88% of Engineering Job Postings Don't Say If They Sponsor Visas. 91% of the Application Forms Ask
Elena VasquezHead of Talent
Last updated:
October 13, 2026
We read 2,718 engineering roles at 136 US tech companies. 88% of postings say nothing about visa sponsorship; 91% of the application forms ask if you will need it.
Table of content:
Most engineering job postings at American tech companies say nothing about visa sponsorship. Almost all of their application forms ask about it.
We read the public job boards of 136 US-based technology companies on 13 October 2026 and kept every software engineering role open in the United States, 2,718 of them. 88 percent of the postings do not say whether the company sponsors visas. We also read the application form behind every one of those roles: 91 percent ask whether the candidate needs sponsorship, and most of them ask about the future as well as the present. Every role, every sentence and every form question is published, so each count below can be checked line by line.
Match.dev places engineers who work from outside the United States, so a harder road to a US work visa is good for our business. Keep that in mind when reading the advice at the end.
Where the H-1B rules stand in October 2026
A proclamation signed on 19 September 2025 put a $100,000 payment on new H-1B petitions, from 21 September 2025. USCIS said on 20 October 2025 that the payment applies to people outside the United States without a valid H-1B visa. A petition for someone already in the country that asks for a change of status, an extension or an amendment is exempt, provided USCIS grants it. For a graduate on F-1 OPT, that means the exemption holds only if the change to H-1B is approved without leaving the country.
Courts have split on the payment. A federal court in Washington, DC upheld it, and that ruling is on appeal. In June 2026 a federal court in Massachusetts vacated the USCIS guidance that carries it out, and in July the appeals court refused to pause that order. USCIS says DHS will comply while it considers next steps, and still plans to collect the payment if the order is lifted.
On 18 September 2026 a second proclamation extended the payment to 21 September 2027 and said it had been paid for over 700 petitions. On 30 September a federal court in California vacated the agency policies under both proclamations and barred their enforcement until the agencies complete notice-and-comment rulemaking. It left the proclamations themselves in place. The government has appealed that ruling, Bloomberg Law reported.
Two other changes are less visible. Since March 2026 the H-1B cap lottery gives more entries to higher wage levels. A rule proposed on 25 August 2026 would charge $103,265 for every cap-subject petition, including for people already in the country. It is not final.
No posting in the sample mentions the fee, the rulings or the lottery.
What the postings say: mostly nothing
2,718 software engineering roles open in the US at 136 US-based tech companies, read on 13 October 2026. Top bar: the posting text says anything about visa sponsorship. Bottom bar: the application form asks about it.
2,395 of the 2,718 roles, 88 percent, say nothing in the posting about whether the company sponsors visas. The other 323 do, and two companies write 250 of them. Anthropic tells candidates “We do sponsor visas!” and adds that it cannot do so for every role and candidate. Roblox warns that it may not be able to support future H-1B sponsorship. Without those two, 73 of 2,468 roles mention sponsorship at all, 3 percent.
Counted by company, the picture is the same. 115 of the 136 companies say nothing about sponsorship in any of their US engineering postings. Thirteen refuse it in at least one posting. Seven say they sponsor, with or without conditions, and Roblox warns that it may not.
Most refusals take one line. “Visa sponsorship is not available for this role” (Harvey). “We are unable to provide visa sponsorship” (xAI). “You must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship” (Vanta). Render’s 13 roles use a wording that appears nowhere else in the sample: “This position is generally not eligible for new visa sponsorship,” while existing visas may be transferred at the company’s discretion. Across all 2,718 roles, 42 refuse in writing, 1.5 percent.
Citizenship, clearance and export control lines are more common than either. 390 roles, 14 percent, carry one, and SpaceX accounts for 228 of them. Some are firm requirements for US citizens or permanent residents; others say an offer may depend on export control rules.
The 21 companies that state a sponsorship policy
Company
Policy in the posting
US roles saying it
In their words
Forms asking about sponsorship
Flexport
Sponsors
1 of 4
“We sponsor visas for the right candidate.”
4 of 4
Klaviyo
Sponsors
1 of 26
“Klaviyo supports work authorization and relocation for this position.”
26 of 26
Reka AI
Sponsors
4 of 4
“Visa Support : We provide visa assistance, including H1B and OPT transfers, for US employees to ensure a smooth transition and support your career with us.”
0 of 4
Sonder
Sponsors
4 of 4
“Visa Sponsorship: We sponsor visas.”
4 of 4
Anthropic
Case by case
128 of 128
“Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate.”
122 of 128
Cartesia AI
Case by case
4 of 4
“Visa sponsorship: We provide visa sponsorship support and assess each circumstance on a case-by-case basis.”
0 of 4
ClickUp
Case by case
17 of 17
“Sponsorship for engineering and product roles is not guaranteed, but is instead based on the business needs for that specific role at that time.”
17 of 17
Roblox
Warns it may not sponsor
122 of 122
“For US based roles only, please note the Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time.”
120 of 122
Render
No new sponsorship
13 of 13
“This position is generally not eligible for new visa sponsorship.”
13 of 13
Affirm
No sponsorship
1 of 42
“Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this position.”
39 of 42
Calendly
No sponsorship
4 of 4
“Authorized to work lawfully in the United States of America as Calendly does not engage in immigration sponsorship at this time”
4 of 4
Harvey
No sponsorship
3 of 40
“Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.”
40 of 40
Honeycomb
No sponsorship
3 of 3
“Please note we cannot currently sponsor or support visa transfers at this time.”
3 of 3
Jellyfish
No sponsorship
2 of 2
“We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.”
2 of 2
Mozilla
No sponsorship
2 of 6
“And, we do not provide visa sponsorship.”
