The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) recently published an article titled International Student Employment: Answering Questions about the Need for Employment Visa Sponsorship.
The author, Mark Rhoads is an immigration attorney. He answered important questions about employment visa sponsorship for international students. “Employers are allowed by law to ask job applicants the following questions related to the applicant’s authorization to work in the United States:
- Are you legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer?
- Will you now or will you in the future require employment visa sponsorship?”
Rhoads explained that “the two questions are asked because they are the only two questions that employers can lawfully ask an applicant about U.S. work authorization without running afoul of citizenship discrimination laws. As a general rule, international students at U.S. universities who qualify for CPT or OPT can answer “yes” to the question of whether they are legally authorized to work for a U.S. employer. Similarly, in almost all cases, students should answer “yes” to the question of whether they now or in the future will require employment visa sponsorship.
The reason is that the vast majority of international grads will require H-1B sponsorship or other work visa sponsorship after the expiration of their CPT or OPT. International students may well disadvantage themselves by hiding the fact that, once their CPT or OPT ends, they will need H-1B sponsorship (or other work visa sponsorship). There are exceptions whereby a student may not need sponsorship, but the exceptions are exceedingly rare.”
To read the full article by Mark Rhoads visit NACE’s website at https://www.naceweb.org/public-policy-and-legal/legal-issues/international-student-employment-answering-questions-about-the-need-for-employment-visa-sponsorship/
“NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) is the leading source of information on the employment of the college-educated, and forecasts hiring and trends in the job market; tracks starting salaries, recruiting and hiring practices, and student attitudes and outcomes; and identifies best practices and benchmarks.”
