Department of Veterans Affairs
Senior Social Worker
San Diego, California · Senior
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odds of building a lasting career here
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~45% per draw at Level III). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.
Personalize to your clock →H-1B wage level
the lottery is wage-weighted — each level is one more entry
This range already reaches Level IV — the maximum four lottery entries.
DOL prevailing wage, 2026-27 wage year · Healthcare Social Workers (21-1022) · San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA. Wage level is derived by USCIS from the offered wage, occupation and worksite; the occupation shown is inferred from the job title.
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About the role
- The Senior Social Worker serves as a case manager in the VA Supported Housing (VASH) Program within Social Work Service located at the VA San Diego Healthcare System.
- VASH is a collaborative effort, supported through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section 8 rental assistance program, and VA's provision of intensive case management services.
- Graduates of schools of social work that are in candidacy status do not meet this requirement until the School of Social Work is fully accredited.
Requirements
- A doctoral degree in social work may not be substituted for the master's degree in social work.
- Verification of the degree can be made by going to http://www.cswe.org/Accreditation to verify that the social work degree meets the accreditation standards for a masters of social work.
- Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-0185 series in VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level.
Skills
- In addition to the experience above, candidates must demonstrate all of the following
- This includes individual, group, and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial and/or case management.
- Assignments:
- Senior social workers are licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level.
- Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision such as CBOCs or satellite outpatient clinics.
- This assignment is to be relatively few in number based on the size of the facility/service and applying sound position management.
- For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.
- The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12.
Compensation
- $115k-$149k
Benefits
- Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.
Visa & Work Authorization
- Basic Requirements: United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy
This listing is sourced directly from Department of Veterans Affairs's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.