cities in the USA
No American city gives you a better visa than any other. F-1 and OPT are federal and identical everywhere. What the city changes is cost, tax, and which employers are within reach.
Start with what does not change, because students are routinely sold the opposite. The F-1 student visa, the 20-hour on-campus work limit, and Optional Practical Training are federal. No state or city offers an easier route, a longer work permission, or a shortcut to a Green Card. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
What the city genuinely changes is money and proximity. State income tax varies from zero to over 10%. Rent varies by a factor of three. And the employers who actually sponsor H-1B visas are concentrated in a handful of metropolitan areas.
Tap a pin to open a city.
costs more / mid-range / costs less compare these cities to each other, not to anywhere else. They are our reading of the spread across the United States, not a published index — the sourced money figures are on the costs page.
Four things that really do change with the city — and one that does not.
The visa does not change
F-1, the 20-hour on-campus limit, CPT and OPT are federal. Identical in all fifty states. No city improves them.
State income tax
Texas, Washington and Florida levy no state income tax. New York and California do, at meaningful rates — which changes what an OPT salary is actually worth.
Cost of living
The spread is enormous. A student budget in West Lafayette or Tempe goes roughly three times as far as the same money in Manhattan.
Who sponsors
H-1B sponsorship concentrates in specific metros and industries. Proximity to those employers is the one genuine location advantage.