PERM Tracker
Live DOL data · Automatic deadlines
Skip to main content

Updated

PERM jobs in Palo Alto, CA

Decisions
8,547
Approved
98.8%
Median certified wage
$141,378
Years
FY2016 to FY2026

Year by year

  • certified
  • denied
  • withdrawn
Fiscal years run October to September. More

Fiscal years run October to September. FY2016 to FY2023 come from DOL's closed-year files, and FY2024 on from its current ones. The newest year is partial until DOL publishes its fourth quarter.

Every year as a table
Fiscal year Certified Denied Withdrawn
FY2016 1,049 21 27
FY2017 677 16 16
FY2018 941 6 20
FY2019 728 8 13
FY2020 808 7 30
FY2021 773 10 24
FY2022 508 6 24
FY2023 810 5 38
FY2024 659 16 46
FY2025 823 1 38
FY2026 378 2 19

Top sponsors

Top occupations

Industries

Countries of citizenship

Worker's education

  • Master's 4,750
  • Bachelor's 1,950
  • Doctorate 311
  • Other 94
  • None 70
  • High School 11
  • Associate's 6

Visa held when filed

  • H-1B 5,980
  • L-1 601
  • F-1 164
  • TN 63
  • NOT IN USA 49
  • O-1 34
  • E-3 34
  • E-1 28
  • J-1 21
  • E-2 20

H-1B in Palo Alto, CA

23,288 labor condition applications name a worksite here, FY2020 to FY2026, and DOL certified 22,145 (95%). An LCA is the employer's wage attestation before an H-1B petition, so it counts positions offered. It doesn't count people hired.

Jobs, certified LCAs since FY2024

  1. Software Developers 3,589
  2. Data Scientists 487
  3. Mechanical Engineers 436
  4. Computer and Information Research Scientists 403
  5. Computer Systems Engineers/Architects 368
  6. Manufacturing Engineers 308
  7. Computer and Information Systems Managers 280
  8. Electrical Engineers 262
  9. Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers 184
  10. Mechatronics Engineers 131

Where Palo Alto, CA sits

County
Santa Clara County
Census places Palo Alto city in it
Metro area
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
Metropolitan statistical area
DOL wage area
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
The area DOL sets prevailing wages for, wage year 2026-27

110.4 is BEA's price level for the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metro area in 2024, against 100 for the country as a whole; for housing rents it's 211.9. A salary here buys about 91% of what the same salary buys at the national price level.

What these jobs pay in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA BLS May 2025, DOL wage year 2026-27
  • Software Developers
    823 PERM decisions
  • Computer and Information Systems Managers
    296 PERM decisions
  • Statisticians
    184 PERM decisions
  • Mechanical Engineers
    152 PERM decisions
  • Marketing Managers
    151 PERM decisions
  • Data Scientists
    99 PERM decisions
$100k$200k$300k
  • middle half of pay (BLS)
  • median
  • 10th to 90th percentile
  • DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
Market pay and DOL wage levels for the jobs filed most here
Job BLS median Level I Level II Level III Level IV
Software Developers $213,110 $152,797 $187,075 $221,374 $255,653
Computer and Information Systems Managers $291,660 — — — —
Statisticians $202,840 $133,557 $158,018 $182,458 $206,918
Mechanical Engineers $168,030 $117,998 $141,835 $165,693 $189,530
Marketing Managers $231,370 $162,802 $208,853 $254,904 $300,955
Data Scientists $185,080 $125,486 $168,917 $212,326 $255,757

Any job in any area, and every wage year since 2021-22, in the wage-level tool.

The jobs filed most in Palo Alto, CA: what employers in the metro report paying everyone in each, and DOL's four prevailing wage levels there. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; DOL OFLC wage tables

The worksite city on each application, from DOL's decided cases since FY2016. Spellings of one city are pooled, and a city counts as one place per state.

Case data through Jun 30, 2026 · LCA disclosures through Jun 30, 2026 · Census places and metros through Jan 1, 2026 · BLS market pay through May 31, 2025 · DOL wage tables through Jul 1, 2026. How these figures are counted. Spotted an error? Tell us; every fix is dated in the corrections log.

The sources in full

Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly

LCA disclosures: DOL quarterly LCA disclosure files (www.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly

Census places and metros: Census Bureau Gazetteer and metro delineation files (census.gov) · data through Jan 1, 2026 · yearly

BLS market pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (bls.gov) · data through May 31, 2025 · yearly, each spring

DOL wage tables: DOL OFLC wage data downloads (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jul 1, 2026 · yearly, each july

What each source includes

Case data: Decided PERM cases only. A case still waiting isn't in here, so counts and durations describe finished cases.

LCA disclosures: Certified and denied H-1B labor condition applications only, with the wage offered.

Census places and metros: Where each worksite city sits: its county, metro area and DOL wage area, matched to Census's place and county files. A city Census lists in no single place is left unmatched. This site doesn't guess it.

BLS market pay: Pay employers report for everyone in each job, from BLS's yearly survey (May of the year named). It's shown nationally, by state and by metro. It covers citizens and immigrants alike, and it isn't drawn from PERM offers.

DOL wage tables: The four prevailing wage levels DOL publishes for every job in every area, each wage year from 2021-22, as DOL's own tables print them. They're the floors an offer is held to. They don't show what anyone was paid.

Cite this page

Waiting on a PERM case?

  • When it'll likely be decided
  • An email when DOL moves it

It's on your ETA-9089 receipt. A case number looks like G-100-26125-868956.

Don't have the number?