2024 SA - Visa Sponsorship - US Investment Banking

As visa policies of companies keep changing every year, I wanted to start a thread with information about investment banks in the US that sponsor and don't sponsor visas for international undergraduate students. This is mainly intended to help those applying for 2024 summer analyst positions.

In this post, I am adding a list of companies that I know are willing or unwilling to take in international students for 2024 summer analyst positions as per my current knowledge. This is based on my present knowledge, if you feel I am wrong about a certain company, please comment and mention so. Likewise, there are a lot of companies that I am unsure of regarding visa sponsorship policies - discussing whether they sponsor or not in the comments would definitely help. Please keep updating this thread and make it as informative as possible for everyone's benefit!

  • Below - when a bank is classified under the "sponsors visas" category, it could be a bank like GS that does not discriminate in any way if you are an international or it could also be a bank like Lazard that might be willing to sponsor only top candidates on a case by case basis.

Hope this post is helpful!

Bulge Brackets:

Sponsor:

GS, BofA, Citi, CS, DB

Don't Sponsor:

JPM

Unsure:

Barclays, MS, UBS

Elite Boutiques:

Sponsor:

EVR, LAZ, MOE, PJT

Don't Sponsor:

Centerview, FT Partners, PWP (as of this year), Qatalyst

Unsure:

Ducera

Middle Market and Other Banks:

Sponsor:

AGC Partners, CohnReznick Capital, JEF, Mizuho, Nomura, Rothschild, SVB, WB

Don't Sponsor:

BNP Paribas, HSBC, RBC, Stifel, WF

Unsure:

Baird, BMO, Canaccord Genuity, Cantor Fitzgerald, Deloitte Corporate Finance, Greenhill, Guggenheim, HL, Lincoln International, LionTree, Macquarie, MUFG, Piper Sandler, Raine Group, Raymond James, TD Cowen

 
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Love to see these threads, very beneficial for the community, especially back when I was recruiting. As someone that recruited last year for SA 2023, I'll help to fill in some of the blanks. Obviously, banks change their sponsorship policies year to year so my extrapolations from last year could be outdated/incorrect so feel free to correct me.

For the most part, 98% of OP's list is correct/consistent with the sponsorship policies of banks from last year.

- For BB, Citi NY kinda sponsors but not really, unless ur an ultra-top candidate or diversity. As for OP's "Unsure BB" list, Barclays and MS don't sponsor but not sure about UBS, I assume similar strict policies to Citigroup.

- For the EB's, Evercore is the most open to sponsorship while LAZ, MOE, and PJT, although they say they sponsor, r super stingy. All the "Don't sponsor EB's" r correct. Ducera also doesn't sponsor.

- For the MM's, I didn't really network/recruit with them, but can confirm JEF, Mizuho, and Nomura def sponsor. WB and SVB says it sponsors on my handshake but haven't seen an international go or even get interviews so they're probably super stingy as well. The "Don't sponsor MM" group is correct.

- For the rest of the "Unsure category," can confirm they 100% don’t sponsor. Will clarify by saying that HL NY doesn't sponsor but HL LA does, especially their RX group, so u will c a lot of HL people doing their SA stint in LA and then transferring to NY for FT.

 

Citi NY gave my international friend an offer so doable

And in my experience (at a target) also PJT/MOE always sponsor 

 

I never said the firms u mentioned don't sponsor. What I meant was those firms (Citi, MOE, PJT) penalize international applicants, meaning u have to perform better than domestic candidates to justify the additional hassle and legal fees of sponsoring u. This is in contrast to banks like EVR, GS, BofA, that view all candidates generally equally.

I also go to a super-target business school here in the States with 3 years STEM OPT and also from Canada (so I can access TN-1).

For future generations, when u create these threads, u should split it into 3 tiers: Sponsors (doesn't penalize), semi-sponsors (will sponsor but penalizes interviewees), and doesn't sponsor (doesn't sponsor regardless of how good u r).

 

Do you know if they do for long-term roles? I applied and was dinged within minutes. Other BBs took time to review me and even look up my LinkedIn (which wasn't provided). SVB emailed immediately that I didn't meet the qualifications (but I have years of experience and advanced degrees...). I thought they sponsored so this came as a surprise. Was genuinely excited

 

Are you sure MS doesn't sponsor? Know a lot of students in regional offices w/sponsorship but you are penalized 

 

MS is technically "case by case" according to HR and has not explicitly stated that they don't sponsor but it varies year to year between auto ding (if u tick the "needs sponsorship now or in the future" box) and a Hirevue. In general tho, MS doesn't sponsor but there r always exceptions to the rule, like I've even seen RBC sponsor some diversity kids despite them not officially stating they sponsor. 

