Wisconsin H-1B Jobs: Fiserv, Northwestern Mutual, Rockwell and GE HealthCare in Greater Milwaukee

Fiserv files the most H-1B petitions in Wisconsin, but most of them are renewals, so the Milwaukee employers that sponsor first-time cases are not the ones the raw counts suggest.

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

Wisconsin H-1B jobs sit mostly in Greater Milwaukee's corporate headquarters, plus one large university in Madison. In the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub extract behind our Wisconsin sponsor list, 42 Wisconsin employers account for 4,775 petitions decided from FY2024 through part of FY2026, led by Fiserv Solutions (992), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (647), Northwestern Mutual (288) and Experis (281). As of 2026-11-01, wage-weighted H-1B selection is in effect (since 2026-02-27) and FY2028 registration is not announced, so your wage level and whether the employer files cap-exempt shape the whole plan.

Status as of 2026-11-01

• In effect: wage-weighted selection for cap-subject H-1B registrations (since 2026-02-27); the 90-day OPT and 150-day STEM OPT unemployment limits; the STEM OPT requirement that your employer use E-Verify and sign Form I-983.
• Not announced: FY2028 H-1B registration. USCIS must give at least 30 calendar days' notice, and March 2027 is an expectation based on past years, not a date.
• Blocked: collection of the $100,000 H-1B payment. Courts vacated the agency policies implementing it (California v. Mullin and Global Nurse Force), both rulings are on appeal, and Proclamation 11069 stays in effect on paper until 2027-09-21. Change-of-status petitions USCIS grants inside the US were never covered.
• Under White House (OIRA) review since 2026-08-24, no text published: USCIS's "Reforming the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program" proposal (RIN 1615-AD00), whose agenda abstract mentions "revising eligibility for cap exemptions" and "increasing oversight over third party placements". Nothing has changed yet.

Wisconsin H-1B jobs: the short answer

By petitions decided, Wisconsin's largest H-1B filers are Fiserv, UW-Madison, Northwestern Mutual, Experis, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Public Schools, Rockwell Automation, GE HealthCare, Johnson Controls, CNH Industrial, Marshfield Clinic and Milwaukee Tool. Corporate roles usually go through the wage-weighted lottery. Universities are cap-exempt employers, and some research and hospital employers may qualify too.

Apart from UW-Madison (covered in our UW-Madison and Madison jobs guide) and Marshfield Clinic in central Wisconsin, every employer in the top twelve lists an address in or near Milwaukee.

Which companies sponsor H-1B in Wisconsin?

Twelve employers each have more than 100 petitions decided in the extract, and every one has its own page in our directory. A "petition decided" is an approval or a denial, for new or continuing employment, so a large count can be mostly extensions for people already on staff. Our extract holds only part of FY2026, while the live Hub now says it covers FY2026 through quarter 4 (checked 2026-11-01), so confirm current figures there.

Wisconsin's highest-volume H-1B employers, as of 2026-11 (USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub extract used by our directory; petitions decided FY2024 to FY2026 combined, FY2026 partial)

What the directory labels mean

The label is the share of an employer's petitions that were initial petitions for new H-1B employment, the category a first H-1B after F-1 usually falls in. Actively hiring means more than half were initial; mostly renewals means fewer than one in ten; mixed is in between. Continuing petitions cover extensions and other changes for people who already hold H-1B status.

The city on a record is not the job's location

USCIS's own guide to the Employer Data Hub says the state field is "the State indicated in the mailing address of the employer and is not necessarily the beneficiary(ies) work location". A Fiserv record with a Milwaukee address can cover jobs in other states, and a company headquartered elsewhere can sponsor people working in Waukesha. Worksite-level detail lives in DOL's LCA disclosure files, covered in the steps below.

Common misconception: "Fiserv files almost 1,000 H-1B petitions, so it is Wisconsin's easiest sponsor for new grads." Correction: Fiserv's record is labelled mostly renewals: fewer than one in ten of its 992 petitions decided were initial petitions. The employers labelled actively hiring in Wisconsin's top twelve are UW-Madison and Milwaukee Public Schools, and both come with conditions (a university appointment; a teaching license and, generally, a lottery win).

