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A workforce platform for credentialed immigrants

What you can do should outrank the country it was learned in.

Stratum places skilled immigrants into the work they were trained for — across healthcare, engineering, education, the sciences, and the trades.

Find workHire talent

Currently accepting applications in ten fields, with 200,000+ foreign-trained nurses in the US³ and another two million college-educated immigrants working below their skill level¹.

0

college-educated immigrants in the US working below their skill level¹

$0 billion

in foregone wages every year²

0

immigrants with foreign health degrees waiting for a real chance⁶

0%

of practicing US physicians were trained abroad³

Person sitting in thought

The problem

Credentials are a broken signal.

The Migration Policy Institute counts roughly two million college-educated immigrants in the United States who are either unemployed or working jobs that don't require a degree.¹ Economists call it brain waste. The people living it call it Tuesday.

The standard hiring stack — resumes, references, brand-name schools, domestic licensure — works as a proxy for skill when everyone in the pool went through the same filter. It collapses the moment you cross a border. A licensed architect from Algiers and a licensed architect from Indiana can produce the same drawing set. Only one of them gets a callback.

Stratum replaces the proxy with the thing itself. Candidates submit work product. A practitioner in the same vertical grades it against a rubric. Employers see what someone has actually done, not a credential that's hard to read. The estimated cost of the gap to the US economy is $39 billion in foregone wages every year.²

“I'm a licensed architect with eleven years of experience. Here I drive for Uber.”
Person sitting in thought— An applicant, March 2026

Who we serve

Ten fields. The same problem in each.

We start with the populations that are largest, most underemployed, and most in demand. Each vertical has its own rubric, its own reviewers, and its own employer pipeline.

Person with a stethoscope

Healthcare — Nursing

Registered nurses, LPNs/LVNs, nurse practitioners trained abroad. Most paths require NCLEX-RN/NCLEX-PN with CGFNS credential evaluation. Largest single foreign-trained workforce in US healthcare — Filipinos alone are 27% of foreign-born US nurses.

165,000+ foreign-trained nurses awaiting US placement⁶

Person with a stethoscope

Healthcare — Physicians & adjacent

Foreign-trained MDs and adjacent clinical roles (clinical research, medical scribing, telehealth triage, clinical coordination). 25% of practicing US physicians are foreign-trained. USMLE + residency path is multi-year — Stratum places foreign MDs in adjacent paid clinical work while they pursue licensure.

25% of US physicians were trained abroad³

Person with a stethoscope

Healthcare — Allied health

Radiology technologists, respiratory therapists, medical laboratory scientists, physical and occupational therapists, dental hygienists, and paramedics. Smaller licensure gates than RN/MD with active foreign-trained pools.

BLS projects 1.8M openings in allied-health roles by 2032⁵

Person working at a laptop

Software & Data

Application code, data pipelines, ML, analytics. Public repos and shipped work are the verification primitive.

Foreign-born workers are ~25% of US STEM⁴

Person at a drafting table

Engineering — Civil, mechanical, electrical

Foreign-trained engineers in non-software disciplines. Many can practice general engineering work without PE licensure; supervised structural and site engineering requires a US PE seal. India, China, Iran, and Egypt are heavily represented in the foreign-trained pool.

Foreign-born workers are ~25% of US STEM⁸

Scientist with a flask

Lab & Research Science

Wet-lab protocols, screening, analytical chemistry, biostatistics. Suitable for CRO contract work.

Foreign-born workers are ~25% of US STEM⁸

Person at a drafting table

Architecture & Design

Drawing, BIM, schematic design, rendering. Production-ready work product, evaluated against a vertical-specific rubric.

200K+ underemployed credentialed immigrants in design fields¹

Teacher at a chalkboard

Education — K-12 teaching

Foreign-trained teachers, including bilingual, STEM, and special-education. The US has chronic shortages in dual-language and STEM K-12 instruction. California alone filed more than 300 teacher visa applications for the 2023-24 year, doubling prior years.

