H-1B Software Engineer Jobs: 80 Companies Sponsoring SWEs in 2026 (Salary Data Included)

Software engineering is the most commonly sponsored role for H-1B visas in the United States, and the companies sponsoring the most software engineers in 2026 are Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple. Department of Labor data for October 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 shows 117,746 certified H-1B Labor Condition Applications for software developers, about 31% of all certified full-time H-1B LCAs, at a median offered salary of $145,000. This guide to H-1B software engineer jobs ranks the 80 companies with the most of those filings, shows the salary each one offered, and lays out an application strategy for SWE candidates at every level from new grad to staff engineer.

H-1B software engineering by the numbers

Software engineering consistently accounts for the largest share of H-1B filings in tech, and the 2026 filings bear that out:

• Software engineering roles represent approximately 25 to 30% of all H-1B filings in the technology sector, and in the latest DOL release, software developers alone made up about 31% of certified full-time H-1B LCAs across all industries.
• The average approved H-1B salary for software engineers is $130K to $160K, well above the prevailing wage requirements, and the median offered salary on certified SWE LCAs was $145,000, with the middle half of offers between $116,200 and $178,100.
• Approval rates at major tech companies typically exceed 90%, and in USCIS data for fiscal year 2026 through June 30, Amazon.com Services was at 99.1%, Google at 98.4%, Meta at 98.3% and Microsoft at 96.0% across all petition types.
• In those nine months, 13,890 employers filed at least one certified H-1B LCA for a software developer, and 226 of them filed 50 or more.

An LCA is the filing an employer must have certified by the Department of Labor before it can file an H-1B petition, and it lists the job title, the work location and the wage. That makes LCA data the best public source on which companies hire software engineers on H-1B and what they pay. An LCA is not an approval, since one LCA can cover several positions and some never become petitions, so read the counts below as a measure of sponsorship activity rather than visas issued. The data comes from the DOL LCA disclosure file for FY 2026, quarter 3, which I downloaded on September 30, 2026.

Top H-1B sponsors for software engineers

• Amazon is the largest single sponsor for SWE roles, with 10,340 certified software developer LCAs across its entities in nine months, filed for SDE I, II and III levels.
• Google sponsors software engineers from L3 to L6 as well as research roles, and it had 4,919 certified SWE LCAs at a median offered salary of $193,000.
• Microsoft sponsors broadly across Azure, Office, Windows and its other divisions, and it had 3,211 certified SWE LCAs.
• Meta sponsors engineers from E3 to E6; it is competitive but high volume, with 2,732 certified SWE LCAs at a median offered salary of $216,600, the highest of the top five.
• Apple sponsors across iOS, macOS, hardware and machine learning engineering, with 2,054 certified SWE LCAs.

80 companies sponsoring software engineers in 2026

This table ranks employers by certified H-1B LCAs under the Software Developers occupation code (15-1252) from October 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. I combined filing entities that belong to the same company, such as Amazon.com Services and Amazon Web Services, and the salary column is the median annual wage the employer offered on those filings. Linked names go to the company's Scoutify page with its open roles.

A few names on the list are IT staffing and consulting firms, such as Compunnel Software Group, Randstad Digital, Kforce, Innova Solutions and Mphasis. They place engineers at client companies, which can be a real path to an H-1B, but the day-to-day work and the pay differ from a direct hire, so ask how the placement works before you accept. If you want to see which of these companies have SWE roles open today, the H-1B software engineer jobs page lists current openings at companies with H-1B sponsorship on record.

Salary ranges for H-1B software engineers

H-1B salaries must meet prevailing wage requirements, which are generally at or above market rates. These are the base salary bands I use for planning:

• New grad or junior engineers (0 to 2 years) typically earn $100K to $140K base.
• Mid-level engineers (3 to 5 years) typically earn $140K to $190K base.
• Senior engineers (5 to 8 years) typically earn $180K to $240K base.
• Staff engineers and above (8+ years) typically earn $220K to $350K+ base.

Total compensation, including equity and bonus, can be 1.5 to 2.5 times the base salary at top-tier companies.

What the 2026 filings show by wage level

An LCA that uses the Department of Labor wage survey lists a prevailing wage level from I to IV. Level I is meant for entry-level work and level IV for the most experienced, so the levels are a rough guide to seniority rather than job titles. These are the offered salaries on certified software developer LCAs from October 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026:

Filings that used another wage source have no level, which is why these counts add up to fewer than 117,746. The wage level now matters for the lottery as well. Starting with the FY 2027 cap season, USCIS runs a weighted selection in which a registration gets one to four entries depending on the wage level the offered salary meets, so an offer at level I still has a chance, but a higher level improves the odds, which is one more reason the base salary in your offer matters.

