Google has a staffer who is their “immigration fixer.” Her job is to help Google employees obtain their visas. Google spends $4.5 million every year taking care of visas, so they need someone overseeing their effort.
Your business may not hire as many as employees as Google does, but if your organization deals with immigration at all, you need to have an immigration strategy and immigration policies to back it up. So how would creating an immigration strategy help your organization? Keep reading…
An immigration strategy, supported by the right policy, eliminates uncertainty and makes your organization more appealing to potential foreign employees.
If you’re going to hire foreign nationals, they’ll expect you to have a well-articulated immigration policy, and their decisions about whether or not to work for your company could be very much influenced by said policy. An immigration policy will answer important questions such as:
- Who pays for the employee’s children to move to the US?
- Who pays the costs of visas for the employee and the employee’s family?
- Under what circumstances can employment be terminated?
- If employment is terminated within a certain prescribed period, does the employee need to reimburse any fees?
- What kinds of visas will the company pursue?
- Who in the company is authorized to initiate the hiring of foreign nationals?
- When will the company assist in obtaining permanent resident status?
- How will changes in job location be handled?
- How will international travel be handled?
- How will employee terminations be handled?
- What is the employee grievance policy?
- What are the policies about the employee changing jobs?
Having a written policy establishes company policies that are in compliance with immigration laws.
The right immigration strategy protects the interests of your organization as well. Complying with immigration law is a significant ordeal, and it’s critical to have a policy which keeps you in compliance. Specific questions that should be addressed include:
- How will the company address questions about a worker’s status?
- What documentation will the company maintain?
- Who is responsible for tracking employment authorizations?
- When will compliance be audited?
The policy should also contain a statement that the company does not hire workers without authorization.
If your organization deals with immigration matters, it’s important that you have an immigration attorney – who understands business – on your team. Please contact me today if you’d like to learn more!
