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Screening · Eligibility screening

Applicant eligibility screening software that checks every knockout criterion

Every role has a short list of things that are simply not negotiable. The candidate has to be authorized to work in the United States. The license has to be current in the state you are hiring for. The shift has to be one they can actually work. Those checks are easy to describe and miserable to do by hand, which is why they get skipped somewhere around the two hundredth application and then rediscovered on a phone screen that wasted everybody's afternoon.

Parse · score · rank · recruiter reviews

Shortlist Desk
Criteria

top · held

Screen the pile to watch Prescreener parse every resume, apply your criteria and knockouts, and rank the inbound applicants with a transparent reason on each.

Live, interactive · AI assists, you decide · no signup needed

top matches surfaced held for review Reasons on every card

AI assists · you decide · bias-audited (EEOC / NYC Local Law 144)

CONSISTENT CRITERIA RANKED PILE ATS-READY

Human-in-the-loop you decide

EEOC and LL144 bias-audited

Prescreener runs your eligibility criteria against every application as it arrives. You set the gates, the required credentials, the availability, the authorization question, the minimum hands-on experience, and it checks each applicant against exactly those, records the answer it found and where it found it, and ranks the pile accordingly. Applicants who miss a gate are flagged with the reason, not deleted, because a recruiter should see a candidate who is one certification away rather than never know they applied.

That flag-do-not-reject behavior is a deliberate design choice and the main thing that separates this from a plain knockout filter bolted onto an ATS. A knockout question with a typo in it, or one that is really a preference dressed up as a requirement, can remove qualified people silently and at scale. Here the miss is visible, the reason is written down, and a human decides. That is also what makes the process defensible later, since you can show which criteria were applied, to whom, and with what result.

Why it works

What your team gets with eligibility screening

Gates applied to everyone

Work authorization, licenses, certifications, and availability are checked on every single application, including the ones that land after hours or in the last-day rush.

Flagged, never auto-rejected

A missed requirement lowers the ranking and shows the reason. A recruiter still sees the candidate, which matters when the miss is a license that renews next month.

A record you can show

Each eligibility decision keeps the criterion, the answer, and the source, so the process holds up when somebody asks how the shortlist was built.

What it handles

Parsed, scored and ranked on autopilot

Prescreener reads every inbound resume, applies your knockout and eligibility criteria, asks the screening questions you set, scores role-fit against consistent criteria, and ranks the applicant pile so your recruiters review the top matches first.

  • Checks work authorization and sponsorship questions consistently
  • Verifies required licenses, certifications, and state credentials
  • Screens shift, on-site, and start-date availability
  • Flags every miss with the criterion and the evidence behind it
  • Bias-audited to support EEOC standards and NYC Local Law 144
SHORTLIST Screening
#1 Maya R. 92
#2 Devon L. 88
#3 Priya S. 81 Review
Role-fit scored 48 screened this week

Why Prescreener

One step that screens the whole inbound pile

Not a full ATS, not a six-figure assessment suite, and not a staffing agency. Parse, score, rank and hand off in one place, shaped to the criteria you already hire on.

Reads every resume

Prescreener parses every inbound application, applies your knockout and eligibility criteria, and asks the screening questions you set. Applicants consent and are told AI is screening their application, so no qualified person sits in a backlog for days.

Scores role-fit consistently

Every applicant is scored against the same criteria, with a transparent reason on each candidate, so the pile is compared consistently and the scoring stays bias-audited against EEOC guidance and NYC Local Law 144.

Ranks the pile

The strongest matches rise to the top of a ranked pile your recruiters review first. Prescreener never auto-rejects, it ranks and flags candidates for review, and your team makes every decision.

Good questions

Questions about eligibility screening

Applicant eligibility screening is the check that confirms a candidate meets the hard, non-negotiable requirements of a role before anyone assesses fit. It typically covers legal authorization to work, required licenses or certifications, and logistical must-haves such as shift or location. It is a pass or fail check, not a judgment call.
Knockout questions are short application questions tied to a genuine must-have, answered yes or no, that identify applicants who cannot do the job as posted. Good ones are binary and objective: authorization to work, a current license, availability for the required shift. Anything that involves a preference or a nice-to-have belongs in scoring, not in a knockout.
US employers may ask whether an applicant is legally authorized to work in the United States and whether they will require sponsorship, as long as the same questions go to every applicant for the role. Federal law prohibits treating people differently based on citizenship or national origin, so the risk comes from asking selectively or asking for documents too early, not from the question itself. Confirm your wording with counsel.
We do not think so, and Prescreener does not. Automatic rejection at the eligibility gate means a mistyped question or an overly strict requirement removes qualified applicants with no one reviewing it. Flagging the miss with the reason costs a recruiter seconds and keeps a human in the loop on every outcome.
Two or three for most roles, five at the outside. Each additional gate multiplies the chance that a real requirement was written badly, and long knockout sequences also drive application abandonment. If a requirement is something you would flex on for a great candidate, it is not a knockout, it is a scoring criterion.
Yes. Prescreener is a screening layer that runs alongside your existing ATS rather than replacing it, so eligibility checks and the ranked pile show up without you moving reqs or candidate records anywhere.
Read every resume screening question

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More ways hiring teams screen with Prescreener

Applicant tracking system screening

The AI screening layer that ranks your inbound pile alongside your ATS.

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Resume parser

A resume parser that does not stop at fields. It scores and ranks too.

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Candidate screening software

Screen every candidate on consistent criteria, then review the top matches.

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See every screening use case See pricing Back to resume screening

Stop reading the inbound pile by hand. Put screening on autopilot.

Set your role and criteria and Prescreener parses every inbound resume, scores role-fit, and ranks the pile for your team. Prescreener ranks and flags candidates, your recruiters make every hiring decision.

See pricing

Consistent criteria · bias-audited to EEOC and LL144 · human-in-the-loop