Services

Our Immigration group is committed to working with employers to ensure that they are able to transfer, hire and retain foreign workers. The global economy offers unique challenges to both large and small employers. Some of those challenges are ensuring that employers have the right talent for the job. This may mean transferring experts from around the world to the United States or transferring experienced managers or executives to the United States to open a new office. It may also mean that the individual who has the technical knowledge is from India or China.

Our Immigration group will not only help employers obtain authorization to hire foreign nationals, but also will help them make smart business decisions. We will work with human resource personnel and recruiters to make sure they understand the types of positions suitable for foreign nationals under U.S. Immigration laws. In addition, we will help employers create corporate policies that will set appropriate expectations and reduce costs. Our lawyers have extensive experience with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, Custom and Border Protection, the Department of Labor, and with U.S. consulates and embassies around the world.

Work Visa and Permanent Sponsorship

Our Immigration services cover the full scope of non-immigrant and immigrant classifications. Below is a sampling of the employment-based non-immigrant classifications that our corporate clients most often utilize:

• Intracompany transfers (L-1) - for foreign companies wishing to establish U.S. operations or perform ongoing services with a related U.S. entity;
• Professional/specialty workers (H-1B) - for companies needing to hire foreign nationals for unique technical skills and expertise;
• Traders and investors (E) - for companies and individuals wishing to engage in international trade from the U.S. or make an investment in or manage a U.S. business;
• Interns and Trainees (J) - for companies wanting to bring foreign nationals to the U.S. for up to 18 months for training and practical learning;
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (TN) - for companies wanting to hire professionals from Canada and Mexico;
• Foreign nationals with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics (O) - for those one-of-a kind employees who are recognized as the top in their field; and
• Entertainers and athletes (P) - for entertainers and athletes that do not satisfy the high standard for the O classification.

Additionally, we have seen many clients through the following processes:

• Labor certifications - for companies that must certify the unavailability of U.S. workers in order to pursue permanent residency for certain foreign national employees;
• Permanent residence - for companies requiring the services of foreign personnel in the U.S. on an indefinite basis; and
• Naturalization - for individuals who would like to obtain U.S. citizenship.

I-9 Compliance Counseling

The Department of Homeland Security has made workplace enforcement a focus of its efforts to reduce illegal immigration. Workplace enforcement techniques include immigration audits and raids, during which the Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch of the Department of Homeland Security enters a company’s place of business and interviews employees, reviews employment records and even makes arrests.

Employers can protect themselves from such audits and raids – or at least prepare for them – by having an audit of their I-9 paperwork and policies. The I-9 form requires validation of the employee’s identity and work authorization and must be completed by employers upon hiring new workers. Our immigration practice can conduct an audit of an employer’s I-9 records to detect and correct errors. We also offer training on the appropriate manner in which the I-9 form should be completed and on ways in which fraudulent documents and illegal status can be detected.

In addition, individual states are beginning to pass laws on workplace enforcement that also have an impact on the procedures employers must follow to verify an employee's work eligibility and identity. Our immigration practice can work with an employer's legal and human resources departments to ensure that the employer complies with all state and federal immigration laws.

Finally, employers need to ensure that companies that supply them with contract labor follow all state and federal immigration laws. The practices of an employer's contractor can expose it to immigration liabilities. By reviewing the relevant contracts and practices of the employer's contractor, our immigration practice can ensure that an employer is protected.