San Antonio H-1B Jobs: USAA, UT Health, H-E-B, Valero and Rackspace for OPT Graduates

USAA files mostly H-1B extensions and transfers, UT Health and UTSA need state permission to file new petitions until mid-2027, and many cyber jobs need a clearance. Here is where sponsorship sits.

Part of our guide to H-1B jobs by state and city.

San Antonio H-1B jobs come from a short list of employers. In the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub extract behind our San Antonio sponsor hub, 17 San Antonio-based employer names with 25 or more decisions account for 1,171 H-1B petition decisions from FY2024 through part of FY2026. USAA leads, followed by UT Health Science Center San Antonio and H-E-B; Petco, Rackspace, UTSA and Valero are also on the list. The biggest private sponsors file far more extensions and transfers than first-time petitions, and as of November 1, 2026, the city's largest public university cannot file a new H-1B petition without state permission.

Status as of November 1, 2026

• In effect: Texas froze new H-1B petitions at state agencies and public universities from 2026-01-27 to 2027-05-31 unless the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) permits one. Private employers are not covered.
• In effect, unchanged: the OPT unemployment limit of 90 days (150 in aggregate on STEM OPT), and wage-weighted H-1B lottery selection (since 2026-02-27).
• Not announced: FY2028 H-1B registration. USCIS must give at least 30 days' notice; a March 2027 window is an expectation, not a date.
• Blocked: the $100,000 H-1B payment is not being collected. Proclamation 11069 stays in effect on paper to 2027-09-21, but courts vacated the agency policies that implement it; USCIS says DHS still plans to collect if the order is lifted. A change of status granted inside the US was never covered.
• Proposed: ending the 60-day grace period for H-1B and other workers (not F-1 students). Comments close 2026-11-10; the current 60 days still applies, and closing comments does not make it a final rule.

San Antonio H-1B jobs at a glance

San Antonio's H-1B market is concentrated: 17 employer names and 1,171 petition decisions in USCIS data from FY2024 to partial FY2026. USAA leads, followed by UT Health San Antonio and H-E-B. The biggest private sponsors mostly extend or transfer existing H-1B staff, and the largest public university needs state permission to file new petitions before May 31, 2027.

That leaves three realistic routes for an F-1 graduate. A private, cap-subject employer can hire you on OPT and register you in the H-1B lottery. A private university or qualifying nonprofit can file a cap-exempt H-1B at any time of year. A public institution can employ you on OPT now and file once the freeze ends or TWC says yes. Our statewide Texas H-1B guide covers Austin, Houston and Dallas; this page stays in the San Antonio metro.

Which San Antonio companies sponsor H-1B?

"Petition decisions" means USCIS approvals and denials recorded under that exact employer name in FY2024, FY2025 and the part of FY2026 in our July 2026 extract. Initial employment is mostly new hires, including OPT graduates selected in the lottery; continuing employment covers extensions, amendments and transfers.

San Antonio H-1B sponsors in the USCIS Employer Data Hub extract, FY2024 to partial FY2026 (as of 2026-11)

FY2026 is partial, so a smaller FY2026 count is not a hiring collapse. Smaller names on the hub include Southwest Research Institute, Marathon Petroleum, Frost Bank and VT San Antonio Aerospace. The hub groups employers by the city on the petition, so national firms with San Antonio offices do not appear; the LCA file in step 3 below finds them. The USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub now says it covers FY2009 through FY2026 Q4; our extract predates that refresh.

Does USAA sponsor H-1B?

Yes, but mostly for people it already employs. Fewer than one in ten of USAA's petition decisions in the extract were for initial employment; the rest extend, amend or transfer existing H-1B workers. Add the two name spellings (284 and 144) together, and check USAA Federal Savings Bank as its own record, because the Data Hub counts each filing name separately.

For you, that pattern means USAA can hire you on OPT or STEM OPT, but a first H-1B would normally need a cap-subject registration and lottery selection. Ask the recruiter whether the team registers OPT hires in the lottery, not only whether it "sponsors". Our USAA employer page shows the split by year.

