H-2B Visa Chef Jobs
Chef jobs with H-2B visa sponsorship are available at U.S. resorts, hotels, and seasonal restaurants that can't find enough qualified local kitchen staff. Employers must obtain DOL labor certification before filing, and the 66,000 annual cap fills fast, so timing your application to the winter or summer allocation cycle is critical.
Find H-2B Visa Chef JobsOverview
Showing 5 of 845+ Chef jobs










See all 845+ Chef Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Chef roles.
Get Access To All Jobs
SUMMARY
At Hyatt, we believe in the power of belonging - of making people feel at home no matter where they are in the world. We turn trips into journeys, encounters into experiences, and jobs into careers. Join a team that is making travel more human. Connected. Sustainable. Here, everyone's role matters. Opportunities are yours to shape. Your individuality is celebrated. At the heart of Hyatt is our shared belief that hospitality is more than just a job - it's a career for people who care.
Hyatt Regency San Francisco is seeking an experienced, hands-on, and highly organized Executive Sous Chef to join our Culinary leadership team. This position will have a strong focus on banquet culinary operations, supporting high-volume events, meetings, conferences, weddings, receptions, plated dinners, buffets, VIP functions, and special events. This position will be overseeing banquet operations.
Located on the Embarcadero waterfront in San Francisco’s Financial District, Hyatt Regency San Francisco offers a dynamic culinary environment with significant banquet and event volume, restaurant operations, food and beverage outlets, and large-scale meeting space. The Executive Sous Chef will support the Executive Chef in leading daily kitchen operations, maintaining food quality and consistency, developing colleagues, managing production, and ensuring exceptional culinary execution across banquets and other hotel food and beverage areas.
The ideal candidate is a proven culinary leader with strong banquet experience, excellent organizational skills, high-volume production knowledge, and the ability to lead teams through complex event execution while maintaining Hyatt standards of quality, safety, creativity, and care.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Support the Executive Chef in overseeing daily culinary operations, with primary focus on banquet production and event execution.
- Lead banquet culinary preparation and service for meetings, conferences, weddings, social events, corporate functions, receptions, plated meals, buffets, coffee breaks, VIP events, and special functions.
- Review banquet event orders, group resumes, menus, guarantees, dietary restrictions, timing, service details, and special requests to ensure culinary readiness.
- Coordinate banquet production schedules, prep lists, staffing needs, equipment needs, and service timelines.
- Ensure banquet food is prepared and presented according to hotel standards, menu specifications, recipes, portion guidelines, and client expectations.
- Maintain strong communication with Banquets, Events, Stewarding, Sales, Food & Beverage, and hotel operations teams to ensure seamless event execution.
- Lead culinary teams during high-volume production, plating, buffet setup, action stations, receptions, and event service.
- Support restaurant, outlet, in-room dining, colleague dining, and other culinary operations as business needs require.
- Train, coach, and develop sous chefs, cooks, culinary supervisors, and hourly culinary colleagues.
- Maintain a visible leadership presence in kitchens, banquet production areas, and event spaces.
- Partner with the Executive Chef on menu development, seasonal offerings, banquet menus, tasting events, special promotions, and culinary programming.
- Support client tastings, menu presentations, VIP events, and high-profile functions.
- Monitor food quality, flavor, temperature, presentation, consistency, and timing throughout production and service.
- Ensure proper mise en place, station readiness, product levels, storage, labeling, dating, and rotation.
- Support purchasing, ordering, receiving, inventory, food cost controls, waste reduction, and product utilization.
- Maintain high standards of sanitation, food safety, kitchen cleanliness, equipment care, and health department compliance.
- Ensure culinary colleagues follow safety procedures, knife safety, equipment standards, sanitation protocols, and proper food handling practices.
- Assist with scheduling, labor management, payroll review, productivity, training, performance feedback, and colleague engagement.
- Support financial goals by managing food cost, labor productivity, purchasing controls, and operational efficiency.
- Partner with Stewarding to ensure equipment, china, glassware, silverware, banquet supplies, and kitchen cleanliness support event needs.
- Respond to operational challenges quickly and professionally while maintaining service standards.
- Promote a positive, inclusive, accountable, and team-oriented culinary culture.
- Act as a senior culinary leader in the absence of the Executive Chef.
- Perform other duties as assigned by hotel or culinary leadership.
This is a salary position with compensation starting from $97,400-126,500.
