diff --git a/qemu-seccomp.c b/qemu-seccomp.c
index 4729eb107f..1baa5c69ed 100644
--- a/qemu-seccomp.c
+++ b/qemu-seccomp.c
@@ -282,7 +282,24 @@ static QemuOptsList qemu_sandbox_opts = {
 
 static void seccomp_register(void)
 {
-    qemu_add_opts(&qemu_sandbox_opts);
+    bool add = false;
+
+    /* FIXME: use seccomp_api_get() >= 2 check when released */
+
+#if defined(SECCOMP_FILTER_FLAG_TSYNC)
+    int check;
+
+    /* check host TSYNC capability, it returns errno == ENOSYS if unavailable */
+    check = qemu_seccomp(SECCOMP_SET_MODE_FILTER,
+                         SECCOMP_FILTER_FLAG_TSYNC, NULL);
+    if (check < 0 && errno == EFAULT) {
+        add = true;
+    }
+#endif
+
+    if (add) {
+        qemu_add_opts(&qemu_sandbox_opts);
+    }
 }
 opts_init(seccomp_register);
 #endif
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index 5ba06adf78..380ae7ba2b 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -4007,8 +4007,8 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
     }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_SECCOMP
-    if (qemu_opts_foreach(qemu_find_opts("sandbox"),
-                          parse_sandbox, NULL, NULL)) {
+    olist = qemu_find_opts_err("sandbox", NULL);
+    if (olist && qemu_opts_foreach(olist, parse_sandbox, NULL, NULL)) {
         exit(1);
     }
 #endif