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:
Don't Sponsor:
Unsure:
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
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 Obviously, banks change their sponsorship policies year to year so my extrapolations from last year could be outdated/incorrect so feel free to correct me.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.
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