WE OFFER EXCELLENT BENEFITS:
- Free room nights, Discounted and Friends & Family Room Rates
- Medical, Prescription, Dental, and Vision Insurance
- 401K with company match
- Paid Vacation, sick days, new child leave, and personal day
- Paid Family Bonding Time and Adoption Assistance
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Free colleague meals during shift
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Discounts at various retailers - Apple, AT&T, Verizon, Headspace, and many more
QUALIFICATIONS
- Previous Executive Sous Chef, Senior Sous Chef, Banquet Chef, Sous Chef, or comparable culinary leadership experience required.
- Significant banquet culinary experience required, preferably in a full-service hotel, convention hotel, luxury hotel, or high-volume event environment.
- Strong knowledge of banquet production, plated service, buffet service, receptions, large-scale prep, event timing, and high-volume culinary execution.
- Experience supporting restaurants, outlets, in-room dining, or multi-outlet hotel culinary operations preferred.
- Strong culinary technique, knife skills, food production knowledge, menu execution, and presentation standards.
- Demonstrated ability to lead, train, coach, and motivate culinary colleagues.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple events, deadlines, menus, and operational priorities.
- Ability to read and execute banquet event orders, menus, recipes, production sheets, and event timelines.
- Strong understanding of food cost control, labor management, inventory, purchasing, waste reduction, and productivity.
- Knowledge of health department regulations, food safety standards, sanitation practices, and kitchen safety procedures.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills with culinary, banquet, event, stewarding, and hotel operations teams.
- Ability to remain calm, focused, and solution-oriented during high-volume banquet service and time-sensitive events.
- Culinary degree, apprenticeship, or equivalent professional training preferred.
- Food handler certification or ability to obtain required certification.
- Must be able to work a flexible schedule, including mornings, evenings, weekends, holidays, and event-based hours.
All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.
See all 845+ H-2B Visa Chef Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new H-2B Visa Chef Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Visa Sponsorship as a Chef
Document your culinary credentials before applying
Compile proof of formal culinary training, certifications, and prior kitchen leadership roles before you approach any employer. H-2B visa employers filing for chef positions must justify the specialty need, and a clear credential package strengthens their DOL application on your behalf.
Target resorts and lodges with seasonal kitchen operations
Ski resorts, beach hotels, and summer camps run predictable off-peak closures that make them natural H-2B filers. These employers typically open recruitment six to nine months before their busy season, well ahead of DOL's certification deadlines.
Search verified H-2B employers on Migrate Mate
Use Migrate Mate to filter chef openings by employers with confirmed H-2B sponsorship history. This saves you from applying to restaurants that list 'visa assistance' vaguely but have never completed a DOL temporary labor certification for kitchen roles.
Confirm your role qualifies under the right SOC code
Your employer files the labor certification under a specific occupational code, and chef roles can fall under different SOC classifications. Check the O*NET profile for your actual job duties to confirm the employer is filing under the correct category before signing an offer.
Understand the cap timing before accepting an offer
The 33,000 summer-half visas open October 1 and the winter-half opens April 1. If your employer misses the filing window for your start date, USCIS will reject the petition. Confirm your employer has already submitted the DOL certification before you give notice at your current job.
Ask your employer about E-Verify enrollment upfront
Some states require H-2B employers to use E-Verify for employment eligibility verification. Confirm your employer is enrolled before your arrival, since gaps in that process can delay your ability to start work on the scheduled date.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find Chef jobs that offer H-2B visa sponsorship?
Migrate Mate is the most direct way to find chef positions with confirmed H-2B sponsorship. Unlike general job boards, Migrate Mate filters listings by employers with verified temporary labor certification history, so you're not wasting applications on kitchens that have never navigated the DOL filing process. Search by role and season to match your availability to open positions.
How does the H-2B annual cap affect my chances as a Chef applicant?
USCIS issues only 66,000 H-2B visas each fiscal year, split into two allotments of 33,000. Once a cap is hit, USCIS stops accepting petitions for that half-year period. Employers hiring for summer kitchen seasons must file early in the preceding winter. If your employer files late or the cap fills before your petition is processed, you'll need to wait for the next allocation cycle.
Does my culinary experience outside the U.S. count toward H-2B eligibility as a Chef?
Yes. H-2B eligibility doesn't require U.S. work history. What matters is that your employer demonstrates a legitimate temporary need for your skills and that you're from a country on the DOL-designated list of eligible nationalities. Foreign culinary credentials, training certificates, and documented kitchen leadership roles all support the employer's temporary labor certification filing with DOL.
Can my H-2B Chef job lead to a different visa status later?
H-2B is strictly a temporary, nonimmigrant classification with no direct path to permanent residency built in. You must maintain a residence abroad and demonstrate nonimmigrant intent. Some H-2B workers later pursue employer-sponsored immigrant visas through separate petitions, but that process is independent of H-2B and requires the employer to file entirely different paperwork with USCIS.