Question: Are we permitted to ask applicants about their immigration status?
Answer: No, you shouldn’t ask applicants about their immigration status—for example, whether they are a citizen, naturalized citizen, lawful permanent resident, or refugee. Asking about applicants’ immigration status (or any protected class) could lead to discrimination claims in the following ways:
You are allowed to ask questions about an applicant’s lawful ability to work in the United States or their potential need for sponsorship. For example, you could ask, “Are you legally authorized to work in the United States?” or “Do you now or will you in the future require employer sponsorship?”.
If you ask either of these questions, do so for all candidates and not just for those you suspect might need visa sponsorship or who may not be obviously eligible to work in the United States. You can add these questions to your job application or screening questions to ensure consistency.
This Q&A does not constitute legal advice and does not address state or local law.
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UST maintains a secure site. This means that information we obtain from you in the process of enrolling is protected and cannot be viewed by others. Information about your agency is provided to our various service providers once you enroll in UST for the purpose of providing you with the best possible service. Your information will never be sold or rented to other entities that are not affiliated with UST. Agencies that are actively enrolled in UST are listed for review by other agencies, UST’s sponsors and potential participants, but no information specific to your agency can be reviewed by anyone not affiliated with UST and not otherwise engaged in providing services to you except as required by law or valid legal process.
Your use of this site and the provision of basic information constitute your consent for UST to use the information supplied.
UST may collect generic information about overall website traffic, and use other analytical information and tools to help us improve our website and provide the best possible information and service. As you browse UST’s website, cookies may also be placed on your computer so that we can better understand what information our visitors are most interested in, and to help direct you to other relevant information. These cookies do not collect personal information such as your name, email, postal address or phone number. To opt out of some of these cookies, click here. If you are a Twitter user, and prefer not to have Twitter ad content tailored to you, learn more here.
Further, our website may contain links to other sites. Anytime you connect to another website, their respective privacy policy will apply and UST is not responsible for the privacy practices of others.
This Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use for our site is subject to change.
