H-2B Visa Sous Chef Jobs
Sous Chef jobs with H-2B visa sponsorship are concentrated in seasonal resort kitchens, cruise-adjacent hospitality venues, and summer destination restaurants that ramp up staffing between April and September. Employers must obtain DOL temporary labor certification before filing with USCIS, and the 66,000-visa annual cap fills quickly, so timing your application to the semi-annual release dates is critical.
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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.
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Visa Sponsorship as a Sous Chef
Translate your culinary credentials into U.S. equivalents
Foreign culinary diplomas and apprenticeship certificates aren't automatically recognized stateside. Get your credentials evaluated by a NACES-member agency before applying so your employer's H-2B visa petition reflects verified qualifications that satisfy DOL's temporary labor certification documentation requirements.
Target resorts with proven H-2B filing history
Search for Sous Chef roles at seasonal resorts, ski lodges, and summer camps that have filed H-2B petitions in prior years. Repeat filers already understand the DOL process, which shortens your onboarding timeline and reduces the risk of a first-time employer error derailing your petition.
Search verified H-2B employers on Migrate Mate
Use Migrate Mate to find Sous Chef openings filtered by employers with documented H-2B sponsorship history. This cuts out hospitality listings where visa support is ambiguous and connects you directly to kitchens that have navigated the DOL certification process before.
Confirm your start date aligns with cap release windows
USCIS splits the 66,000 H-2B annual cap into winter and summer halves, and both fill fast. Your employer must file no earlier than 90 days before your employment start date, so coordinate your agreed start date to align with the correct cap half and avoid losing your slot.
Request a prevailing wage determination before negotiating pay
Your employer's DOL-certified wage must meet the prevailing wage for Sous Chef roles in your work location. Check the OFLC Wage Search before any offer discussion so you understand the minimum your employer is legally required to pay and can negotiate accurately above that floor.
Clarify your culinary specialization in the job order
DOL's temporary labor certification requires a specific job description. If you specialize in pastry, garde manger, or a particular cuisine, make sure those details appear in the official job order. A vague description can invite RFEs and weaken your employer's case for needing a foreign national.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find Sous Chef jobs with H-2B visa sponsorship?
Migrate Mate is the recommended way to search. It surfaces Sous Chef openings filtered specifically by employers with H-2B sponsorship history, so you're not wading through hospitality listings where visa support is unstated or uncertain. Focus your search on seasonal resorts, destination restaurants, and summer camp food service operations, which are the employer types most likely to hold active DOL temporary labor certifications for kitchen roles.
How does the H-2B annual cap affect Sous Chef applicants?
USCIS caps H-2B visas at 66,000 per fiscal year, split into two halves of 33,000 each for workers starting before and after April 1. Both halves routinely reach capacity shortly after the filing window opens. Your employer can file no more than 90 days before your employment start date, so aligning your start date with the correct cap half and filing promptly is essential to securing a visa number before the cap closes.
Can a Sous Chef role qualify for H-2B if it's year-round at a hotel?
No. H-2B requires the employer's need to be genuinely temporary, meaning seasonal, peak-load, intermittent, or a one-time occurrence. A hotel that staffs a Sous Chef position year-round cannot qualify that role for H-2B. Sponsoring employers must demonstrate to DOL that the need for the position is tied to a predictable seasonal cycle, not ongoing operational demand.
What documents should I prepare before a seasonal kitchen employer files my H-2B petition?
Gather your culinary diplomas, apprenticeship certificates, or trade school transcripts and have them evaluated by a NACES-member credential evaluation service if they're from outside the U.S. Also prepare a detailed employment history showing prior seasonal kitchen roles, references from past employers, and a valid passport with at least six months of remaining validity beyond your intended work period. Your employer will need these to support the I-129 petition filed with USCIS.