How to Check if an LCA Was Filed by a Company
Learn how to verify an employer's LCA filings using the FLAG system, USCIS Data Hub, and Migrate Mate to evaluate H-1B sponsorship before accepting a job offer
Checking LCA status is one of the most useful things you can do before committing to an employer, whether you're evaluating an offer already in hand or building a target list of companies worth applying to. Every LCA filed in the U.S. is public record through the Department of Labor, and free tools let you search by case number or employer name. The DOL's Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system and USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub each give you a different view of an employer's sponsorship activity.
Key takeaways
- You can check a specific LCA's status at flag.dol.gov using the case number printed on the LCA document, with results showing whether the application was certified, denied, or withdrawn.
- If you don't have the case number, search the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub by company name to see how many H-1B petitions an employer has filed and how many were approved.
- The DOL publishes individual LCA records through its OFLC performance data page, including wage, SOC code, and job classification for every employer that has filed.
- The wage level on an LCA (Level 1 through Level 4) tells you where the offered salary falls relative to the market, and employers filing at Level 1 for experienced roles is a red flag worth investigating before you accept.
- LCA data lags by one to three months on third-party tools because the DOL publishes disclosure files quarterly.
What is a labor condition application?
The LCA (Form ETA-9035/9035E) is a Department of Labor filing that every employer must submit before petitioning for an H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 worker.
It's the first step in the H-1B visa sponsorship process. The DOL processes electronically filed LCAs within seven working days.
Each LCA contains the job title, SOC code, prevailing wage, actual wage offered, wage level (1 through 4), worksite location, and employer information.
These are the data points you'll be searching for when you pull up an employer's records, and each one tells you something concrete about how the company approaches sponsorship.
LCA status check with a case number
Where to find your LCA case number
The LCA case number is printed at the bottom of every page of the LCA document. The format tells you the visa category: I-200 is H-1B, I-201 is H-1B1 Chile, I-202 is H-1B1 Singapore, and I-203 is E-3.
The five-digit middle section is the Julian date of submission.
If your employer or attorney hasn't shared the LCA copy with you yet, you won't have the case number. Ask your attorney directly, or skip ahead to the next section to search by employer name instead.
How to use the LCA case status search
The FLAG case status search accepts up to 30 LCA case numbers at once. Enter them at flag.dol.gov/case-status-search and the results show the status of each filing (In Process, Certified, Denied, or Withdrawn) and key dates. The public search doesn't show full LCA details like wage or job title.
How to search LCA records without a case number
USCIS H-1B employer data hub
The USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub gives the broadest view of an employer's sponsorship track record. Search by employer name on the H-1B Employer Data Hub to see how many petitions a company has filed, approved, and denied. Keep in mind this shows petition-level data (approvals, denials, RFEs), not individual LCA records. An employer can have a certified LCA but a denied petition, so the two datasets answer different questions.
The approval-to-denial ratio is a concrete signal when you're deciding whether to pursue or accept an offer. High approval rates indicate the employer's petitions hold up under scrutiny. Small companies or infrequent sponsors may not appear in the Data Hub at all, so a missing result doesn't mean the employer has never sponsored. It may just mean they haven't filed enough petitions to surface in the dataset.
Finding verified sponsors without manual lookups
If manually cross-referencing the FLAG system, the USCIS Data Hub, and the DOL's quarterly files for every company on your list sounds like a lot of work, that's because it is. Migrate Mate pulls from the same underlying LCA and DOL filing data and surfaces it alongside open roles, so you can see which employers have active H-1B filing history without looking up each one separately. Instead of building a spreadsheet from three government tools, you're filtering a job board by verified sponsors from the start.
Find employers with H-1B filing history in one search.
Search open rolesDOL quarterly disclosure data
The DOL publishes raw LCA disclosure files on a quarterly basis through the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC). You can download them at the OFLC performance data page. Each file contains 75+ columns per record, and most job seekers won't need to go this route.
The OFLC files are most useful when a specific employer isn't showing up in the USCIS Data Hub, or when you want unfiltered access to every LCA filed in a quarter without relying on another tool's refresh cycle.