5 of 6
New Relic
No sponsorship
4 of 4
“Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this position.”
4 of 4
Pinterest
No sponsorship
1 of 37
“This position is not eligible for immigration sponsorship.”
35 of 37
PlanetScale
No sponsorship
1 of 4
“Authorized to work in the US without sponsorship.”
0 of 4
Scale AI
No sponsorship
1 of 40
“To be eligible, candidates must be authorized to work in the United States; visa sponsorship is not available for this role.”
38 of 40
Vanta
No sponsorship
6 of 15
“Work Authorization Requirements: You must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship”
15 of 15
xAI
No sponsorship
1 of 52
“We are unable to provide visa sponsorship.”
52 of 52
US-based tech companies, software engineering roles open in the United States, read on 13 October 2026. The other 115 of the 136 companies say nothing about sponsorship in any of these postings. Every role, sentence and form question is in the data appendix.
What the forms ask: almost always
Skip the screening, get vetted candidates in 48h
Senior engineers at $50 to $80/hr, each through a paid 10-hour assessment. No fee until you hire.
Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever are the applicant tracking systems behind the boards in this sample, and each shows the application form to anyone who opens it. We read the form for every one of the 2,718 roles.
2,466 of the forms, 91 percent, ask whether the candidate needs visa sponsorship. SpaceX has the most roles of any company; without it the share is 90 percent. The rate is 92 percent on Greenhouse, 87 percent on Ashby and 96 percent on the 143 roles on Lever. In 99 percent of the forms that ask, the question is required. Of the 2,466 asking forms, 2,160 sit behind postings that say nothing about sponsorship.
The 136 companies, by whether any of their US engineering postings states a sponsorship policy and whether any of the application forms asks about sponsorship.
118 of the 136 companies ask in at least one US role, and 89 ask in every one. 100 never mention sponsorship in a posting and ask about it in the form. Of the 18 that never ask, six give a reason in the posting or the form: Rocket Lab asks for citizenship and security clearance instead; Discord, Figma and Character.AI ask only whether the candidate is authorized to work; Cartesia and Reka say in the posting that they sponsor. PlanetScale refuses in one posting and asks nothing. The other eleven are silent in both places.
The most common wording, on 169 roles, is “Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status in this country?” 87 percent of the asking forms cover the future as well as the present, some as “to retain or extend your work authorization” or “to continue working in the United States.” 20 percent name a visa type, H-1B most often.
The future clause is what catches OPT and H-1B holders. A graduate working on F-1 OPT is authorized today and will need sponsorship when OPT ends, so for most people on OPT the accurate answer is Yes. Someone on an H-1B with another employer needs a new petition from the new employer, which is also sponsorship. On Greenhouse and Lever, where the answer options are published, 74 percent of the asking forms take only Yes or No, which leaves no room to say which of these applies.
What this means if you hire
A candidate cannot tell from most postings whether the company sponsors, and the form asks without saying what happens to a Yes.
If you hire in the United States and will not sponsor, one sentence in every posting fixes that. New Relic and Calendly print theirs in all of their US engineering postings in this sample. It spares a visa holder an application and your recruiter a rejection. If you will sponsor, saying so is rare enough to stand out: seven companies in this sample do it.
If a role depends on a new H-1B, the calendar is fixed. Cap registration opens once a year, in March, the lottery now favors higher wage levels, and a selected petition starts employment no earlier than 1 October. Whether a $100,000 payment applies to a petition for someone abroad depends on appeals that have not been decided. Someone already in the country whose petition is a change of status, an extension or an amendment is outside that payment under the USCIS guidance, provided it is granted. The proposed $103,265 fee would apply to cap-subject petitions whether or not the person is in the country.
The other route is hiring outside the United States, and it is the one Match.dev sells. In our September count, 34 percent of engineering roles at US tech companies were open outside the US, most of them in Canada, the United Kingdom and India. It needs an entity, an employer of record or a contracting arrangement in the other country, each with its own costs, and a time zone to work around.
What this means if you apply
A posting that says nothing about sponsorship tells you very little: 115 of 136 companies say nothing in any posting, and 91 percent of the forms ask anyway.
If you are on OPT or STEM OPT, a form that asks about the future is asking about you, and 87 percent of the asking forms do. To see whether a company that says nothing has sponsored before, look it up in the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, which lists petition decisions by employer and year.
The companies that state a policy are listed in the table above, in their own words.
The sample and its limits
The sample is the public job boards that 187 companies run on Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever, read on 13 October 2026. 170 of them had at least one software engineering opening: 4,916 postings, grouped into 4,021 roles. A role is one company’s postings with the same title and the same opening text. The main sample keeps the 2,718 roles open in the United States at the 136 companies based there, the same split as our September count. Companies on these three systems lean toward venture-backed software companies; employers on other systems or their own careers sites are not in it.
The data shows what candidates are told and asked, not what a company does with the answer or whom it hires. A company can sponsor without saying so, and a required question can still be one that recruiters ignore.
Forms were read the way a browser reads them: Greenhouse through its job board API, Ashby through the request its job page makes to load the form, Lever from its apply page. Nothing was submitted.
The text was read by machine first: every sentence that names visas, sponsorship, H-1B, immigration, work authorization, citizenship, export control or clearance was kept, 310 distinct sentences, along with 535 distinct form questions. A language model (Claude) labeled each under written instructions. Five labels were changed on a second reading by the same model that ran the study, each with its reason in the published file. A separate run labeled, without seeing the first, a random 100 of the first extract and all 229 questions added when the Ashby and Lever forms were read. The two agreed on all 329. Two runs of one model can make the same mistake, and no person checked every label.
The fee, the rulings and the proposed rule are described as of 13 October 2026 from the documents linked above. The appeals can change them.
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