Do US universities invite faculty applicants from outside the US for an interview?

Question

I am currently a postdoc in US on a visa that will expire in late October this year. I have been applying around for assistant professor positions in several US universities. Most of these positions start in the 2025 fall semester, but a few of them start in 2025 spring semester. Most of these positions have a deadline around September-October, how long in general should I wait after the deadline until I hear back from them assuming I am invited for the interview? I am expecting to get a faster turn around for the position that starts in the spring. However, if the interview announcement won't come until I leave the US, how much will that lower my chance of being considered to get the position? I have a doubt that they are still willing to conduct an online interview and guest lectures if I am not in the US. Do you know an occurrence of a US campus hiring someone while they are not in the US?

Answer 1

My university and other R1 universities will regularly fly in job candidates from overseas for an interview. I’ve never heard of this being a problem. There are maybe occasional unique situations involving a federal travel ban on citizens of certain countries, or someone who is denied a visa and is unable to come. Those would be dealt with on a case by case basis, but are too rare to be worth worrying about unless you have some specific knowledge of your situation being particularly problematic.

In any case, from the department’s point of view, they just want to hire the best candidate, and the small additional cost associated with interviewing someone from overseas will not influence their thinking on whether to invite you in any way, at least at R1 and similar institutions.

In terms of the time table, for a job with an application deadline in September-October, it seems virtually inconceivable that you will be invited for an interview before the end of October. But as I said above, if you can arrange at least a visa for a short visit (a tourist visa should be good enough I think, but I’m not an expert on such things) or are from a visa-exempt country, this should not be a problem and won’t lower your chances of being invited for an interview.

Answer 2

This very much depends on the institution. If you are applying to schools other than R1 (or well-funded R2), the budget for hiring might be limited and they might not be able to fly in someone from outside the country. They might be willing to fly you in from anywhere in the US, though.

Of course, with the experience of the Covid years, they might decide that they do not need to see you in person before hiring or at least only fly you in if you are in the top three.

Hiring people that are out of the country and do not have a current visa is a bit iffy. Again, the R1s and similar schools have the people that will solve this, but at a smaller school, the dean might get scared of the prospect of having to hire an immigration attorney.

In general, the timing of the hiring process is hierarchical. A good R1 (let's say University of Arizona) would like to get really good people but knowns that Stanford and UCSD are more attractive, so they will wait for the top ten before they enter the same phase. And it continues further down, until (non-existing) Potawotamee State makes offers in February / March. Similarly for temporary positions or non-tenure-track appointments.

Answer 3

I suggest you focus on the important things. Most of your questions don't seem to have "action" components. If you don't apply, you don't get a job. If it takes a long time to get back to you it is only important if it comes up against other deadlines you have. They might conduct an online interview prior to an invitation, but that is fine. They might also make a decision (positive or negative) without a visit in some, perhaps rare, cases.

I'd suppose that at a research institution, especially R1 with a lot of research activity across fields, ordering of candidates doesn't take cost of hiring into account and HR will handle a lot of those details. Such universities tend to be large with huge budgets and expectations that some of that is for travel.

A small liberal arts college may have a smaller budget for such things so might consider whether it is "worth" funding a visit. But the import of that is that you need to stand out in the candidate pool.

Some places will give you an idea about scheduling, if asked, and when invitations and offers might occur, but expect several weeks at least as committees need to meet and there may be several candidates. Things don't become critical for them until Spring (for Fall starts), so the early process can be deliberative and time consuming.

But, apply if you want the job and process the information as it comes and make decisions when you must.

Answer 4

If you make it through the selection process, you can expect a Zoom/Teams interview probably end of November for an early October deadline. If you impress there, expect to be invited for an in person likely in January.

Some places will do it earlier, but the US in particular slows down after mid-November as everyone is trying to wrap up their semesters before the Thanksgiving break hits, especially this year as it's at the end of month, which really compresses the time to final exams. So you can conceivably write off any in-person this fall unless you are dealing with the most organized of search committees!

As someone who has served on numerous search committees at an R1, I can tell you that we want the best. As for Visa issues? Not our concern. You are being hired by our department, all of the Visa paperwork is by our global office anyway. They are experts, and none of that process is a hassle to the committee or to our department chair. It just gets handled in the background.

So, for a job at an R1 (or otherwise well-funded R2) what you have to do is convince the committee (and then the Chair and Dean) that you are the best candidate. That is all you can control, and really that is what matters most.