A recruitment professional recently shared on Reddit the difficulties faced by candidates on work visas, such as H-1B, F-1, or OPT, when applying for full-time, permanent positions in the United States. According to the user, the primary reason applicants are rejected is because they require work sponsorship either immediately or in the future.
Sponsorship Requirements Often Lead to Early Rejections
“I am flooded with applications every single time I post a position online from people in this category. Sadly, they don’t even get past the initial screening stage the majority of the time, because either the HR business partner or hiring manager has told me they’re not looking to consider candidates who require work sponsorship,” the recruiter said.
The Reddit post also highlighted that many applicants are not fully transparent about their sponsorship needs. “A lot of the time, these people are not truthful on their application. They’ll answer ‘no’ to the question of ‘do you require sponsorship now or in the future?’ when applying to a new job, just in the hopes they can have some sort of consideration. But eventually it will be revealed and they will be rejected.”
Highly Specialized Roles Sometimes Open Doors
While US-based candidates are generally preferred due to lower risk and costs, visa holders may still be considered for highly technical positions. “The only situation in which I do see candidates on a work visa sometimes standing out, is for highly technical positions. Like positions that require specific education, maybe higher level education like a masters degree, a specific amount of years in a certain industry, specific experience with certain tools or programs, specific knowledge of certain types of products, etc that most people do not have,” the recruiter said.
Even in such cases, local candidates are usually prioritized. The post also raised a moral dilemma for companies: whether to focus on highly experienced foreign workers requiring sponsorship or train US-based candidates with less experience. “This whole thing is just very sad. You have people who leave their lives behind in their former country, coming to the US to make something for themselves, possibly spend a ton of money seeking a masters degree or some other form of higher level education, and then find it absolutely impossible to land a job. They may be ruled out as soon as they send their application through,” the Reddit user noted.
The recruiter also questioned assumptions that visa holders are underpaid or overworked. “This notion that companies want to seek out candidates on a work visa because they can get away with underpaying them and overworking them has not been my experience. I would be interested in seeing data that backs that up. Because I’m used to their salary expectations being in line or over whatever my position is offering. And work-life balance is provided to everyone at the company, not a selected few.”
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