diff --git a/docs/en_US/Tutorial/Nnictl.md b/docs/en_US/Tutorial/Nnictl.md
index 28084494a3..edb25afacd 100644
--- a/docs/en_US/Tutorial/Nnictl.md
+++ b/docs/en_US/Tutorial/Nnictl.md
@@ -578,6 +578,7 @@ Debug mode will disable version check function in Trialkeeper.
   |--path, -p|  True| |the file path of nni package|
   |--codeDir, -c| True| |the path of codeDir for loaded experiment, this path will also put the code in the loaded experiment package|
   |--logDir, -l| False| |the path of logDir for loaded experiment|
+  |--searchSpacePath, -s| True| |the path of search space file for loaded experiment, this path contains file name. Default in $codeDir/search_space.json|
 
   * Examples
 
diff --git a/tools/nni_cmd/nnictl.py b/tools/nni_cmd/nnictl.py
index 213554d5e8..cc5d4cdd11 100644
--- a/tools/nni_cmd/nnictl.py
+++ b/tools/nni_cmd/nnictl.py
@@ -159,6 +159,8 @@ def parse_args():
     parser_load_experiment.add_argument('--codeDir', '-c', required=True, help='the path of codeDir for loaded experiment, \
                                    this path will also put the code in the loaded experiment package')
     parser_load_experiment.add_argument('--logDir', '-l', required=False, help='the path of logDir for loaded experiment')
+    parser_load_experiment.add_argument('--searchSpacePath', '-s', required=False, help='the path of search space file for \
+                                   loaded experiment, this path contains file name. Default in $codeDir/search_space.json')
     parser_load_experiment.set_defaults(func=load_experiment)
 
     #parse platform command
diff --git a/tools/nni_cmd/nnictl_utils.py b/tools/nni_cmd/nnictl_utils.py
index 3833c9317f..e59c293e2a 100644
--- a/tools/nni_cmd/nnictl_utils.py
+++ b/tools/nni_cmd/nnictl_utils.py
@@ -827,7 +827,18 @@ def save_experiment(args):
         temp_code_dir = os.path.join(temp_root_dir, 'code')
         shutil.copytree(nni_config.get_config('experimentConfig')['trial']['codeDir'], temp_code_dir)
 
-    # Step4. Archive folder
+    # Step4. Copy searchSpace file
+    search_space_path = nni_config.get_config('experimentConfig').get('searchSpacePath')
+    if search_space_path:
+        if not os.path.exists(search_space_path):
+            print_warning('search space %s does not exist!' % search_space_path)
+        else:
+            temp_search_space_dir = os.path.join(temp_root_dir, 'searchSpace')
+            os.makedirs(temp_search_space_dir, exist_ok=True)
+            search_space_name = os.path.basename(search_space_path)
+            shutil.copyfile(search_space_path, os.path.join(temp_search_space_dir, search_space_name))
+
+    # Step5. Archive folder
     zip_package_name = 'nni_experiment_%s' % args.id
     if args.path:
         os.makedirs(args.path, exist_ok=True)
@@ -844,6 +855,9 @@ def load_experiment(args):
     if not os.path.exists(args.path):
         print_error('file path %s does not exist!' % args.path)
         exit(1)
+    if args.searchSpacePath and os.path.isdir(args.searchSpacePath):
+        print_error('search space path should be a full path with filename, not a directory!')
+        exit(1)
     temp_root_dir = generate_temp_dir()
     shutil.unpack_archive(package_path, temp_root_dir)
     print_normal('Loading...')
@@ -929,7 +943,32 @@ def load_experiment(args):
             else:
                 shutil.copy(src_path, target_path)
 
-    # Step5. Create experiment metadata
+    # Step5. Copy searchSpace file
+    archive_search_space_dir = os.path.join(temp_root_dir, 'searchSpace')
+    if args.searchSpacePath:
+        target_path = os.path.expanduser(args.searchSpacePath)
+    else:
+        # set default path to codeDir
+        target_path = os.path.join(codeDir, 'search_space.json')
+    if not os.path.isabs(target_path):
+        target_path = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), target_path)
+        print_normal('Expand search space path to %s' % target_path)
+    nnictl_exp_config['searchSpacePath'] = target_path
+    # if the path already has a search space file, use the original one, otherwise use archived one
+    if not os.path.isfile(target_path):
+        if len(os.listdir(archive_search_space_dir)) == 0:
+            print_error('Archive file does not contain search space file!')
+            exit(1)
+        else:
+            for file in os.listdir(archive_search_space_dir):
+                source_path = os.path.join(archive_search_space_dir, file)
+                os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(target_path), exist_ok=True)
+                shutil.copyfile(source_path, target_path)
+                break
+    elif not args.searchSpacePath:
+        print_warning('%s exist, will not load search_space file' % target_path)
+
+    # Step6. Create experiment metadata
     nni_config.set_config('experimentConfig', nnictl_exp_config)
     experiment_config.add_experiment(experiment_id,
                                      experiment_metadata.get('port'),