The H-1B Is Not a Software Visa
Indian students in pharmacy, mechanical, finance and physiotherapy are routinely told the H-1B is an IT visa. In the federal file, seven out of ten certified filings are not for software developers — and fourteen non-software occupations out-earn them.
In this guide (5 sections)
Ask almost anyone in India which degree gets you an H-1B and the answer is computer science. It is repeated so often that students in pharmacy, mechanical engineering, finance and physiotherapy quietly assume the visa is closed to them.
We checked. We parsed 391,748 certified H-1B filings from the Department of Labor's disclosure file and counted them by occupation.
Roughly a third of all filings sit outside computer occupations altogether. Here is where they went.
The largest non-computer occupations
Each row is a certified filing count, the wage distribution promised on those filings, and how far the median sits above the legal floor for that occupation.
| Occupation | Filings | 25th | Median | 90th | Above floor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial and Investment Analysts | 6,754 | $110,000 | $143,220 | $225,000 | +21.1% |
| Mechanical Engineers | 6,448 | $93,292 | $110,000 | $169,224 | +7.8% |
| Accountants and Auditors | 6,036 | $79,500 | $97,406 | $157,000 | +17.7% |
| Electronics Engineers | 5,902 | $128,898 | $156,853 | $216,091 | +3.2% |
| Operations Research Analysts | 5,202 | $89,190 | $115,000 | $193,000 | +24.5% |
| Electrical Engineers | 5,145 | $101,587 | $126,883 | $187,803 | +11.1% |
| Management Analysts | 5,030 | $100,000 | $130,187 | $212,000 | +27.9% |
| Market Research & Marketing Specialists | 4,411 | $72,800 | $91,270 | $162,000 | +12.2% |
| Civil Engineers | 4,281 | $80,850 | $94,640 | $137,800 | +10.2% |
| Industrial Engineers | 4,265 | $93,683 | $111,093 | $163,030 | +13.2% |
| Project Management Specialists | 3,548 | $97,968 | $121,035 | $183,175 | +12.9% |
| Medical Scientists | 3,279 | $68,922 | $77,076 | $140,005 | +13.0% |
| Physicians, All Other | 3,042 | $87,500 | $225,000 | $473,600 | +140.1% |
| Financial Quantitative Analysts | 2,928 | $110,000 | $145,000 | $225,000 | +45.2% |
| Manufacturing Engineers | 1,923 | $96,164 | $117,458 | $163,620 | +19.1% |
| Sales Engineers | 1,921 | $125,000 | $149,282 | $200,000 | +11.1% |
| Lawyers | 1,885 | $160,000 | $225,000 | $390,000 | +43.5% |
| Biochemists and Biophysicists | 1,770 | $70,344 | $80,000 | $140,253 | +23.2% |
| Physical Therapists | 1,717 | $77,418 | $83,658 | $110,240 | +1.7% |
Fourteen occupations out-earn software
The median Software Developer filing promises $144,936. These occupations beat it, each on at least 900 certified filings.
| Occupation | Filings | Median wage | Above floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hospitalists | 1,315 | $290,000 | +70.7% |
| General Internal Medicine Physicians | 989 | $251,900 | +45.8% |
| Physicians, All Other | 3,042 | $225,000 | +140.1% |
| Lawyers | 1,885 | $225,000 | +43.5% |
| Financial Managers | 948 | $200,000 | +12.5% |
| Dentists, General | 947 | $200,000 | +27.6% |
| Architectural and Engineering Managers | 1,799 | $190,000 | +6.3% |
| Computer Hardware Engineers | 1,126 | $176,400 | +12.0% |
| Marketing Managers | 1,348 | $175,516 | +12.0% |
| General and Operations Managers | 929 | $158,829 | +20.4% |
| Electronics Engineers | 5,902 | $156,853 | +3.2% |
| Sales Engineers | 1,921 | $149,282 | +11.1% |
| Robotics Engineers | 916 | $148,594 | +15.9% |
| Financial Quantitative Analysts | 2,928 | $145,000 | +45.2% |
Medicine and law dominate the top, and both carry licensing requirements that take years and are not solved by a visa. But finance, hardware, marketing, sales engineering and robotics are ordinary graduate routes, and all of them out-earn the median software filing.
The column that matters more than the median
The last column is the one to read twice. It is how far the median promised wage sits above the prevailing wage — the legal minimum the employer committed to.
Electronics Engineers sit +3.2% above their floor despite a healthy $156,853 median. Mechanical Engineers +7.8%. Those are fields where the sponsored wage is close to being set by regulation rather than by competition for you.
Compare that with Management Analysts at +27.9%, Financial Quantitative Analysts at +45.2% and Lawyers at +43.5%, where employers are bidding well clear of the minimum. A large premium means the market wants you. A small one means the paperwork wants you.
What this should change
- Stop treating a non-CS degree as disqualifying. Nearly seven in ten certified filings are not for software developers. The visa is tied to a specialty occupation, not to a programming language.
- Check your occupation's premium before you choose a master's. A field with a high median and a thin premium — physiotherapy at +1.7% — will sponsor you and pay you the floor. That is a different financial outcome from the same median in a field bidding 30% above it.
- Read the occupation, not the job title. Sponsorship is filed against an occupation code. A role marketed as data analytics may be filed as Operations Research Analyst, Business Intelligence Analyst or Management Analyst, and the floor differs for each.
- Use the 25th percentile as your warning line. If an offer sits below it for your occupation, the median is not your benchmark — see our salary data by role and city.
What this data cannot tell you
A certified filing is not a hire. The file records applications the Department of Labor certified, not people who started work, and an employer may file more positions than it fills.
Occupation groupings are ours. We separated computer occupations from the rest to make the point, and reasonable people would draw that line differently — Computer Hardware Engineers, for instance, is a hardware discipline that we have left in the comparison deliberately.
The wage is base pay promised to the Department of Labor, excluding bonus and equity. And licensed professions — medicine, dentistry, law, physiotherapy — require US licensure that sits entirely outside immigration law. A high median in those rows is not a shortcut.
Questions
Do you need a computer science degree for an H-1B?
Which non-IT jobs pay the most on an H-1B?
What does it mean if my occupation is only slightly above the prevailing wage?
Can a pharmacy or physiotherapy graduate get an H-1B?
Where does this data come from?
Sources: US Department of Labor — Foreign Labor Certification Performance Data (LCA disclosure files) · US Department of Labor — Prevailing Wage Information and Resources · US Department of Labor — Labor Condition Application (LCA) programme · USCIS — H-1B Specialty Occupations