Does H-E-B sponsor H-1B?

H-E-B has sponsored. H-E-B LP shows 83 petition decisions in the extract, with fewer than one in ten for initial employment. As a private company it sits outside the Texas freeze. Treat it like USAA: a realistic OPT and STEM OPT employer whose first-time sponsorship runs through the lottery.

Rackspace, Valero and Petco

Rackspace (52 decisions, under 10% initial) is the natural target for cloud, infrastructure and security engineers. Valero Services also files mostly continuing petitions. Petco (58) shows a larger initial-employment share, a better signal for a first-time sponsorship conversation. With any of them, the cap-subject vs cap-exempt tradeoff decides how long you wait and how much lottery risk you carry.

Does the Texas H-1B freeze affect UT Health San Antonio and UTSA?

Yes, on the plain text of Governor Greg Abbott's January 27, 2026 letter, both are inside the freeze. UTSA and UT Health San Antonio became one institution, The University of Texas at San Antonio, when the merger "became official on Sept. 1, 2025," as Texas Public Radio reported, and it is a public institution of higher education. The operative sentence of the governor's letter to agency heads reads:

"No state agency controlled by a gubernatorially appointed head or public institution of higher education shall, without the written permission of the Texas Workforce Commission, initiate or file any new petition to sponsor a nonimmigrant worker under the federal H-1B visa program until the end of the Texas Legislature's 90th Regular Session on May 31, 2027."

Three details matter for you:

• The words are "any new petition". The same letter separately asked institutions to report "new and renewal petitions" filed in 2025, which suggests extensions are treated differently. That is our reading, not TWC guidance. If you already hold H-1B status at UT San Antonio, ask the international office, or an immigration attorney, how extensions are being handled.
• TWC permission is the only stated exception. The university can ask TWC for written permission. Ask, in writing, whether it has done so for your position.
• The Data Hub still shows the old names. The UT Health and UTSA counts span FY2024 to part of FY2026, most of it before the January 2026 freeze, so they show past filing, not what the university can file today.

Texas A&M University-San Antonio and the Alamo Colleges are public as well, so ask them the same question. Public school districts are outside the January letter; the governor's August 18, 2026 call to bar H-1B sponsorship in K-12 schools is a proposal for the 2027 Legislature, not a rule (Texas Tribune). Private universities such as Trinity, St. Mary's, the University of the Incarnate Word and Our Lady of the Lake are outside it too, and as nonprofit institutions of higher education they generally qualify for the cap exemption in 8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(F), so they can file at any time of year if they choose to sponsor. A separate clinical partner, such as a county hospital district, is not named in the letter; whether it is cap-exempt is a question for its HR team and an immigration attorney. Our Texas and Florida freeze explainer and the guide to cap-exempt jobs still open in Texas and Florida cover the statewide picture.

Who can file a new H-1B for an OPT graduate in San Antonio (as of 2026-11)

Worked timeline: a UT Health research offer on OPT

Say you finished a STEM master's in May 2026, and your post-completion OPT EAD runs from 2026-07-01 to 2027-06-30. A lab on the UT Health campus offers you a research analyst job in November 2026.

The math is tight. If the university waits until the freeze ends on May 31, it has one month to file before your EAD ends, and USCIS's processing-times tool showed an H-1B change of status at 10 months (80% of cases) when we read it on 2026-11-01. Premium processing (15 business days for most I-129s, $2,965) shortens the wait but not the freeze.

A timely STEM OPT extension changes the picture. It adds up to 24 months, and USCIS's STEM OPT page still says it will automatically extend your work authorization for 180 days while a timely filed extension is pending; an application filed after your OPT EAD expires gets no such extension. The university, like any STEM OPT employer, must be enrolled in E-Verify and sign Form I-983. Walk through your dates with your DSO, and read why cap-gap does not cover cap-exempt H-1Bs before you accept.

Is San Antonio good for cybersecurity jobs on OPT?