Search every spelling

Several Wisconsin employers file under more than one name. Milwaukee Public Schools appears as both "Milwaukee Board of School Director" and "Milwaukee Board of School Directors". GE HealthCare filings appear under GE Precision Healthcare, GE Healthcare IITS USA and GE Medical Systems, all in Waukesha. Milwaukee Tool, American Family Insurance and UW-Madison also appear under two spellings. Add the records together before you judge an employer.

Beyond the top twelve

The Wisconsin hub lists 42 employers with at least 25 petitions decided. Smaller eastern and southeastern Wisconsin names include Kohler, Uline in Pleasant Prairie, Kohl's in Menomonee Falls, Aurora Medical Group, Marquette University, Regal Rexnord, Generac in Waukesha and York International. The Madison-area names, such as Epic Systems in Verona, Exact Sciences and Fetch Rewards, belong to the Madison guide.

Does Fiserv sponsor H-1B for new graduates?

Sometimes, but it is uncommon in the data. Most of Fiserv's Wisconsin-addressed filings extend or change existing H-1B employment rather than start a first one. Northwestern Mutual shows the same pattern on a smaller scale, with 288 petitions decided and the same mostly-renewals label.

That shapes how you approach both. Our guide to building a sponsor target list from LCA data and the USCIS Employer Data Hub shows how to find which job titles and wage levels each one actually files for. In practice:

• Ask in the first recruiter screen whether the role is open to candidates who will need an H-1B registration, and whether the company registers OPT hires in the lottery.
• Look for Fiserv and Northwestern Mutual LCAs with Milwaukee-area worksites and the job titles you are targeting. Note the wage level on each: a Level I registration gets one lottery entry and a Level IV registration four, so an entry-level title may suit a new graduate but carries the lowest lottery weight.
• Treat a mostly-renewals label as "ask early," not "never."

Do Wisconsin manufacturers sponsor engineers on STEM OPT?

Rockwell Automation, GE Precision Healthcare, Johnson Controls, CNH Industrial and Milwaukee Tool all file a mix of initial and continuing H-1B petitions, which is a better new-hire signal than the two largest corporate filers. But H-1B data says nothing about STEM OPT hiring, so you confirm that separately.

On its STEM OPT page, USCIS says certain STEM degree holders "may apply for a 24-month extension" and that the employer must be enrolled in E-Verify and sign Form I-983, the training plan. Check any employer in the E-Verify Employer Search before you accept. Days without qualifying employment count against your limit: 90 days on post-completion OPT and 150 in total once you add STEM OPT, according to the SEVIS Help Hub.

For controls, process, quality and mechanical roles, our manufacturing and process engineer H-1B guide covers wage levels, STEM OPT timing and how to vet a sponsor. Because the hub shows mailing addresses, check the LCA worksite for each role, whether it sits in Racine, Brookfield, Waukesha or another state.

Healthcare and research: MCW, Marshfield and the cap-exempt question

The Medical College of Wisconsin (158 petitions decided) and Marshfield Clinic (111) both carry the mixed label. Whether a position skips the lottery depends on how the employer qualifies, not on the word "medical" in its name.

A university or other higher-education institution can file cap-exempt. A nonprofit hospital or research group qualifies only if it meets one of the tests in 8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(F), in effect since 2025-01-17, such as a written affiliation agreement under which "a fundamental activity" supports a university's mission. Ask each employer in writing whether your position will be filed cap-exempt and on what basis. For hospital IT, analytics and informatics roles at systems such as Marshfield or Aurora, see our guide to hospital systems that sponsor H-1B for IT roles.

Two cautions. First, USCIS says cap-gap "applies only to beneficiaries of cap-subject H-1B petitions", so nothing extends your OPT work past the EAD end date while a cap-exempt petition is pending. Confirm the timing with your DSO and the employer's attorney; our explainer on why cap-gap does not cover cap-exempt H-1Bs walks through it. Second, CRS Insight IN12747 (2026-10-14) reports that initial H-1B petitions for consular processing from cap-exempt employers fell 91% during the first eight months the $100,000 fee was in effect, compared with a year earlier. Our reading: that gives universities and research hospitals more reason to look at candidates already in the US, but the figure is national, not Wisconsin-specific.

Does Milwaukee Public Schools sponsor H-1B teachers?

