visa_vik · 3 replies
Got a verbal offer from Merck last week for a software engineering role in their IT division. Background check started Monday. I'm on OPT STEM and my authorization technically clears in about 10 weeks so the timing is tight.
Everyone online says 2-3 weeks but that's a huge range when every day counts for me. Has anyone actually tracked this? Did it extend? Did they request anything extra?
I really don't want to lose this offer to a paperwork delay that nobody warned me about.
background checks at companies Merck's size usually run 10-15 business days if everything is clean. education verification takes the longest if your university is slow to respond. if you have international education listed it can add 5-7 days. email your recruiter and just ask them to flag your authorization timeline. they can escalate if needed, they've seen this before.
mine was 11 business days last year. no international education, US-only work history. clean record. they used First Advantage, FWIW. you can usually log into the portal they send you to track status.
just tell the recruiter now. explicitly. don't hint, just say 'i want to let you know my work authorization has a hard date of X and i want to flag this early so we can plan accordingly.' they almost certainly have a process for this. the only way to lose the offer here is to NOT say anything and have the bg check slip past your date.