Find out whether anyone is applying before you spend another quarter adjusting the job description.
I take this problem personally because I lived the third version of it, and the standard hiring advice made it worse. Every article told me to fix the posting, widen the net, sweeten the offer. None of that touches a market with nobody in it, and the managers who follow that advice burn months while the work piles up on the people already there.
Why can’t a company fill a technical role?
Three different problems get treated as one.
Find out whether anyone is applying before you spend another quarter adjusting the job description.
The first is that people apply and none of them are suitable. That’s a screening problem, and it usually means the posting describes something different from the job.
The second is that suitable people apply and decline your offer. That’s a compensation or a company problem, and it’s uncomfortable and fixable. The third is that nobody applies at all. That’s a supply problem, and no amount of rewriting the posting will change it. The third one is the situation people misdiagnose most often, because it looks like the first two from inside. I think it’s also the one managers least want to hear, because it means the fix is expensive and slow and nobody can solve it with a better job description.
What happens when a specialist skill does not exist locally?
I needed database administrators and I couldn’t find them anywhere in the United States.
That surprised me. I assumed database administrators existed in a country this size, and that finding them was a matter of looking properly. Nobody was putting in an application. Not unsuitable applications. None. So I started looking at sponsored hires from outside the country. My boss did most of the work setting the program up and managed it. I found the people. None of that was about cost. I wasn’t seeking cheaper labor and there was no policy telling me to do it. I had roles I couldn’t fill and a domestic market producing no candidates, and anyone who assumes a manager in that spot must be cutting corners is guessing.
How does employer visa sponsorship work?
The employer petitions, not the worker, and that’s the first thing most people get wrong. The main route for specialty roles requires the company to file on behalf of a specific person for a specific job. It typically requires at least a bachelor’s degree in a related field.
Most positions fall under an annual cap. That means a lottery. Registration happens during a window each spring, and if registrations exceed the cap, selection is by draw.
After selection comes a certified labor condition application, then the petition itself, then consular processing for many applicants.
Every step has a fee and a waiting period, and the lottery sits in the middle of it. You can do everything correctly and simply not be selected. That’s a hard thing to plan a department around, and the small employer takes the worst of it, because a big company can absorb a lost year and a forty-person shop can’t.
What has changed about employer visa sponsorship recently?
Enough that anyone using my experience as a guide would be badly out of date. Selection is no longer a straight draw. It’s now weighted by wage level. That favors higher-paying positions and disadvantages smaller employers competing for the same people.
A separate six-figure payment applies to certain petitions for workers currently abroad, introduced in late 2025. Expedited processing costs more than it did. Automatic work-authorization extensions were eliminated and site visits expanded. None of that existed when I was doing this. Verify the current rules before acting on any of it, because this area changes faster than almost anything else in hiring.
What does sponsorship cost a small employer?
Five figures per petition before anyone does a day of work. Ten thousand dollars and up is a fair planning figure for a typical employer, counting government fees and legal help. Smaller employers pay somewhat less, since some fees are reduced or waived below a certain headcount.
Somewhat less is still five figures. That’s the band a company with forty people is planning against, and I don’t think most owners grasp what it means until the invoices arrive.
Then add the six-figure payment on certain petitions, and add the possibility that the lottery doesn’t select you, in which case the money spent on preparation bought you nothing but a place in next year’s draw.
Does visa sponsorship produce better hires?
Mine came out about even, and that’s the real number.
Two of the people I sponsored worked out well. One later left and started his own company, which is doing well. Another stayed for many years, moved on to a new company, and is doing well there. The other two didn’t work out.
Half is a good hit rate. Nobody says that out loud, because every article about hiring implies a good process approaches certainty, and mine across thirty-three years is roughly half. What I won’t do is explain why the two didn’t work out, because I don’t know with any confidence. The reasons a hire fails are usually specific and unglamorous, and the manager rarely has the full picture.
The number that matters is the one nobody prints. An expensive, slow, legally involved process produced the same odds as ordinary hiring.
My take
When I went looking for database administrators in the United States, nobody applied at all, because the people didn’t exist locally. Sponsorship solved it for me back then. Today it costs five figures per petition, selection is weighted by wage level, and the rules keep changing, so a small employer can lose a year waiting. Check the current rules first and build a plan that doesn’t depend on winning a lottery.
What should a small company do about specialist scarcity?
Establish which of the three problems you have before spending money on any of them. Count the applications. If suitable people are applying and declining, the answer is compensation or the role. If unsuitable people are applying, the posting is wrong. If nobody applies, you have a supply problem and the options are different.
For a supply problem, three routes exist and none is easy. Sponsor somebody, which is expensive, slow, and now includes a lottery. Contract the skill instead of employing it. That works well for specialist work that’s not continuous. Or grow it internally. That takes a year or more and requires hours your team probably doesn’t have.
| What you see | The problem | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| People apply, none suitable | Screening | Fix the posting; it describes something different from the job |
| Suitable people apply and decline | Compensation or the company | Look at compensation or the role |
| Nobody applies at all | Supply | Rewriting the posting won’t help; pick a supply route |
| Supply route: sponsor | Expensive, slow, now includes a lottery | Check the current rules first |
| Supply route: contract the skill | Works for specialist work that is not continuous | Use it when the work comes and goes |
| Supply route: grow it internally | Takes a year or more | Requires hours your team probably lacks |
The specialist shortage isn’t new and it’s not going to resolve. Entry-level technology employment has fallen sharply while specialist roles stay scarce and expensive, so fewer people are entering the pipeline that produces specialists. That was true in the nineties for the same reason. I think the companies that stopped hiring juniors to save money are building the shortage they’ll be complaining about in five years, and the blame for that sits squarely with them.
The specialist shortage isn’t new and it isn’t going to resolve.Share on X
Frequently Asked Questions
- Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions, Federal Register (U.S. Department of Homeland Security)
- USCIS Clarifies $100,000 H-1B Fee Requirement, Yale University Office of International Students and Scholars
