California H-1B Green Card (PERM) Sponsorship 2026
Employers with a worksite in California filed 374,915 PERM (ETA-9089) labor certifications in DOL disclosure data (FY2007–2026) — 22% of all US PERM filings, ranking California #1 nationally. PERM is the green-card process, a separate DOL filing from H-1B LCA data.
PERM Case Outcomes — California
| Outcome | Filings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Certified | 339,604 | 90.6% |
| Denied | 18,436 | 4.9% |
| Withdrawn | 16,875 | 4.5% |
Counts across FY2007–2026. Remaining filings are cases in other or pending statuses.
Top PERM Worksite Cities in California
| City | PERM Filings | Certified | Median Wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 39,021 | 36,501 | $145K |
| San Jose | 34,460 | 32,133 | $128K |
| Mountain View | 29,082 | 28,054 | $132K |
| Santa Clara | 26,705 | 24,701 | $132K |
| Sunnyvale | 23,088 | 21,593 | $132K |
| Los Angeles | 19,221 | 16,522 | $65K |
| San Diego | 15,826 | 14,757 | $99K |
| Cupertino | 13,489 | 13,053 | $145K |
| Palo Alto | 11,133 | 10,529 | $132K |
| Fremont | 10,280 | 8,450 | $108K |
| Menlo Park | 9,792 | 8,605 | $147K |
| Irvine | 8,886 | 8,023 | $98K |
Ranked by total PERM filing volume. Linked cities have a full city-level breakdown.
PERM vs. H-1B — What's the Difference?
PERM (ETA-9089) is the labor certification an employer must obtain from the Department of Labor before filing an employment-based green card petition (I-140). It's the first formal step toward permanent residence.
An H-1B Labor Condition Application (LCA) is a different filing for temporary work authorization. A company can file heavily in one and rarely in the other, so California's PERM volume here is not a restatement of its H-1B volume — check both separately.
Related Data
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PERM filing data aggregated from DOL PERM disclosure files (FY2007–2026), filtered to filings with a reported California worksite. Median wage computed across certified filings with usable annual-wage data between $10K and $5M. National share and rank computed across all 51 US states and DC.