Meta Platforms
METAThe Only H-1B Dependent Giant
Meta Platforms carries a designation that none of the other companies in this dataset hold: H-1B Dependent. Under federal law, that means more than 15% of Meta's workforce holds H-1B visas. It's a legal classification that triggers additional obligations - including attestations that the employer didn't displace American workers.
In FY2021, Meta filed 10,257 LCA applications against a total workforce of 71,970. That's 14.25% in LCA filings alone - and LCA filings undercount actual H-1B holders because they only capture new applications and renewals, not the existing visa holders already on payroll. When a company crosses the 15% threshold on the Department of Labor's own filings, the real number is almost certainly higher.
43 total denials across all years (0.1% of filings) - too small to display on this chart.
40,000 LCA Filings in Six Years
Between FY2020 and FY2025, Meta filed 39,528 Labor Condition Applications across its entities. The peak was FY2021 with 10,257 filings - a 109% surge over FY2020 as Facebook (as it was then called) went on a hiring spree that would be abruptly reversed a year later.
The volume dipped after the rebranding and layoffs, but never collapsed. FY2023 saw 5,167 filings. FY2024 bounced to 6,136. FY2025 climbed to 6,635. Even during what Zuckerberg called the “Year of Efficiency” - when 21,000 workers were shown the door - Meta kept the H-1B pipeline running at thousands of filings per year.
21,000 Laid Off. Thousands More Imported.
In November 2022, Meta laid off 11,000 workers - 13% of its workforce. In early 2023, another round followed. By the time the “Year of Efficiency” was over, roughly 21,000 positions had been eliminated. Headcount dropped from 86,482 in FY2022 to 67,317 in FY2023 - a 22% cut.
During that same period, Meta filed 5,167 LCA applications in FY2023 and 6,136 in FY2024. They had 1,537 H-1B petitions approved in FY2023 and 4,844 in FY2024. The company that told its employees there wasn't enough work to justify their jobs was simultaneously filing thousands of applications to bring in workers from overseas.
Menlo Park: The H-1B Headquarters
Meta's H-1B filings are overwhelmingly concentrated at its Menlo Park headquarters. Roughly 16,700 LCA filings list Menlo Park as the worksite - over 40% of all filings. Seattle and Bellevue, Washington combine for about 5,400 more. New York accounts for roughly 3,400.
But the growth is happening in the secondary cities. Bellevue overtook Seattle as Meta's second-biggest H-1B hub by FY2023, and Sunnyvale is growing steadily. Austin, Texas appeared as a meaningful location starting in FY2022. The pattern mirrors every other Big Tech company: expand the H-1B footprint into lower-cost metros while keeping the largest concentration at HQ.
The Highest-Paid H-1B Workforce in the Dataset
Meta's average H-1B salary of $205,415 in FY2025 is the highest among all companies tracked. That's 58% above the BLS median for software developers ($130,160) and $38,702 above the prevailing wage benchmark of $166,713.
But the premium has been remarkably consistent. Every year, Meta pays roughly 23% above prevailing wage - a spread of $32,000 to $39,000 depending on the year. In FY2022, the gap peaked at 26.8%. The prevailing wage system is supposed to ensure H-1B workers aren't underpaid. Meta's numbers show they're paying well in absolute terms. The question is whether the prevailing wages themselves reflect actual market rates for these roles in Menlo Park and Seattle.
“Software Engineer” - Half of Everything
The single most common H-1B job title at Meta is “Software Engineer.” It accounts for roughly 15,900 filings - nearly half of all LCA applications across every fiscal year. Add “Research Scientist” (2,100), “Data Scientist” (1,500), and “Data Engineer” (1,300), and four job titles cover about 53% of Meta's entire H-1B footprint.
These are not obscure, hard-to-fill specialties. “Software Engineer” is the single most common job title in the American tech industry. There are over 1.8 million software developers in the United States. Meta isn't using the H-1B program to fill gaps in rare talent pools. They're using it to staff their core engineering pipeline at massive scale.
