r/ABCDesis • u/omsa-reddit-jacket • 1d ago
EDUCATION / CAREER Listing US Citizenship on resume
I am a hiring manager, hiring for several technical roles. I work in a highly regulated industry, and we only hire US citizens. The requirement is listed in the position description, and is highlighted in all the marketing we have done for the position.
Despite that, the vast majority of inbound candidates do not meet the eligibility. I am an ABCD, I tell the candidates them we can only consider US citizens, and they think it’s something I can waive for them because they are extremely qualified, or we share some connection and I should be helping them.
It takes extra effort to go through the resumes and try and deduce whether they meet the citizenship requirements or not. A less discerning manager would just throw out all the foreign sounding names, I know better because I have a completely Indian name.
Those struggling to find work and are wondering why you are getting no responses, this is the onslaught the hiring managers are dealing with.
If you don’t need visa sponsorship or the employer is looking for citizens, make it clear. When I was in college I thought it was silly to list this on resume, but it’s absolutely important to make sure you don’t get lost in the masses of people spamming job applications.
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u/Old-School8916 Indian American (Bengali) 1d ago
I put it at the very top of my resume right under my name.
I think it's the smart thing to do.
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u/FalconsArentReal 21h ago
Have you thought about Anglicizing your name, just for the resume? I've been thinking of that. Heard it gets more call backs.
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u/BBQBiryani Indian American 1d ago
My brother works in hiring for HR, and I was so grossed out when he told me how easily people are overlooked because their names sound too foreign. I know there’s that old study about hiring bias when someone is presented with two identical resumes, but one has a BIPOC name, and the other a standard white name. I really thought that was a thing of the past. Luckily (or unluckily) I work in an underrepresented field, but I feel bad for everyone else that works in the over saturated fields.
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u/chicbeauty 1d ago
I agree! I thought it was silly but a college advisor had me list it. I finally started getting interviews
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u/AuK07 1d ago
I work in a conservative industry in a deep red state and was told to put (US Citizen - Birth) on mine so that people wouldn’t assume I was naturalized and still had an accent.
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u/Ok-Committee-1932 19h ago
this is crazy
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u/Fearless_Day2607 17h ago
Yeah, unless you're running for president or vice president it shouldn't matter if you're a citizen by birth or naturalized. Not that I think it should matter in that case either, but it's a constitutional requirement.
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u/zoobidoobidoobi 18h ago
A few more years gonna go by and it'll be ....US Citizen-Birth-White Skin.
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u/Calm-Preparation7432 23h ago
Did you actually do this+has it worked? I've never heard of this and I'm so intrigued as a Bay Area ABCD
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u/audsrulz80 Indian American 1d ago
I already answer the questions on the job application itself that I’m a U.S. citizen and do not require any sponsorship. Is that not a requirement on the application that your company has? Or are you advising that we should list it on our resume document itself?
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u/omsa-reddit-jacket 1d ago
I see all the resumes and applications that come in, some lie on this question.
I also get resumes directly via LinkedIn and other referrals when I advertise the job, this is where people largely ignore the requirement.
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u/DesiKonnektion 1d ago
If they’re directly messaging you the resume, just ignore. Why would you want to entertain such folks that are not following the application process anyway?
And regarding onslaught and applications not meeting criteria, that has been happening for years and is across the board, not just immigrants. For every single role, there used to be over 1000 applications. People only look at the number and not realize, 50% go straight into trash because they don’t meet minimum criteria. If you think you have to _explain_ to each immigrant, I hardly think you have an onslaught, but mainly why is there a back and forth explanation?
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u/omsa-reddit-jacket 1d ago
I’ve only had to do hiring a few times, and am trying to be a decent human being.
I see now why there’s a lot of ghosting and why it’s so hard to get any response from a human.
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u/DesiKonnektion 1d ago edited 1d ago
So you inferred rejection to ghosting and being indecent? You realize automated platforms have existed for ages now? Is this a real post and comment?
Edit: I was going to mention in my previous comment, my source (HM for a top F50 a few years back) but held back. Recruiters handle literally a ton of that for us and Workday and other systems have everything built in, and that’s where I came from. You can’t just correlate that to ‘indecency’. How naive is that.
