I am speaking from a hiring manager side.

I’m hiring a candidate for the first time. My recruiter discussed with me the process that once the position is posted, she will screen for applicants based on minimum requirements. We discussed minimum education requirements per my posting, but additionally company requirements are to select a person who is authorized to work without requiring sponsorship.

She selected about dozen candidates. Out of those, I liked 3 and in my interview process, I asked questions related to their skills and roles. I did not ask questions like work authorization as I thought the recruiter already took care of that.

Finally, I was in the final stages of selecting one candidate. When the candidate was about to sign an offer letter, she asked a question that I didn’t have an answer to so I forwarded to my recruiter. My recruiter had said “as a reminder, we hire a person who is authorized to work without requiring sponsorship”. When I looked at the candidate’s question, I realized it was related to a documentation they needed for their visa.

I felt really upset because I really liked this candidate and thought that the recruiter already screened for minimum requirements. Now my recruiter is telling me to contact all my backup candidates for their work authorization status and make a decision from there. I feel like so much of my time is wasted and I feel bad for the candidate as well that I had initially wanted to select.