Each tool shows different data at different levels of detail. Here's how they compare.
| Tool | What it shows | Search by | Data freshness | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLAG case status search | Status (Certified/Denied/Withdrawn), dates | Case number | Real-time | Checking your own LCA status |
| USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub | Petition counts, approvals, denials, RFEs | Employer name | Updated periodically | Big-picture employer sponsorship history |
| DOL disclosure data | Raw LCA records (75+ columns) including wage, SOC code, and job title | Download and filter | Quarterly | Individual LCA details by employer, wage, and job title |
What LCA data tells you about an employer
The wage level on an LCA is the first number to check when evaluating whether an employer's offer reflects what the role is actually worth. LCA wage levels range from Level 1 (entry, 17th percentile) through Level 2 (qualified, 34th percentile), Level 3 (experienced, 50th percentile), and Level 4 (fully competent, 67th percentile).
Under the wage-weighted H-1B lottery effective February 2026, LCAs filed at Level 3 and Level 4 have better selection odds. Knowing what level an employer files at tells you both what they'll pay and how competitive your petition will be.
An employer that files exclusively at Level 1 for senior roles, or one with many withdrawn LCAs and a low petition approval rate, should raise questions about their sponsorship practices. The LCA wage is the legal minimum the employer commits to paying, so your actual salary can be higher but never lower than the LCA prevailing wage. If you're building a shortlist of employers to target, comparing wage levels across multiple companies gives you a concrete way to rank your options before you've even applied.
Compare what you find in LCA records against these signals.
| Signal | What it means | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 wage for a senior or experienced role | Employer may be underpaying relative to market | Ask your attorney why the role was classified at entry level |
| High withdrawal rate on filed LCAs | Employer may start the process but not follow through | Ask how many sponsored employees they currently have |
| SOC code that doesn't match the role you were offered | Job duties on the LCA may differ from what was described to you | Verify the job title and duties in writing before accepting |
| No LCA filings in the past two years | Employer may not have recent sponsorship experience | Ask specifically whether they've sponsored someone through to petition approval |
| Petition approval rate well below industry average | May indicate weak petitions or documentation issues | Check the USCIS Employer Data Hub for their approval vs. denial numbers |
Finding employers who sponsor H-1B visas
You now know how to verify whether a specific employer files LCAs and what to look for in the data. Searching government databases company by company is slow, especially when you're evaluating multiple offers or building a target list. Checking FLAG and the Employer Data Hub for every company adds up fast.
Migrate Mate aggregates employer sponsorship data and lets you filter visa sponsorship jobs by companies that have actually filed H-1B petitions. You can build a shortlist of verified sponsors instead of manually pulling records from multiple government tools.
Not sure which employers actually sponsor? Check who's filing.
Find H-1B Sponsoring EmployersFrequently asked questions
Is LCA data public?
Yes, all LCA records are public. The DOL publishes them quarterly through its OFLC performance data page. The USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub and OFLC data files make this data searchable by employer name and job title.
How long does LCA approval take?
The DOL processes electronically filed LCAs within seven working days under normal conditions. During system outages, processing can extend well beyond that. Check the DOL FLAG announcements page for current timelines if your LCA has been pending longer than expected.
How do I check if my employer filed an H-1B?
Ask your attorney for the USCIS receipt number or LCA case number. You can check LCA status at flag.dol.gov with the case number, or search the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub by company name to verify whether they've filed H-1B petitions. If you don't have either number, download the OFLC quarterly disclosure files from the DOL performance data page and filter by employer name.
What is the difference between an LCA case number and a USCIS receipt number?
An LCA case number (e.g., I-200-12345-123456) is issued by the DOL when an employer files a Labor Condition Application. A USCIS receipt number (e.g., EAC-26-001-12345) is issued when the employer files the H-1B petition (Form I-129) with USCIS. They track different filings at different agencies, so you need to know which number you have before choosing a search tool.
Can multiple employees share the same LCA case number?
Yes, an employer can file one LCA covering multiple employees if they share the same SOC code and worksite. Box 7 in Section B of the LCA form specifies whether the application covers one or multiple workers. If a coworker has the same case number as you, that's normal.
Does the LCA wage have to match my actual salary?
The employer must pay you at least the wage stated on the LCA, which itself must meet or exceed the prevailing wage for the position and location. Your actual salary can be higher than the LCA wage floor but never lower. If the LCA wage is significantly below what you were offered verbally, ask your attorney to clarify the discrepancy before signing.
About the Author
Founder & CEO @ Migrate Mate
I moved from Australia to the United States in 2023. I have had 3 jobs, and 3 different visas. I started Migrate Mate to help people like me find their dream job in the USA & help them get visa sponsorship.