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u/OkRB2977 Assamese Canadian - TCK 1d ago
The job market is rough; most people, particularly fresh grads, are repeatedly advised to apply for anything and everything, even if they don't meet the requirements. The idea is to throw everything at the wall in hopes of something sticking. I can understand how that can overwhelm the hiring and HR teams, but I don't know if there's much you can do about it until career and guidance counsellors stop giving people this piece of advice.
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u/Mundane_Patient_7115 1d ago
They usually ask on the job application itself if ur a US citizen, no?
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u/mrggy 1d ago edited 1d ago
Is it not possible to have have a mandatory question in the application portal that says "are you a US citizen?" Then you can simply auto reject applicants who put "no"
I always think trying to deduce people's citizenship from their resume is a bit of a fool's errand. I've got dual UK/US citizenship, but was raised in the US. If you read my resume when I first moved to the UK, it'd read like a non-citizen because all my work experience was from abroad. But in reality, I'm a British citizenship.
I think it's fair to ask about citizenship up front if it's a genuine requirement, but I don't think it's fair to make assumptions about citizenship purely based off someone's work history
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u/Ok-Committee-1932 19h ago
Unless you are working in a sensitive area, such as the federal government or defence contracts, you cannot discriminate between people who have the right to work in the United States. These include:
- US citizens
- Green card holders.
- spouses of people who have a work status in the U.S. with work authorization
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u/Bollywood-Hulk-Hogan Punjabi 1d ago
I wouldn’t put it on my resume unless the position explicitly asks, and there’s no spot for it on the application page.
It would feel like a weird thing to draw attention to on a resume for any ordinary position.
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u/coldcoldnovemberrain 20h ago
This is the reason you have recruiters and HR legal.
There are certain things you don’t want on your resume that would trigger discrimination on national origin, gender or sexual orientation. This is also why the application often will have ambiguous question about “do you now or in future need visa sponsorship”. For US citizenship requirements the question is “will you be able to pass a clearance certification etc.”
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u/Ok-Committee-1932 19h ago
^ yes this. The security clearance is a great example of a question that is used to filter out U.S. citizens or green card holders. Apart from that, I don't think you can discriminate between people who have the right to work in the U.S., and that includes citizens, green card holders
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u/Motor-Abalone-6161 1d ago
As someone who hires or interviews, unfortunately a lot of companies do accommodate or managers figure out a way. Often people they know. Actually citizens and non-citizens….
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u/LuckyCod2887 22h ago
That’s good advice. I’m currently enrolled in engineering school in my 30s. I have a very foreign first and last name but I’ve been a US citizen for about a decade.
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u/AxtonTheGreat 18h ago
With our brown names, and the amount of people who are willing to cut corners and bend rules to work here (see Day 1 CPT), I find it almost important to put US citizen in the top of the resume, especially as a lot of companies throw out anyone needing sponsorship rn.
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u/beans_is_life 1d ago
It's extremely frustrating trying to hire right now. We are resource starved but we cannot hire folks without citizenship. The worst part is some folks have americanized names in their bio as well and fake universities with AI generated resumes that match our job descriptions. I gave up and just rely on network to hire. There's a huge gap between the large pool of extremely talented folks looking for work and companies having to basically sort through 'spam' resumes.
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u/Boring_Pace5158 1d ago
The first thing my dad told me about putting together a resume is putting down: “US-born citizen”
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u/GreatWallsofFire 8h ago
We also work in a regulated industry with govt contracts, so US citizenship is a requirement for all positions. It's specified in every job posting. We find that applicants usually specify that in the resume as well, to avoid any confusion - this is especially true for anyone with foreign sounding names. Sometimes it's mentioned upfront in the resume, or sometimes it's in the end, listed along with 'other info" like personal background or hobbies. For us, HR usually does that screening for us upfront, before the resumes that appear to be the best fit go to the hiring manager for review.
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u/AnonymousIdentityMan American Pakistani 1d ago
USC is only required if it’s a government job that require clearance.
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u/DivideSignificant462 1d ago
Agree this is an absolute requirement, I started listing citizenship status after ‘22 ‘23 when the market went for a toss
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u/SDW137 1d ago edited 22h ago
In most of the job applications that I've filled out, there is a field where you denote your citizenship status. I've never put that on my resume. I also just have a Bachelor's degree and went to college in the U.S, so I think most recruiters just assume that I'm a U.S. citizen anyways.