H-1B Visa in Seattle WA: Amazon, Microsoft, and the Pacific Northwest Tech Market

Amazon, headquartered in Seattle with a major second campus in Bellevue, is the largest H-1B sponsor in the United States, filing for software development engineers, applied scientists, and product managers across dozens of business units. Microsoft's Redmond headquarters sponsors extensively for cloud engineering, AI research, and enterprise software roles. Google operates a large engineering office in Kirkland sponsoring software engineers and cloud specialists, while Meta's Bellevue office sponsors infrastructure and product engineering roles. Expedia sponsors travel-technology engineers and data scientists from its Seattle headquarters. Zillow sponsors real estate technology and data science roles, and Tableau, now part of Salesforce, sponsors analytics and visualization engineers from its Seattle base.

Software engineers on H-1B in Seattle typically range from $130,000 to $200,000, with senior roles at Amazon and Microsoft frequently exceeding $220,000 in total compensation once bonus and stock are included. Applied scientists and machine learning engineers at Amazon and Microsoft often command $160,000 to $230,000. Data scientists at Expedia and Zillow generally fall between $120,000 and $170,000. The metro average of roughly $175,000 reflects the concentration of large, high-paying tech employers, and Washington's lack of state income tax preserves more of that pay than a comparably priced California market would.

Amazon and Microsoft continue to be the two largest drivers of H-1B demand in Seattle, though both companies have shifted hiring toward AI, cloud infrastructure, and machine learning roles rather than broad-based software engineering growth. Google Kirkland and Meta Bellevue have maintained steady but more selective sponsorship levels compared to their pandemic-era expansion. Seattle's travel and e-commerce technology sector, represented by Expedia and Zillow, has seen more modest hiring as those industries stabilize post-pandemic. Overall, Seattle remains one of the most active H-1B markets nationally, but 2026 hiring is concentrated among mid-to-senior engineers rather than entry-level positions.

Many H-1B workers at Amazon and Google settle in Bellevue, Kirkland, or Redmond on the eastside to be near their offices and to access strong public schools, while Microsoft employees often cluster around Redmond and Bothell. Seattle proper, including neighborhoods like Capitol Hill and Ballard, appeals to workers who prefer an urban lifestyle and don't mind a longer commute across Lake Washington. Cost of living in Seattle is among the highest in the country, particularly for housing, though it remains somewhat below the San Francisco Bay Area. The region is known for its rain and gray skies much of the year, which is a common adjustment point for newer arrivals. Seattle has a well-established immigration attorney community given the density of major tech employers and their in-house legal teams.