From the Department of Labor's public data
Space Companies That Sponsor H-1B Visas and Green Cards
12 of the 68 space employers we checked had an H-1B application certified between 1 Oct 2025 and 30 Jun 2026, 111 in all. Blue Origin, with 1,427 roles open on our board, filed none. 8 had a green card (PERM) certification, 29 in all. Read from the US Department of Labor's disclosure data of every H-1B labor condition application and every green card labor certification.
The space employers that filed
| Employer | H-1B applications certified | Median offered wage (H-1B) | Filed most for | Green card certifications | Open roles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SpaceX | 28 | $138k/yr | ASIC Design Engineer; Bulk Acoustic Wave Process Design Kit (BAW PDK) Engineer | 3 | 2,258 |
| Viasat | 26 | $139k/yr | Software Engineer; Analytics Engineer | 17 | 0 |
| Skylo | 13 | $186k/yr | Senior Core Network Engineer; Staff Core Engineer | 3 | 0 |
| AST SpaceMobile | 11 | $149k/yr | Senior RAN & RF Planning and Optimization Engineer; Senior Test Engineer | 2 | 253 |
| NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory | 9 | $160k/yr | Robotics Systems Engineer; Scientist | 0 | 120 |
| Rocket Lab | 5 | $231k/yr | Director of Space Systems Operations; ERP Team Lead | 1 | 487 |
| Iridium | 5 | $177k/yr | Senior Product Manager; Senior Manager, Software Quality Assurance | 1 | 0 |
| Loft Orbital | 5 | $140k/yr | Technical Program Manager; Space Infrastructure Software Engineer | 0 | 60 |
| Planet | 4 | $181k/yr | Senior Software Engineer; Tech Lead, Electrical Engineering | 0 | 100 |
| Reflect Orbital | 3 | $157k/yr | GNC Engineer; Flight Software Engineer | 0 | 0 |
| CesiumAstro | 1 | $155k/yr | Machine Learning Engineer I | 0 | 0 |
| Portal Space Systems | 1 | $196k/yr | Director of Marketing | 0 | 0 |
| Spire Global | 0 | not stated | Software Engineer, Weather & Climate | 1 | 32 |
| Kymeta | 0 | not stated | Mechanical Engineer | 1 | 0 |
Certified H-1B labor condition applications and green card (PERM) certifications from 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Jun 2026 (U.S. Department of Labor, LCA disclosure data, fiscal year 2026, quarter 3, 1,032,735 filings; and its PERM file), each employer matched by its legal name; the offered wage is each H-1B application's, put on a year. Open roles are the ones whose posting we read for our research.
The largest space employers that filed none
- Blue Origin1,427 open roles
- Relativity Space384 open roles
- K2 Space213 open roles
- True Anomaly200 open roles
- Astranis184 open roles
- ICEYE174 open roles
- Vast174 open roles
- Voyager Technologies164 open roles
- Muon Space138 open roles
- Vantor131 open roles
- Firefly Aerospace121 open roles
- Axiom Space120 open roles
- Varda Space Industries119 open roles
- Ursa Major117 open roles
- Inversion Space83 open roles
- Stoke Space74 open roles
No certified H-1B application or green card certification in the same months. Primes and conglomerates (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, RTX, L3Harris, Amazon) file for every division under one name, so they are not counted here.
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What people ask about H-1B visas and green cards in the space industry
Does SpaceX sponsor H-1B visas?
Yes: SpaceX had 28 H-1B applications certified from 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Jun 2026, for 28 workers, most for ASIC Design Engineer and Bulk Acoustic Wave Process Design Kit (BAW PDK) Engineer, in Texas, Washington, California, at a median offered wage of $138k/yr, by the Department of Labor's disclosure data, and 3 green card (PERM) certifications. 100% of its open postings we read are limited to US citizens or US persons (research on who can apply).
Does Blue Origin sponsor H-1B visas?
Blue Origin had no H-1B application certified from 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Jun 2026 and no green card (PERM) certification, by the Department of Labor's disclosure data, while 1,427 of its roles were open on our board. 98.8% of its open postings we read are limited to US citizens or US persons (research on who can apply).
Why do so few space companies sponsor H-1B visas?
Much of the work is export-controlled under ITAR or the EAR: a role limited to US persons (citizens, permanent residents and protected individuals) is closed to someone on an H-1B unless the employer obtains an export license for them. 79% of the space postings we read are limited to US persons, by our research on who can apply.
Do space companies sponsor green cards?
A few do. 8 of the 68 space employers we checked had a green card labor certification (PERM) approved from 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Jun 2026, 29 in all: SpaceX (3, such as Electrical Engineer II), Viasat (17, such as Software Engineer), Skylo (3, such as Embedded Firmware Engineer [Radford Code EN.FMFM.P2]), AST SpaceMobile (2, such as Space Scientist, Spacecraft Testing), by the Department of Labor's disclosure data. A green card holder is a US person under export control, so a role limited to US persons is open to them.
What is an H-1B labor condition application?
It is the filing with the US Department of Labor that every H-1B petition starts with, for a new hire, a transfer from another employer or an extension: the employer states the job, the place and the wage it will pay. A certified application is not the visa itself, which the petition that follows can still be refused, and one application can cover several workers.
Where can I find space jobs open to non-US citizens?
The space jobs open to non-US citizens lists the roles whose posting states no US-person limit, and the pages for Europe and Asia-Pacific list the roles open in those countries.