Really personal info and in very early stage of hiring; how to proceed?

Question

I applied to a tech company for remote work. This is a role I'm interested in, and there aren't many similar alternatives for such role.

After the initial technical tests (I scored very high) and before any interactive communication, I'm asked to fill out a form including the following:

• Marital status
• Children - how many
• Date of birth

Not to mention nationality, home address, last 2 employers - their contact numbers, 3 references.

Is this any normal?

I'm thinking of filling out the form partially and saying something like "willing to provide the rest of it in further stages"

Note: I've seen Contract complete and client now asking for lots of personal info and Why job applications require lots of personal info and is there anything to do about it?. I've never even heard before anyone being asked "how many kids, .."

EDIT - Company location

Latin American company with headquarter in San Francisco, California. I don't know what to make out of this.

EDIT 2

I've been asked some personal Qs before, "on-passing" when we sat face to face or maybe on the phone. Answered some of them, dodged others. (still - I don't recall my marital status ever asked before) This is too personal, too "bold". I could make some sense out of it if somewhat latter stages of the process. It's like exposing myself to whoever might be behind the curtain - haven't yet exchanged a word with anyone except emails with mostly standard content.

Makes you think "what next - what am I getting onto."

UPDATE

I filled out the form partially and had an online meeting as the first step of the interview. I withdrew my application in an email after that interview- didn't think I can do with them.

I'm located in Canada - was going to work from here.

Answer 1

Is this any normal?

You mention that this in in Latin America.

It is not rare to be asked those kinds of questions around here. The marriage status is really common. The kids question not so common but also not rare to see now and then.

Perhaps, like someone said in comments, they are just following their HR hiring guide/questions to the letter.

Now, the thing here is that you must decide if you are willing to disclose such information or not. If you feel like not, then you should thank them for their time and move on and continue job-hunting.

Answer 2

You mentioned that this is Latin America. So, there's a chance that this is Brazil. Therefore, my answer is based on this assumption.

As absurd as it may seem, for some unknown reason, those are questions every company I've ever interviewed for has asked. I don't think they will do anything related to your marital status or how many kids you have, but that's just the way it is.

They ask, for some reason.

Answer 3

UK answer

I'm posting this because I think it will be helpful and may explain some of the paperwork you have. However, some aspects might not translate well to your culture.

After the initial technical tests and before any interactive communication, I'm asked to fill out a form including the following:

• Marital status
• Children - how many
• Date of birth

Not to mention nationality, home address, last 2 employers - their contact numbers, 3 references.

Is this any normal?

Yes and no.

It is entirely normal for companies to collect all of this information. Often they ask for full details at an unnecessarily early stage to make sure the information is already sorted out by the time they actually need it.

References are a good example of this. Typically they don't need these until after you are hired but it is standard to ask for this information up front. Annoying, especially because the HR departments that insist on this never act on the information quickly, but not problematic.

Another example is diversity data. Marital status, children, ethnicity, etc. The company may be legally required to collect this data or may be doing so for perfectly benign reasons. In theory this data should be anonymous and only used to identify broad trends within the company.

The key theme is that it is perfectly normal and reasonable for them to ask for these details if they are a trustworthy employer...... but as I'm sure you have noticed an untrustworthy employer could abuse the situation and use it to filter employees in the application process. I don't know how you can avoid this as an applicant, especially because large employers set a precedent for this information to be demanded during the application stage.

On the plus side it is probably a better outcome for you if a company discriminates against you at the application stage than if they offer you a job and then discriminate against you during employment.