Yes. The district files under two name records, with 148 and 90 petitions decided in the extract, and the larger record is labelled actively hiring. A K-12 district is not a university, so unless it can show a cap exemption its petitions generally go through the lottery. Ask HR how it files.

You also need a Wisconsin license. The Department of Public Instruction's Bureau of Educator Licensing says "Wisconsin has a highly flexible system with a number of pathways to licensure" and lists pathways for out-of-state educators and teachers from another country. Our state-by-state list of school districts that sponsor H-1B compares Milwaukee with Dallas, Denver and other large districts.

What about Experis and other staffing offers?

Experis US (281 petitions decided, mixed) is an IT staffing and consulting firm whose filings list Milwaukee. A staffing offer can be legitimate, but the work often happens at a client site, so ask who the end client is, where you will work, and who files the petition. The H-1B reform proposal under OIRA review (RIN 1615-AD00) lists "increasing oversight over third party placements" in its agenda abstract; no text is public, and current rules apply.

Is Milwaukee a good city for international students to find jobs?

For fintech, insurance, industrial engineering and medical research, it can be, because most of the state's large H-1B filers have Greater Milwaukee addresses. The market is concentrated, though: a handful of headquarters drive most of the volume, and the two largest corporate filers are labelled mostly renewals.

Location also affects the lottery. USCIS's registration page says registrants give the highest wage level the offer meets "for the relevant Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code in the area(s) of intended employment", and the weighted selection rule gives a Level IV registration four entries and a Level I registration one. Our reading: if wages for your occupation in the worksite's area are lower than in a high-cost metro, the same salary can reach a higher level here. The employer chooses the level, and it must match the real job and worksite; DOL's OFLC Wage Search shows the local levels for your SOC code.

State of WI job search: does Wisconsin's government sponsor?

The state's official job site is Wisc.Jobs, managed by the Division of Personnel Management. Its home page does not mention visas, sponsorship or work authorization, so read each posting and ask the hiring agency. No Wisconsin state agency appears among the 42 employers in our extract. The public employers there are UW-Madison and Milwaukee Public Schools.

Public-employer policy varies by state. In 2026, Texas froze new H-1B petitions at state agencies and public universities (2026-01-27 to 2027-05-31, with exceptions; K-12 not covered), and Florida's Board of Governors paused new H-1B hires at its 12 public universities (from 2026-03-02 until at least 2027-01-05; renewals unaffected). We did not check Wisconsin's policy, so ask any public employer whether it is filing new H-1B petitions.

A worked timeline: a December 2026 graduate targeting Milwaukee

This is a hypothetical case: a STEM master's student at a Wisconsin university with a program end date of 2026-12-18. Your I-20, your DSO and your own notices govern your real dates.

OPT-to-H-1B timeline for a Milwaukee job search, as of 2026-11

How to build your Greater Milwaukee target list

1. Open the F1Jobs Wisconsin hub and sort the 42 employers by label, starting with actively hiring and mixed.
2. Query the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, which says "Data can be queried by fiscal year, employer name, city, state, zip code, and NAICS code." Try Milwaukee, Waukesha, Brookfield, Racine and Menomonee Falls, and every spelling of each employer.
3. Download DOL's LCA disclosure files from the OFLC performance data page (the latest is FY2026 Q3, through 2026-06-30, as of 2026-11-01) and filter by Wisconsin worksite to see titles, wages and levels.
4. Look up your SOC code for the worksite's area in the OFLC Wage Search to see which wage level a typical offer would reach.
5. Verify E-Verify enrollment in the E-Verify Employer Search before accepting any STEM OPT role.
6. Ask each recruiter in writing whether the role is cap-subject or cap-exempt, which legal entity files, and whether they register OPT hires.
7. Bring that answer to your DSO for OPT and STEM OPT timing, and to the employer's immigration attorney for petition strategy.

