Visas and sponsorship

Stop applying to roles that were never going to sponsor you.

If you need sponsorship, a large share of every job board is closed to you — and almost none of it is labelled. MarketMate checks first.

What makes this search harder than it should be.

  • A posting that never mentions sponsorship, so you apply and find out weeks later

  • A screening question you answer differently each time because you are tired

  • A role that turns out to require a US security clearance, mentioned once, near the bottom

  • The same three work-authorisation questions, on every single application

What MarketMate does about it.

Work authorisation is one of five checks that run before any role is ranked. It is a hard filter, not a scoring penalty: a role you are not eligible for does not belong in your feed at all.

  1. 1

    You state your status once: citizenship, current authorisation, and whether you need sponsorship now or later

  2. 2

    Roles that explicitly will not sponsor are excluded from your feed, not just ranked lower

  3. 3

    Roles requiring a US security clearance are excluded unless you have told us you hold one

  4. 4

    Sponsorship and work-authorisation questions on the employer's form are answered from what you confirmed

  5. 5

    Your answer is consistent on every application, because it comes from one place

When the posting simply doesn’t say.

This is the common case, and it is where a tool can quietly mislead you. MarketMate keeps three states — eligible, not eligible, and unknown — and an unknown never becomes an eligible just because it would make the numbers look better.

✓

Eligible

In your feed, and the confirmed ones come first.

✕

Not eligible

Does not belong in your feed at all.

?

Unknown

  • The role stays in your feed, because most postings never mention sponsorship and excluding them all would leave you almost nothing
  • It is capped below the roles we can positively confirm, so the confirmed ones come first
  • The match explanation says plainly that the posting does not address sponsorship
  • Auto Apply will not treat an unknown as a pass

Statuses MarketMate understands.

Citizenship

  • US citizen
  • Permanent resident
  • Visa holder
  • Prefer not to say

Work authorisation

  • No sponsorship needed
  • CPT
  • OPT
  • STEM OPT
  • H-1B
  • Something else — tell us

You can also record when your current authorisation expires, and whether you will need sponsorship later even if you do not need it today — which is the question a lot of employers are actually asking.

Questions students ask us.

Will MarketMate say I am a citizen to get past a filter?

No. It answers work-authorisation questions only from what you confirmed, and it never states something your profile does not support. An application built on a false answer is one you would have to defend in an interview.

Can it hide that I need sponsorship?

No. Where a form asks, MarketMate answers truthfully. Where you have said you do not need sponsorship now, it answers that — which is true, and is the answer many students on OPT get wrong out of caution.

What about roles that need a security clearance?

They are excluded unless you have told us you hold one. Clearance requirements are usually a single line in a long posting, and they are easy to miss until late in a process.

Is this immigration advice?

No. MarketMate is a job-search tool, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal or immigration advice. For questions about your own status, talk to your university’s international student office or an immigration attorney. See our Terms of Service.

What if you filter out a role I was actually eligible for?

Every exclusion records which check caused it, and you can see that reason. If it is wrong, correcting your profile puts the role back. We would rather be visibly wrong and correctable than invisibly wrong.

Spend your applications where they can land.

Set your work authorisation once, and see what is actually open to you.

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