Non-citizens are eligible to apply for the program if they do not require visa sponsorship in order to receive a placement. For example, someone with a green card should be eligible to work at any think tank. As long as applicants are eligible to work in the roles that they are applying for, non-citizens who aspire to US policy careers will not be disadvantaged.
It’s our understanding that it is difficult for non-citizens to get a security clearance, which is required for many federal government roles, and executive branch offices are generally hesitant about bringing on non-citizens. Congressional offices are legally allowed to take on permanent residents (and even some temporary visa holders), but individual offices may adopt policies favoring US citizens. Out of the three categories, we therefore expect non-citizens to have the easiest time matching with a think tank. However, a lot depends on individual circumstances, so it is difficult to generalize. We encourage non-citizens with work authorization to apply, and would work through these sorts of questions with them individually if they reach the later stages of the application process.
In terms of the experience of a participant, we expect our program to closely resemble existing programs like TechCongress and AAAS. Like those programs, we will provide individualized training and matching assistance to help fellows find placements. We will also provide social and professional programming to the fellow cohort in order to build community. Our target placement offices in Congress and the executive branch are also very similar (we also have a think tank category, whereas TechCongress and AAAS focus exclusively on government placements).
In terms of participant selection, one difference is that we are particularly excited to support fellows who share OP’s focus on the long-term implications of a relatively small set of emerging technologies, especially AI and biosecurity (here). However, like TechCongress and AAAS, we will also be paying close attention to “policy fit.” You can read more about what we mean by that in our earlier EA Forum post (here).