Partly. San Antonio is home to Joint Base San Antonio, and many of the city's cyber and defense roles require a security clearance or access to export-controlled data, which are generally closed to F-1, OPT and H-1B holders. Security work at private financial, cloud, retail and energy employers is the realistic lane.

Two federal rules sit behind those postings:

• Clearances. The industrial security rule for contractors, 32 CFR 117.10, says: "Contractors must make every effort to ensure that non-U.S. citizens are not employed in duties that may require access to classified information." It allows a Limited Access Authorization only "in those rare circumstances" (eCFR text).
• Export controls. Under the ITAR, a "U.S. person" includes lawful permanent residents and protected individuals (22 CFR 120.62). An F-1, OPT or H-1B holder is not one, so an employer usually needs export authorization before sharing ITAR-controlled technical data with you.

Postings that ask for an "active clearance", "U.S. citizenship" or a "U.S. person" are telling you this up front. Aim instead at security, cloud and infrastructure teams at the private sponsors on the hub, and read each posting, because citizenship requirements are set role by role. Our guide to defense and aerospace tech employers that hire outside ITAR shows how to tell the two kinds of job apart.

Entry level jobs in San Antonio, Texas: what OPT changes

OPT itself needs no sponsorship. Any employer can hire you while your EAD is valid, as long as the work is "directly related to your major area of study," as USCIS's OPT page puts it. That is why entry-level roles are worth applying to even at companies that rarely file new H-1Bs. The constraints come later.

• Your unemployment clock. Post-completion OPT allows 90 days without employment; STEM OPT allows 150 in aggregate, including days used on post-completion OPT, counted from the actual OPT start date, per the SEVIS Help Hub.
• Wage level and the lottery. Since 2026-02-27, USCIS weights lottery entries by wage level (Level IV entered four times, Level I once). Levels are set per occupation and per area, so the same salary can sit at a different level in the San Antonio-New Braunfels area than in a coastal metro. Look up your occupation on DOL's FLAG wage search or follow our prevailing-wage lookup guide.

For context, Texas had 91,883 active F-1 and M-1 SEVIS records in October 2026, down 7.2% from October 2025, by our sums of the DHS SEVIS data tables. Those are active records, not new enrollments.

Is San Antonio a good fit? It can be, if you go in clear-eyed: a short sponsor list dominated by renewals, a public-university route shut to new petitions until mid-2027, clearance-heavy cyber work, and no personal state income tax in Texas on the plus side. It suits STEM graduates, who get the longer STEM OPT runway, especially those who start targeting the private sponsors early.

How to find San Antonio H-1B sponsors, step by step

1. Open the San Antonio sponsor hub and add up name variants, such as the two USAA spellings and the two UTSA spellings.
2. Check each employer's initial versus continuing split by year in the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, searching by name and city.
3. Download DOL's latest LCA disclosure file (FY2026 Q3, through 2026-06-30) from the OFLC performance page and filter the worksite city to San Antonio to see job titles and offered wages.
4. Look up the prevailing wage for your occupation in the San Antonio-New Braunfels area on the FLAG wage search to estimate your wage level.
5. Screen every posting for clearance, "U.S. citizen" or "U.S. person" language before you apply.
6. Ask private employers in writing whether they register OPT hires in the H-1B lottery, and ask public universities whether they have requested TWC permission for the role.
7. Confirm E-Verify enrollment with HR before you accept a job you plan to hold on STEM OPT.
8. Review your EAD end date, unemployment days and STEM OPT filing window with your DSO before you sign.

Common mistakes

• Reading USAA's totals as new-graduate hiring. Fewer than one in ten of its decisions were for initial employment.
• Treating UT Health or UTSA as an open cap-exempt door. Until 2027-05-31 neither can file a new H-1B without written TWC permission.
• Planning on cap-gap for a university job. Cap-gap covers only a timely cap-subject change of status, and it runs to the petition start date or April 1 of the fiscal year requested, whichever is earlier, per USCIS's cap-gap page.
• Chasing clearance or ITAR roles. If you are already on OPT and unemployed, your clock keeps counting while you apply to jobs you generally cannot hold.
• Assuming the $100,000 payment hits your OPT-to-H-1B switch. It is blocked as of 2026-11-01 (see USCIS's I-129 page), and a change of status granted inside the US was never covered, per USCIS's H-1B page; a denied change of status would be if collection resumed.

