09-30). 21,465 Massachusetts rows out of 2.42 million nationally; offered wage floors on certified filings, annualised.
- The two datasets cover different fiscal years. Do not read the counts and the wages as one year.
Schools and agencies change these without notice. Confirm on the official pages below before you act.
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