In India, more often than not. On 29 October 2026, Rezifi read the first application form of 768 employers in its job feed, and 73 of 134 Indian employers' forms (54.4%) asked what you earn now, your current CTC. US employers' forms almost never do: 2 of 408. On the three application systems both countries' employers use, Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever, it is 15 of 56 Indian forms against 2 of 388 US ones.
This is the short version of Rezifi's October 2026 application forms report, which has every count, the questions by application system and the data file. "Indian" and "US" mean the employer's home country, and the sample is the employers in Rezifi's job feed, many of them technology companies, not every employer.
54.4%
of Indian forms ask current pay
17
questions on a typical form
13.4%
ask for an account first
50.2%
ask about visa sponsorship
Current pay: most Indian employers' forms ask it
73 of 134 Indian employers' forms ask your current pay, and 80 the pay you expect. In the US, 2 of 408 forms ask current pay and 75 expected pay. The forms do not say why they ask, and this data cannot say either.
Many Indian employers' forms run on two Indian application systems: 45 on Keka and 27 on Zoho Recruit, each with its own standard form. So the fair check is the three systems both countries' employers use, Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever, and there the gap holds: 15 of 56 Indian forms ask current pay, against 2 of 388 US forms. Keep that in mind for every India against US line below.
- Your current pay: 73 of 134 (54.4%) Indian employers' forms, 2 of 408 (0.4%) US forms.
- Your current pay, on Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever only: 15 of 56 Indian forms, 2 of 388 US forms.
- The pay you expect: 80 of 134 (59.7%) Indian forms, 75 of 408 (18.3%) US forms.
- When you can join: 71 of 134 (52.9%) Indian forms, 31 of 408 (7.5%) US forms.
- Your years of experience: 71 of 134 (52.9%) Indian forms, 27 of 408 (6.6%) US forms.
- Any work-rights question: 19 of 134 (14.1%) Indian forms, 318 of 408 (77.9%) US forms.
Indian employers' forms also ask your date of birth (26.8%), against 1 of 408 US forms. How to answer the pay and notice questions, in the unit each form uses, is in Notice period, CTC and the other questions Indian job applications ask.
Before the first question
583 of 768 employers (75.9%) show the form straight away or after the job posting, with no account and no email step. 103 ask you to create an account or sign in first, and 32 to confirm an email or a code. The application system decides most of it: on Workday, 71 of 76 employers ask for an account or a sign-in before any question.
How long a first application form is
The median first form asks 17 questions and requires 10. The middle half ask 13 to 21, and nine forms in ten ask 25 or fewer. This counts the first form only: a system with several steps asks more after it.
Cover letters are mostly an optional box: 42.8% of forms offer a place for one, and only 11 of 583 require it. Half the forms ask whether you will need visa sponsorship (293 of 583). Counting any work-rights question, it is 77.9% of US employers' forms and 14.1% of Indian ones.
On US employers' forms, 56.1% ask gender, 54.6% race or ethnicity and 52.6% veteran status, mostly in a voluntary equal-opportunity section: 218 of the 229 gender questions sit in a section the form marks as voluntary or equal-opportunity, and every required one Rezifi could read offers a way not to answer.
What Rezifi's copilot does with these forms
Rezifi's auto-apply copilot fills the whole application on any job site, even one it has never seen: page after page, it presses Next, adds your experience and education and attaches your resume. It answers from your resume and everything it learns about you, so every application is faster than the last. You press Submit.
For the questions Indian forms ask most, "Your profile" in the Rezifi app keeps a notice period, current pay and the salary you'd accept, for each country. The copilot gives your notice in the form's own shape (days in a days box, the one band of a list that holds it, a start date as today plus the notice) and your pay in the form's unit, lakhs, LPA or crore, by exact arithmetic. It never converts a currency. Pay is a personal detail, so it is typed only with your yes on the page, or with Personal details on in its Settings, and a question nothing on file answers is left for you, never guessed.
Where a form asks you to sign in first, the sign-in stays yours: the copilot never reads a password field. Once a form is open, it takes a median of 3.7 seconds from reading the form to filling its last field.
Questions people ask
Do job applications ask for your current salary?
In India, more often than not: 73 of 134 Indian employers' first application forms in Rezifi's job feed asked your current pay on 29 October 2026. In the US, 2 of 408 forms did. On the three systems both countries' employers use (Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever), it was 15 of 56 Indian forms against 2 of 388 US forms.
What do Indian job application forms ask?
Besides your resume, contact details and location, Indian employers' forms in Rezifi's job feed asked the pay you expect (59.7%), your current pay (54.4%), when you can join (52.9%), your years of experience (52.9%) and your date of birth (26.8%), read on 29 October 2026.
How many questions does a job application ask?
The median first application form asks 17 questions, 10 of them required. Nine forms in ten ask 25 or fewer; the longest asked 51. That is the first form of 768 employers in Rezifi's job feed, read on 29 October 2026.
Do I need an account to apply for a job?
Usually not: 583 of 768 employers in Rezifi's job feed showed the form without one on 29 October 2026. 103 asked you to create an account or sign in first, and on Workday it was 71 of 76.
Do job applications still ask for a cover letter?
Fewer than half offer a place for one: 42.8% of first application forms have a cover letter box, and 11 of 583 require it.
Where does this data come from?
On 29 October 2026, a browser opened the job application of each of the 768 employers in Rezifi's job feed at the link the feed opens and read the first application form, with nothing typed and nothing sent. Each employer counts once. The method and the data are in Rezifi's October 2026 application forms report.
The full report, with every question, the application systems and the data file, is Rezifi's October 2026 application forms report. To fill these forms from your own resume and details, add Rezifi's auto-apply copilot, and check what an ATS reads on the resume you attach with the free ATS check, no sign-up. Rezifi is free to get started, no card needed.