 

Yes, generally the same but a couple banks here or there may be open to sponsoring MBA's but not undergrads because MBA's get double the number of draws for the H1B lottery since they r part of the "Advanced Degree Holder" pool so they pose less risk of sponsoring than undergrads. U will have to network with your MBA's IB club/career center to c which banks have traditionally sponsored MBA's in the past.

Ex. MBA with 3 year STEM OPT gets 6 instead of 3 draws since every year they get one ticket for the regular H1B application pool and one for the advanced degree holder pool.

 

last yr UBS suddenly said they sponsor. Not sure about 2024 as they haven't been sponsoring candidates in the previous years.

 
nightperson_hatemorning

Are you sure PWP doesn't sponsor? They don't state that in their JD for SA

I heard from others that PWP stopped sponsoring this year. On Handshake too, they don't mention anything about sponsoring visas. This is to the best of my knowledge - I'd recommend you to reach out to someone in HR to confirm officially.

 

Jefferies really is need blind for sponsorship. Does not count it against you and I know of at-least 7 people that needed sponsorship at Jefferies (including myself). My group has already communicated that they’ll transfer me to London if I don’t get the H1B lottery. For any international student out there, don’t disregard this when looking at banks. Many banks will sponsor but basically kick you out if you don’t get the H1B since they don’t want to jump through the hoops of getting you to London or any other country outside of the US.

 

just to chime in on my personal experience as an international student at a us uni (who's done recruiting relatively succesfully lol):

In terms of BBs that sponsor openly and have no problems w. international students: GS, MS, BofA, CS

BBs that don't sponsor: JPM

Other BBs: not sure

In terms of EBs that sponsor: LAZ, MOE, EVR

EBs that openly don't sponsor: CVP, PWP, Gugg

Other banks I recruited for that were chill: Blair, JEF

My main piece of advice to international students is just don't let this get to your head, stay focused, and be really technical. If any college underclassmen have questions, just lmk (went to semitarget, non-div, landed top BBs)

 
Most Helpful

OP here - done with my 2024 SA recruiting. I am not able to directly update the post itself so I wanted to share confirmed information I received/got to know from my experience recruiting. Can personally confirm that all the banks I am listing below sponsored for 2024 sa as of this recruiting cycle - hope this helps those still going through recruiting this year. Things might change next year but this can serve as a good reference point to target/plan recruiting going forward.

Bulge Brackets:

Sponsor:

GS, BofA, CS, UBS, DB

MS technically sponsors but they are extremely stingy about it. You pretty much need to be diversity/ top candidate/have strong personal connection to stand a chance.

Citi - sponsorship varies across offices. Not all offices sponsor. The offices that do sponsor are also quite stingy and often only sponsor diversity candidates.

Don't Sponsor:

JPM, Barclays

Elite Boutiques:

Sponsor:

EVR, LAZ, MOE, PJT, Greenhill, Rothschild

CVP - sponsorship varies across offices. Certain offices sponsor case by case and you will be held to a higher standard if you need sponsorship.

Ducera sponsors.

Don't Sponsor:

FT Partners, PWP, Qatalyst

Middle Market and Other Banks:

Sponsor:

Jefferies, Raine, LionTree, AGC Partners, Mizuho, Nomura, Wiliam Blair, TD Cowen

HL sponsorship policies vary across offices and groups. I believe HL RX sponsors but other groups do not.

RBC sponsorship also depends on office and group.

Raymond James generally does not sponsor but if they really like you and if you have someone pulling for you, you might have a shot.

Unsure about DC Advisory but I think they sponsor.

Buyside:

Sponsor:

Blackstone, Vista, Audax, Insight Partners, Spectrum Equity

 

^Seconded. The most accurate list I've seen so far on this site. A friend recruited FT last year told me that DC Advisory sponsors. UBS sponsored last year but not sure going forward as they tend to change their policies every year.

 

Are you certain Ducera sponsors? I don't see any Canadians there ever

 

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