“Are you legally authorised to work here?” — how employers actually ask it
Asked about the country the role is in, not about your nationality, and answered from a fixed list on almost every form. We read the application forms of 135 employers that ask it — 1,164 instances in all — from their own public job-board APIs. This is what the question looks like in practice.
What it is checking
Checks whether you can already work in the country the role is in. It is asked from a fixed list, so there is no wording to get right — the answer is whatever is true on the day you apply.
The shape of the answer
93% of these forms give you a fixed list rather than a text box, and 91% of what those lists offer is nothing but yes and no. There is usually nowhere on the form to explain a situation, so the choice is the whole answer. 97% are marked required.
| Option offered | Times it appears |
|---|---|
| No | 946 |
| Yes | 942 |
| Other | 30 |
| Georgia | 20 |
| I am currently authorized to work in this country and do not require employer sponsorship now or in the future. | 20 |
| I have valid work authorization in this country and do not require employer sponsorship. | 20 |
| I have valid work authorization in this country, but I require employer sponsorship or transfer. | 20 |
| I do not currently have authorization to work in this country and will require employer sponsorship. | 20 |
| TN | 17 |
| H4 EAD | 17 |
| Yes, I am currently legally authorized to work in the country where the job is located. | 13 |
| No, I am not currently legally authorized to work in the country where the job is located. | 13 |
344 distinct options appear across the corpus. The long tail is mostly one employer listing every permit type it recognises.
192 ways of asking the same thing
The wording matters more than it looks: two forms can ask about the same fact and accept different answers. These are the most common, with the number of employers using each — the form's own words, not a paraphrase.
| Question, as the form words it | Employers |
|---|---|
| Are you legally authorized to work in the United States? | 31 |
| Are you authorized to work in the United States? | 5 |
| Are you legally authorized to work in the U.S.? | 5 |
| Are you authorized to work in the US? | 4 |
| Are you legally authorized to work in the US? | 4 |
| Are you authorized to work in the United States for any employer? | 2 |
| Are you currently eligible to work in the United States of America? | 2 |
| Are you legally authorized to work in Canada? | 2 |
| Are you legally authorized to work in Germany? | 2 |
| Are you legally authorized to work in the United Kingdom? | 2 |
| Are you legally authorized to work in the country where the job is located? | 2 |
| Are you legally authorized to work in the country where this position is located? | 2 |
Employers whose exact wording we have
Each of these pages lists every question on that employer's form, including this one.
8am · Adyen · Affirm · Airbnb · Airtable · Alpha 9 Oncology · Alphasense · Ambiq Micro · Aptos · Asana · Avant Arte · Axon · Bevi · Bitgo · Blockchain Com · Boku · Boulder Care · Box · Brex · Bringg · Buncha · Bybit · Calendly · Carbonchain · Carvana · Centrum Health · Charles · Chime Financial · Circleci · Cloudflare · Cockroach · Cocoon · Coinbase · Culture Amp · Databricks · Degreed · Doximity · Dropbox · Elastic · Enova International · Eve · Fastly · Figma · Fireblocks · Fivetran · Flexport · Future · Gemini · Genius · Genius Ai · Ghx · Grafana · Headspace · Headspace Providers · House Rx · Huntress · Instacart · Isar Aerospace Se · Kbra · Lab37 · Launchdarkly · Layerzero · Legion · Litify · Magic Leap · Makersite · Mallory Alexander · Manifest · Marqeta · Modern Health · Monzo · Mozilla · Myfitnesspal · Nansen Ai · Natera · Netlify · New Relic · Newsela · Ngrok · Nuro · Odeko · Oshi Health · Outschool · Pathai · Peregrine · Persefoni Ai · Pinwheel · Planetscale · Podium · Pomelo Care · Postman · Prolific · Quip · R Zero · Razorpay Software Private · Recursion · Robinhood · Roofstock · Runwise · Samsara · Scopely · Shopmy · Sidecar Health · Signifyd · Singlestore · Smartsheet · Sofi · Sovrn · Spaceium · Squarespace · Star Catcher · Stockx · Stripe · Sumo Logic · Synack Srt · Tanium · Techstars · Temporal · Tenable · True Anomaly · Truffle Security · Twilio · Unitedmasters Translation · Upgrade · Upslide · Vera Therapeutics · Vercel · Verisign · Viam · Webflow · Wholesail · Wonderschool · Wrike · Yugabytedb · Zynga
What this page does not tell you
It does not tell you what to answer. What is true for you is not visible from a job board, and a confident steer on a question about your right to work — or on a contract you have signed — would be worth less than nothing. What is here is what the form will put in front of you, so that nothing on it is a surprise.
Nor does it say whether any employer filters on the answer. Whether a form's answers are used that way is not published by any of these job boards, and the honest position is that we cannot see it.