America needs an estimated 100K+ additional bilingual teachers⁷

Person with a calculator

Finance & accounting

Foreign-trained CPAs, MBAs, and ACCAs working in accounting, audit, FP&A, controllership, and financial analysis. Non-CPA roles (bookkeeping, controller, financial analyst, FP&A) do not require US licensure but face strong pedigree bias from US employers.

2M+ college-educated immigrants working below their skill level¹

Welder with mask

Skilled trades

Welders, electricians, HVAC technicians, plumbers, machinists, and millwrights. Foreign-trained pools from Mexico, Central America, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe. The US shortage is chronic and growing — placements are largely contractor-to-contractor and crew-based.

Construction and manufacturing face persistent skilled-trade shortages¹

How it works

Three tiers, one platform.

We're sequencing the product so the people we serve aren't asked to wait while we figure out our business model. Tier 1 revenue underwrites Tier 3.

  1. 01

    Person working at a laptop
    Available now

    Show the work.

    Vetted contract engagements in fields where licensure doesn't block the work — design, engineering, software, lab science, teaching, finance, and the trades. We grade against a vertical-specific rubric, then introduce.

  2. 02

    Two people shaking hands
    2026

    Work under a licensed supervisor.

    Architecture under a US-licensed firm. Medical scribing for foreign-trained MDs. Paralegal work for foreign-trained lawyers. Same rubric, with the supervision and liability plumbing handled.

  3. 03

    Person walking forward
    2027

    Earn while you re-credential.

    For nursing, medicine, dentistry. We underwrite NCLEX prep, USMLE study, and credential evaluation — repaid from earnings, not upfront.

What we see

The profiles in our review queue right now.

Six examples, drawn from this month's queue. No identifying detail — just the work, the languages, and the destination market each applicant is aiming for.

Architect

11 years

Algiers, DZBoston, MA
FrenchArabicEnglish
RevitSchematic designHospital projects+1 more
Rubric review

Registered nurse

9 years ICU

Manila, PHAtlanta, GA
EnglishFilipino
Critical careVentilator supportTriage+1 more
NCLEX prep candidate

Software engineer

7 years

Bangalore, INAustin, TX
EnglishHindiKannada
TypeScriptReactDistributed systems+1 more
Ready for intro

Biostatistician

12 years

Cairo, EGCambridge, MA
ArabicEnglish
RClinical trialsSurvival analysis+1 more
Rubric review

Bilingual teacher

8 years grades 3–6

Mexico City, MXChicago, IL
SpanishEnglish
Dual-languageCurriculum designELA+1 more
Awaiting credential review

Master welder

15 years pipeline

Veracruz, MXHouston, TX
SpanishEnglish
TIGMIGPipefitting+1 more
Ready for intro

For both sides

Two paths in. One platform.

For talent

Show your work.

Apply in about fifteen minutes. We grade against the rubric in your vertical and route you to a real employer who can read it. You never pay us.

Apply

For employers

Send a brief. Get three to five vetted candidates in ten days.

We come back with people whose work product we've already read against the rubric. You pay only when an introduction becomes a hire.

Request talent

From a hiring partner

“The drawing set was the interview. We hired him the same week.”
Person with a stethoscope— A US-licensed architecture firm, partner, 2026

How vetting works

What we do before introducing you.

Four steps. Every one is owned by a practitioner in the candidate's field, not a generalist recruiter.

  1. 01
    Person with a magnifying glass

    Read the work

    CV, work samples, repos, drawings, protocols. A practitioner in the same vertical reads every submission.

  2. 02
    Person with a stethoscope

    Score against the rubric

    Vertical-specific criteria — not general ‘fit.’ Two reviewers calibrate before anything is forwarded.

  3. 03
    Person at a drafting table

    Write the brief

    We write the one-page summary an employer actually reads, anchored in the work product they care about.

  4. 04
    Two people shaking hands

    Introduce and stay close

    We sit in on the first conversation and the first month of work. We get paid when the engagement holds.

What we believe

We believe what we measure.

Person with a magnifying glass

Skill is observable. Pedigree is a proxy.

When we have direct access to skill, we don't need the proxy.