Common mistakes

• Reading petition counts as hiring counts. Fiserv's 992 is mostly continuing employment. Check the label first.
• Searching one spelling. Milwaukee Public Schools, GE HealthCare, Milwaukee Tool and UW-Madison all split across name records.
• Treating the record's city as the job's city. USCIS says the address is a mailing address. Use LCA worksite data instead.
• Assuming a hospital is cap-exempt. Marshfield Clinic and MCW each need their own answer, in writing.
• Counting on cap-gap for a cap-exempt job. There is none, so a pending university or affiliated petition does not keep you working past your EAD end date.
• Accepting a STEM OPT role without checking E-Verify. Without it, the job cannot support a STEM OPT extension.
• Planning around March 2027 as if it were confirmed. FY2028 registration is not announced as of 2026-11-01.

Frequently asked questions

Which companies sponsor H-1B in Wisconsin?

In the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub extract behind our company pages, 42 Wisconsin employers account for 4,775 petitions decided from FY2024 through part of FY2026. The largest are Fiserv Solutions (992), UW-Madison (647), Northwestern Mutual (288), Experis (281), the Medical College of Wisconsin (158) and Milwaukee Public Schools (148 plus 90 under a second name), then Rockwell Automation, GE Precision Healthcare, Johnson Controls, CNH Industrial, Marshfield Clinic and Milwaukee Tool. The counts include renewals, so check each employer's new-hire label.

Does Fiserv sponsor H-1B for new graduates?

Sometimes, but it is uncommon in the data. Fiserv is Wisconsin's largest H-1B filer, with 992 petitions decided from FY2024 through part of FY2026 in our extract, but its label is mostly renewals, meaning fewer than one in ten were initial petitions for new H-1B employment. Ask the recruiter early whether the role is open to candidates who will need an H-1B registration, which has been wage-weighted since 2026-02-27.

Is Milwaukee a good city for international students to find jobs?

It can be for fintech, insurance, industrial engineering and medical research, because most of Wisconsin's large H-1B filers have Greater Milwaukee addresses. The market is concentrated in a few headquarters, and the two largest corporate filers are labelled mostly renewals. For a Milwaukee-area job, the wage-weighted lottery compares your offer with local wages for your occupation. FY2028 registration is not announced as of 2026-11-01.

Do Wisconsin manufacturers sponsor engineers on STEM OPT?

The H-1B data shows Rockwell Automation (130 petitions decided), GE Precision Healthcare (129), Johnson Controls (118), CNH Industrial (114) and Milwaukee Tool (107) filing a mix of new and continuing petitions from FY2024 through part of FY2026, but it does not show STEM OPT hiring. A STEM OPT employer must be enrolled in E-Verify and sign Form I-983, so confirm both before you accept. STEM OPT unemployment is capped at 150 days in total, including days used on OPT.

Does Milwaukee Public Schools sponsor H-1B teachers?

Yes, the district files under two name records, with 148 and 90 petitions decided from FY2024 through part of FY2026 in our extract, and the larger record is labelled actively hiring. A K-12 district is not a university, so unless it can show a cap exemption its petitions generally go through the H-1B lottery. Ask HR how it files. You also need a Wisconsin teaching license from the Department of Public Instruction, which lists a pathway for teachers from another country.

Sources

• USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub and Understanding Our H-1B Employer Data Hub
• USCIS, H-1B Electronic Registration Process
• Federal Register, Weighted Selection Process final rule
• USCIS, STEM OPT extension and cap-gap extension
• SEVIS Help Hub, unemployment counter
• DOL OFLC performance data and disclosure files and OFLC Wage Search
• E-Verify Employer Search
• USCIS G-1055 fee schedule and USCIS processing times
• Reginfo.gov, RIN 1615-AD00 agenda entry and CRS Insight IN12747
• Wisconsin DPI Bureau of Educator Licensing and Wisc.Jobs
• Texas Tribune on the Texas H-1B freeze and Central Florida Public Media on the Florida university pause

How we checked this: employer counts and labels come from the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub extract behind our company directory (FY2024 to FY2026, FY2026 partial); rules, dates and quotes were checked against the USCIS, Federal Register, DOL, E-Verify, CRS and Wisconsin DPI pages listed above on 2026-11-01. We did not check Wisconsin public-employer hiring policy.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Your own I-20, I-94 and USCIS notices, your DSO (for OPT, STEM OPT and SEVIS questions) and a licensed immigration attorney (for petitions and status strategy) govern your situation.

If you are building a Greater Milwaukee search and want help turning this list into applications at employers whose filings match your field, talk to F1Jobs.