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How to answer the work authorization and sponsorship questions
Choose your country and status and the tool gives both answers plus a one-line explanation for any text box.
Your details
Nothing you type here is sent anywhere. The answers are worked out in your browser.
What to enter
Each version matches a kind of form field. Copy the one your form has.
Yes means you can start work today under your current status, whatever the route.
No means you will never need the employer to file anything for you to keep working.
One sentence of fact. Do not argue your case here; the form is a filter, the interview is where you explain.
Nearly every application asks two questions together: are you legally authorized to work in this country, and will you now or in the future require sponsorship. They look like one question and they are not. The first is about today; the second is about any point in the future, including a visa transfer. Getting either wrong ends the process at the document check, so the honest answer is also the useful one.
What each question means
Legally authorized to work means you could start on Monday under your current status, whatever the route: citizenship, permanent residence, a valid work visa, or student work permission. It does not ask whether that status is permanent.
Require sponsorship, now or in the future, means the employer would at some point have to file something for you to keep working: a transfer of an employer-tied visa, a new visa when a student permission ends, or a first visa if you have none. Answer Yes if any of those apply, even if it is years away.
The common cases
Citizen or permanent resident: Yes, No. Employer-tied work visa such as a US H-1B or UK Skilled Worker: Yes, Yes, because a new employer has to take over the sponsorship. Open work permit: Yes, No for its term, but say so in a text box if it expires soon. Student or graduate permission such as F-1 OPT, a UK Graduate visa or a Canadian PGWP: Yes, Yes. Applying from abroad with no visa: No, Yes.
Why honesty is also the better strategy
Employers that do not sponsor filter on the sponsorship question and would withdraw an offer at the document stage anyway. Employers that do sponsor want to know early so they can plan. A false No wastes your interviews and theirs, and a discovered one is a withdrawn offer. The answer that gets you hired is the true one, given to employers who sponsor; the supported job sites and the visa-holders page on this site help you find them.
On every application
How EmpowermentApplyF answers this for you
EmpowermentApplyF records your work authorization and sponsorship situation per country in your profile and answers both questions the same way on every application, so you never give inconsistent answers across hundreds of forms. If a form asks about a country you have not set up, it leaves the question for you rather than guessing.
FAQ
Work authorization: common questions
I am on H-1B. Am I legally authorized to work in the United States?
I am on F-1 OPT. What do I answer?
I am applying from abroad and have no visa. Should I still apply?
What does require sponsorship now or in the future mean?
Does a UK Graduate visa count as needing sponsorship?
Stop answering the same
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