6,400 PERM Filings - and a $14 Million Discrimination Fine
Meta has filed 6,467 PERM (green card) applications between FY2020 and FY2025, with FY2023 being the peak year at 2,421 filings. China (38.5%) and India (35.6%) account for nearly three-quarters of all PERM applicants. Two-thirds of filings require a Master's degree.
But the real story is what the Department of Justice found when it looked at how Facebook (as it was then) handled the PERM process. In December 2020, the DOJ sued Facebook for discriminating against U.S. workers in PERM hiring between January 2018 and September 2019. The allegation: Facebook deliberately failed to properly advertise PERM positions to American workers and applied unnecessarily restrictive requirements. Facebook settled for $14 million - $9.5 million to eligible victims and $4.75 million to the U.S. government.
Facebook to Meta - Same Program, New Name
When Facebook rebranded to Meta Platforms in October 2021, the H-1B filings followed. FY2022 was the transition year - roughly 5,400 filings under “Meta Platforms, Inc.” and 1,000 still under “Facebook, Inc.” By FY2023, the transition was effectively complete. A handful of subsidiary entities persist - Meta Payments Inc., the occasional Sidecat LLC reference - but the vast majority of filings are consolidated under a single name.
Unlike Amazon, which fragments its filings across 20+ legal entities, Meta keeps it relatively clean. That makes their scale more immediately visible in public data. When you search USCIS for “Meta Platforms,” you see most of the picture. That transparency, whether intentional or not, makes the numbers harder to miss.
The Bottom Line
Meta is the only company in this dataset classified as H-1B Dependent. It was fined $14 million by the DOJ for discriminating against American workers in its green card process. It laid off 21,000 employees while continuing to file thousands of H-1B applications. And it pays the highest H-1B salaries in the dataset - which sounds like a point in their favor until you realize the prevailing wage system may not capture true market rates for roles in Menlo Park and Seattle.
The numbers don't lie. Meta files roughly 6,000-10,000 LCA applications per year, maintains a 99%+ approval rate, concentrates its H-1B workforce in a handful of cities, and uses the PERM program to convert temporary workers into permanent residents at a rate of over 1,000 filings per year. This is a company where H-1B isn't a supplement to American hiring. It's a core feature of the workforce strategy.
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| # | Job Title | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Software Engineer | 15,900 |
| 2 | Research Scientist | 2,100 |
| 3 | Data Scientist | 1,500 |
| 4 | Data Engineer | 1,300 |
| 5 | Production Engineer | 700 |
| 6 | Product Manager | 700 |
| 7 | Technical Program Manager | 550 |
| 8 | Software Engineering Manager | 500 |
| 9 | Product Designer | 450 |
| 10 | Software Engineer, Machine Learning | 200 |
Data Sources
- LCA filings: DOL OFLC Disclosure Data (FY2020-FY2026), filtered for Meta Platforms and Facebook entities
- H-1B approvals: USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub (FY2020-FY2023), MyVisaJobs.com (FY2024-FY2025)
- Salary data: Aggregated from LCA disclosure filings (annual wage rates)
- Workforce: Meta Platforms 10-K annual filings (total headcount, FY2020-FY2025)
- BLS wages: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2023
- PERM data: DOL OFLC PERM Disclosure Data (FY2020-FY2025), 6,467 records
- DOJ settlement: United States v. Facebook, Inc. (IER v. Facebook), December 2020
- DOJ/DOL settlement details: $4.75M civil penalty + $9.5M back pay fund for affected U.S. workers, covering 2,600+ positions (October 2021)
- Class action: Rajaram v. Meta Platforms, Inc., 3:22-cv-02920 (N.D. Cal., filed May 2022) - alleges systematic preference for H-1B holders over U.S. citizens
- Ninth Circuit reversal: Rajaram v. Meta, No. 22-16870 (9th Cir., June 27, 2024) - revived class action, ruling 42 U.S.C. Section 1981 covers citizenship-based hiring discrimination
- Federal court ruling: Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler allowed related class action by three U.S. citizens to proceed against Meta (February 2025)
- Mass layoffs: 11,000 employees (13% of workforce) laid off November 2022, including H-1B holders given 60-day grace period