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Ask HN: Do US companies not sponsor visas anymore?

2 points by wreath ↗ HN
I've had numerous interviews in the past week and few weeks leading up to the holidays with companies in the US (mostly outside of SF) but 99% of them don't sponsor visas including two of the FAANG I interviewed at. Is this due to COVID or companies now prefer full remote outside of the US? Has anybody have the same experience recently?

7 comments

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byoung2
Travel bans, plus fallout from Trump era policies have led to a 9% drop in H1B visas [1].But could it also be that now companies are more remote-friendly, there is less of a need to sponsor workers? Companies a few years ago based in big population centers like SF, NY, LA had lots of competition for workers within reasonable commute distance. There was a need to sponsor workers to meet demand. But with covid, more companies are hiring remote workers (my 2 previous companies ditched offices completely and went 100% remote. TrueCar went from all workers in Santa Monica to all over the country, and Cameo went from LA/Chicago to worldwide. No need to sponsor someone to come from another country when you can just hire them to work from where they are.

1. https://m.economictimes.com/nri/migrate/9-drop-in-h-1b-visa-...

throwawaybbq1
I also experienced this and from Canada (so eligible for a TN, which is usually quite painless). I also think I have some time left on an old H1B from a few years back .. so I'm a bit surprised. At least one job where I was a good fit seemed to auto-reject me.
wreath
> At least one job where I was a good fit seemed to auto-reject me.

This has been my experience as well. I'm wondering if I were to select "i don't need sponsorship" would have changed things.

mosdl
Due to the Trump admin, there is a huge backlog and getting H1Bs approved takes forever right now.
wreath
What's different about it? Wasn't it already a long process where the company applies end of March, you get notified of your selection early April, if you are selected you can enter the US in October?
grassgreener
> the company applies end of March, you get notified of your selection early April, if you are selected you can enter the US in October

From experience, this is the main reason why companies don't want to deal with sponsorship. And also as mentioned USCIS is a dumpster fire currently (covid + trump legacy)