Hardware Engineer at Intel — H-1B Wage Level, PERM Record & Green Card Timeline
Direct answer: Intel's Hardware Engineer H-1B offers show a median of $118,768 across 164 disclosed LCA records, ranging from $74,589 to $210,787, with Santa Clara commanding the highest metro median ($147,933). Intel is one of the largest chip-sector H-1B and green card sponsors, filing 2,800 LCAs and roughly 2,799 approved PERM cases in FY2025 alone, with a denial rate that has fluctuated between ~1.2% and ~3.7% over the past three fiscal years.
Intel Hardware Engineer — Data Snapshot
| Metric | Value | Data as of · Source |
|---|---|---|
| Offered wage (median) | $118,768 across 164 disclosed LCA records | FY2019–2025 LCA filings · DOL OFLC LCA disclosure, via h1bdata.info, retrieved Aug 2026 |
| Wage range | $74,589–$210,787 | same |
| Wage-band distribution | 23% below $100k · 59% $100k–$150k · 17% $150k–$200k · 1% above $200k | same |
| By location | Santa Clara, CA: 58 records, median $147,933 · Hillsboro, OR: 42 records, median $107,286 · Folsom, CA: 33 records, median $104,874 · San Jose, CA: 12 records, median $138,814 · Austin, TX: 10 records, median $116,875 | same |
| Recent trend | 2024 median notably higher at $153,504 vs. the 2019–2025 overall median | same |
| H-1B approvals/denials, FY2025 | 2,046 approved / 71 denied (~3.4% denial rate) | USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, via myvisajobs.com |
| H-1B approvals/denials, FY2024 | 2,531 approved / 31 denied (~1.2% denial rate) | same |
| H-1B approvals/denials, FY2023 | 2,093 approved / 81 denied (~3.7% denial rate) | same |
| LCA volume, FY2025 (all titles) | 2,800 filed, ranked #3 sponsor by volume | DOL OFLC LCA disclosure, FY2025 |
| PERM (green card) filings, FY2025 | 2,799 approved / 1 denied (total filed since 2017: ~24,625 certifications) | DOL OFLC PERM disclosure, FY2025 |
| Average salary, FY2025 | H-1B: $154,646 · Green card: $174,920 | myvisajobs.com aggregation |
Modeled Timeline: Offer to Green Card
- Offer → LCA certified: ~7 calendar days.
- LCA → H-1B approved: 2–8 weeks standard, or 15 business days with premium processing.
- PERM: PWD ~3 months + recruitment ~2–3 months + DOL analyst review ~16–17 months at the current average pace; audits commonly add 6–12+ months. Intel's near-2,800-case PERM volume shows one of the most mature and consistent hardware-sector green card pipelines in the disclosure data.
- I-140: 2.5–3.5 months standard, or 15 business days premium.
- Priority date wait: varies sharply by chargeability — see table below.
- I-485: roughly 8.5–38 months to 80th-percentile completion once current.
Wait time by chargeability country
| Chargeability | EB-2 cutoff, Aug 2026 | EB-3 cutoff, Aug 2026 | Directional wait for a PERM filed today |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | Unavailable (FY2026 limit reached) | Jan 1, 2014 | Multi-year, commonly discussed as a decade or more by immigration attorneys — directional only |
| China | Sept 1, 2021 | Jan 1, 2022 | Several years, shorter than India but still multi-year |
| Rest of World | Current | Sept 1, 2024 | EB-2: little to no wait once I-140 approved; EB-3: roughly ~2 years |
Source: U.S. Department of State Visa Bulletin, August 2026.
FAQs
Why does Intel's Hardware Engineer wage vary so much by location? Santa Clara and San Jose command a premium (medians of $147,933 and $138,814) reflecting Bay Area cost-of-living-adjusted prevailing wages, while Hillsboro, OR and Folsom, CA sit meaningfully lower ($107,286 and $104,874).
Does Intel's fluctuating denial rate (1.2%–3.7% over three years) signal rising risk? The swings are modest in absolute terms and don't show a clear multi-year trend upward — treat any single-year figure as one data point, not a pattern, until more years are available.
Is Intel's green card program still strong given ongoing chip-sector headwinds? Based on FY2025 disclosure data (2,799 PERM cases approved, just 1 denied), Intel's green card pipeline remains one of the largest and most active in the semiconductor sector.
Why is the average green card salary ($174,920) higher than the average H-1B salary ($154,646)? This is a common and expected pattern — employers often set the PERM-stage offered wage above the H-1B wage to comfortably clear the applicable prevailing wage level and reduce audit exposure.
How long will a China-chargeability Hardware Engineer at Intel wait for a green card? With EB-2 China at a September 2021 cutoff and EB-3 at January 2022 in the August 2026 bulletin, expect a wait of several years — materially shorter than India's queue.
Should I ask which Intel worksite my offer is tied to before comparing wage data? Yes — the median wage swings by more than $40,000 between Santa Clara and Folsom for the same title, so worksite matters as much as job level.
Related H-1B & Green Card Timelines
- Hardware Engineer at Apple
- Hardware Engineer at Qualcomm
- Hardware Engineer at Broadcom
- Software Engineer at Intel
- Data Engineer at Apple
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