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I believe it is not permitted for American interviewers to ask the candidates martial status. I am interviewing from India for a position within my company in US, and my company does provide a generous relocation package - without a specific dollar value but has stuff like a whole shipment of items, 2 months of stay, visas for immediate family, some school admissions,etc included. Many teams hesitate to hire candidates at junior levels because of these expenses

Is it OK for me to inform the interviewer that I wouldn't need most of these items, just a visa for myself and am willing to waive the rest? Or will it be one of those things that if you speak about get you disqualified?

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  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because you are askig for legal advice Jun 13, 2015 at 11:58
  • @VietnhiPhuvan rephrased, is it OK now?
    – user87166
    Jun 13, 2015 at 12:05
  • my company does provide a generous relocation package..... the phrasing here suggests you already work for the company and are interviewing for a different position in the US rather than your current country? Jun 13, 2015 at 18:55
  • @psubsee2003 Thats correct
    – user87166
    Jun 14, 2015 at 6:48

3 Answers 3

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Saying what services you need and won't need for relocation does not directly reveal you marital status. When you say you don't require visa for family members, you could still have a spouse and kids, but they don't want to leave the country and are OK with you being abroad. Or maybe you don't need them because the rest of your family already has visa for the United States through some other channel. Your employer doesn't know and doesn't need to know to make the hiring decision.

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They can't ask about certain topics but you aren't disqualified if you bring them up. If they ask you "tell me how many ping pong balls will fit inside Mt. Everest", and you put in your answer the phrase "I told my wife at breakfast that I always feel that I do poorly at these types questions" you have not been eliminated because they now know you are married.

Your situation is a topic you can bring up at the end when they ask: "Is there any thing you want to add or discuss"

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This is perfectly OK. I think there is significant misunderstanding about the realities of the interview process. There are certain questions that are illegal for an US interviewer to ask, but it's perfectly ok for you to volunteer the information. Most of the restrictions are outright stupid anyway. I'm not allowed to ask whether you are male or female, but, guess what, I typically can tell without asking. Same about age and race.

So while some questions are illegal to ask, the information is in may cases readily available anyway. No point in going out of your way to hide it.

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    If these restrictions make it possible for someone to get a job interview who otherwise would have been filtered out, that is one good thing.
    – gnasher729
    Jun 14, 2015 at 6:04

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