Application strategy for H-1B SWE candidates

1. Apply early in the cycle. Start in the third or fourth quarter of the year before you need the visa, because companies need months to finish the interview process before H-1B registration in March.
2. Target multiple companies. Do not rely on a single company; apply to 10 to 15 sponsors at the same time. The lottery means even candidates with an offer have roughly a 25 to 30% chance of selection, and USCIS selected about 35% of eligible registrations for FY 2026, 29% for FY 2025 and 25% for FY 2024. If you are wondering how many applications that adds up to, I wrote about how many jobs to apply to per day.
3. Highlight your unique skills. Companies invest significant resources in H-1B sponsorship, so show expertise in areas where domestic talent is scarce, such as machine learning and AI, distributed systems and specialized frameworks.
4. Practice LeetCode-style interviews. Most major sponsors use algorithmic interview formats, so consistent practice on platforms like LeetCode and HackerRank is essential.
5. Apply in the first hours, not the first week. A sponsor role that collects hundreds of applicants in its first days is easier to stand out in on day one than on day five, and that matters more for you than for a candidate who does not need sponsorship.

Sniper and the visa sponsorship toggle

Scoutify is AI job search that applies for you first, and Sniper is the agent that submits the applications. When you set up Sniper, you choose your roles (for example, software engineer, backend engineer or machine learning engineer), your years of experience, your locations and job type, and you turn on the visa sponsorship toggle. The toggle is a filter for companies with a sponsorship record: Sniper applies where USCIS data shows the company has sponsored H-1B workers or where the posting says it sponsors, and it skips postings that say they do not.

Scoutify watches 70,000+ company career pages, including all the major H-1B sponsors, and when a new SWE posting matches your filters, Sniper fills in the employer's real application on Workday, Greenhouse or SmartRecruiters (Ashby and Lever are rolling out) and submits it, usually minutes after the job posts. It runs around the clock, so it keeps applying while you sleep. It never logs in to your LinkedIn account or applies on linkedin.com, and most employers' confirmation emails land in Scoutify Mail, so you can check that each application arrived.

You can auto-apply with a visa sponsorship filter on Sniper for $25 a week (up to 500 applications) or on Auto Apply for $15 a week (up to 200), and your first 25 applications are free, with no card required. A sponsorship record is evidence rather than a promise, because the hiring team decides whether to sponsor each role, so confirm with the recruiter early. Sniper is the better choice when you are targeting salaried engineering roles at companies with real career sites and want to be among the first applicants; it does not apply through LinkedIn Easy Apply or Indeed, and it does not write cover letters. The visa sponsorship auto-apply playbook goes deeper, and the best auto-apply tools comparison covers the alternatives.

Bottom line

Software engineering offers the clearest path to H-1B sponsorship in tech. The combination of high demand, established sponsorship programs at major companies and competitive salaries makes SWE the most common H-1B role, and 226 employers filed 50 or more SWE LCAs in the first nine months of fiscal year 2026 alone. Focus on targeting multiple sponsors, applying early in the cycle and showing specialized technical expertise to maximize your chances.

Frequently asked questions

Do companies sponsor H-1B visas for software engineers?

Yes. Software developer is the most sponsored H-1B occupation: employers received 117,746 certified H-1B Labor Condition Applications for software developers between October 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026, about 31% of all certified full-time H-1B LCAs, and 13,890 different employers filed at least one.

Which companies sponsor the most H-1B software engineers?

Amazon filed the most certified software developer LCAs from October 2025 to June 2026 (10,340 across its entities), followed by Google (4,919), Microsoft (3,211), Meta (2,732), Apple (2,054), Fidelity Investments (1,958), Deloitte (1,682), Walmart (1,257), JPMorgan Chase (1,183) and NVIDIA (980).

What is the salary for an H-1B software engineer?

The median offered salary on certified H-1B software developer LCAs from October 2025 to June 2026 was $145,000, and the middle half of offers fell between about $116,200 and $178,100. Medians by prevailing wage level ran from $116,300 at level I to $180,000 at level IV.

Can new grad software engineers get H-1B sponsorship?

Yes. Large sponsors such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft hire new grads who are on F-1 OPT and register them in the lottery, and because most new grads change status from inside the United States, the $100,000 payment would not apply to them even if it were being collected. Since the FY 2027 lottery, selection is weighted toward higher wage levels, so an entry-level offer has lower odds than a senior one, which makes applying to several sponsors early even more important.

Related resources

• The H-1B sponsors list ranks the top 50 companies across all roles in the latest USCIS data.
• The H-1B data scientist jobs guide covers the 40 companies sponsoring the most data scientists.
• The H-1B job search guide lays out the 10-month plan and the OPT clock.
• The guide to job alerts for new grads explains how to catch entry-level software roles as they post.
• All H-1B visa sponsorship jobs are organized by role, salary and location.