Person sitting in thought

Quiet dignity over inspiration porn.

The people we serve are professionals, not project subjects.

Two people shaking hands

Earn trust transaction by transaction.

No employer hires ‘an Algerian architect.’ They hire a specific person who did good work.

Person walking forward

The platform pays for the ladder.

Tier 1 revenue underwrites Tier 3 credentialing. We don't extract value from the people we serve — an estimated two million of whom are already working below their training in the US.¹

Person waving hello

Show, don't claim.

Every page should answer: would this convince a skeptical hiring manager?

Common questions

Questions we hear.

Are you a staffing agency?
No. Staffing agencies place a body and disappear. We vet against a rubric, introduce to one specific employer, and stay close until both sides agree the work is good. We take a percentage of the engagement, not a markup on hours.
Who is Stratum for?
Credentialed professionals whose degrees and licenses don't transfer cleanly into the US labor market — nurses, physicians, allied-health workers, architects, engineers, scientists, software engineers, teachers, finance analysts, and skilled trades. On the employer side, firms who care about output and are willing to evaluate work instead of a passport.
How does the vetting work?
Every vertical has its own rubric, written by a practitioner in that vertical. Architects send drawings and BIM files. Scientists send protocols and analytical results. Software engineers send code and shipped projects. A practitioner in the same field reviews everything before we forward it.
Do I need US work authorization?
For now, yes. Most placements are W-2 or 1099 inside the United States, which requires authorization. We're tracking remote-contracting structures and will expand the geographic footprint as the legal picture allows.
What does it cost a candidate?
Nothing to apply. Nothing while you're being vetted. Nothing while you're working. The employer pays Stratum a placement fee. You receive your full agreed rate.
What does it cost an employer?
A percentage of the engagement value, billed against the work that gets accepted. We don't charge for shortlists, interviews, or sourcing. You only pay when the person we introduced is on payroll and producing work you've accepted.
How long does the application take?
About fifteen minutes if you have your CV and a few work samples handy. We respond within five business days. If we accept you, rubric review takes another week or two depending on the vertical.
What about Tier 2 and Tier 3?
Tier 2 is supervised work — architecture under a US-licensed firm, scribing for foreign-trained MDs, paralegal work for foreign-trained lawyers. Tier 3 underwrites NCLEX, USMLE, and credential evaluation against future earnings. Both are sequenced behind Tier 1 because Tier 1 revenue is what funds them.
Where are you based?
Boston. Most of the team is here. We work with employers across the country and candidates around the world.
Where do these numbers come from?

Every quantitative claim on this site is sourced. The list below is the canonical registry — citation marks elsewhere on the page point to entries here.

  1. Batalova, J. & Fix, M.. Leaving Money on the Table: Brain Waste among College-Educated Immigrants. Migration Policy Institute, 2024. https://migrationpolicy.org/research/brain-waste-college-educated-immigrants
  2. Batalova, J. & Fix, M.. Untapped Talent: The Costs of Brain Waste among Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States. Migration Policy Institute, 2024. https://migrationpolicy.org/research/untapped-talent-costs-brain-waste-among-highly-skilled-immigrants-united-states
  3. Aging Societies Rely on Immigrant Health-Care Workers, Posing Challenges for Origin Countries. Migration Policy Institute, 2024. https://migrationpolicy.org/article/health-care-worker-migration-trends
  4. Foreign-Born STEM Workers in the United States. American Immigration Council, 2024. https://americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/foreign-born-stem-workers-united-states
  5. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Registered Nurses. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm
  6. Barriers to Career Advancement Among Skilled Immigrants in the US. Ballard Brief, BYU, 2024. https://ballardbrief.byu.edu/issue-briefs/barriers-to-career-advancement-among-skilled-immigrants-in-the-us
  7. America's Missing Bilingual Teachers. The Century Foundation, 2024. https://tcf.org/content/commentary/americas-missing-bilingual-teachers/
  8. The STEM Labor Force: Scientists, Engineers, and Skilled Technical Workers. National Science Foundation (NCSES), 2024. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20245/foreign-born-stem-workers