Frequently asked questions

Does USAA sponsor H-1B?

Yes. In the USCIS Employer Data Hub extract we use, USAA's two employer-name spellings show 284 and 144 H-1B petition decisions from FY2024 through part of FY2026, and USAA Federal Savings Bank files under its own name. Fewer than 1 in 10 of USAA's decisions were for initial employment, so most of its activity extends or transfers people already on H-1B. A new graduate would normally need a cap-subject lottery selection first, and FY2028 registration has not been announced as of November 1, 2026.

Which San Antonio companies sponsor H-1B?

In the USCIS data extract behind our San Antonio hub, 17 San Antonio-based employer names with 25 or more decisions account for 1,171 H-1B petition decisions from FY2024 through part of FY2026. The largest are USAA (two name spellings, plus USAA Federal Savings Bank), UT Health Science Center San Antonio with 170, H-E-B with 83, Petco with 58 and Rackspace with 52; UTSA and Valero Services are also on the list. The private sponsors are cap-subject, so new graduates usually reach them through the H-1B lottery.

Does the Texas H-1B freeze affect UT Health San Antonio?

Yes, on the plain text of Governor Abbott's January 27, 2026 letter. UT Health San Antonio merged into The University of Texas at San Antonio on September 1, 2025, and as a public institution of higher education it cannot initiate or file a new H-1B petition before May 31, 2027 without written Texas Workforce Commission permission. Private employers and private universities in San Antonio are not covered.

Is San Antonio good for cybersecurity jobs on OPT?

Partly. Many San Antonio cyber and defense roles require a security clearance or access to export-controlled (ITAR) data, which F-1, OPT and H-1B holders generally cannot get. Security roles at private insurers, banks, cloud providers, retailers and energy companies are open to OPT workers, and for STEM OPT the employer must be enrolled in E-Verify and sign Form I-983.

Does H-E-B sponsor H-1B?

H-E-B has sponsored. H-E-B LP appears in the USCIS data extract with 83 H-1B petition decisions from FY2024 through part of FY2026, and fewer than 1 in 10 were for initial employment, so most extend or transfer people already on H-1B. As a private company it is outside the Texas freeze and cap-subject, so a new graduate would usually need a lottery selection first.

Sources

• Governor Greg Abbott, letter to state agency heads on H-1B petitions, January 27, 2026
• USCIS, H-1B Employer Data Hub
• USCIS, H-1B electronic registration process
• USCIS, cap-gap extension of OPT and F-1 status
• USCIS, OPT for F-1 students, STEM OPT extension, H-1B specialty occupations and Form I-129
• USCIS, case processing times (read 2026-11-01)
• Study in the States, SEVIS unemployment counter and October 2026 SEVIS data
• DOL OFLC, performance data and disclosure files and FLAG wage search
• Federal Register, proposed rule eliminating the 60-day worker grace period
• eCFR, 32 CFR 117.10 and 22 CFR 120.62
• Texas Public Radio, UT San Antonio one year after the merger, September 30, 2026
• Texas Tribune, Abbott's proposal to bar H-1B visas in Texas public schools, August 18, 2026

How we checked this: on November 1-2, 2026 we read the governor's letter, the USCIS, DOL, SEVP and eCFR pages listed above, Texas Public Radio's and the Texas Tribune's reporting, and the July 2026 USCIS Employer Data Hub extract behind our company pages.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice; your own I-20, I-94, EAD and USCIS notices, together with your DSO or a licensed immigration attorney, govern your case.

If you are weighing a San Antonio offer against a lottery deadline or a frozen university role, F1Jobs can help you build a target list of sponsors that fits your OPT dates.