Including multiple worksites in the initial H-1B petition can provide flexibility for employers and H-1B employees, and can save thousands of dollars in refiling fees for amended petitions. Many employers who would have never considered multiple locations should look at whether work from home policies during the COVID era impact their policies. FordMurray founding partner Russell Ford explains who should include multiple worksites in H-1B petitions in this short video.
Questions? Employers can request a complimentary consultation here.
I'm Russell Ford, founding partner of FordMurray, a National Immigration Law Firm based here in Portland, Maine. And I'm answering common questions that come up in the immigration process. Today's question is focusing on something that's really come up during this pandemic time. But I think it's apropos for larger employers, and employers that are placing employees at third party locations, or if they just have multiple locations within their organization.
When should employers include multiple locations in the H-1B petition.
It's really a part of planning and what we try to tell our clients and what we do with our clients, is we try to be involved in the front end if we can be a part of and a partner in your process. That recruitment, that hiring process, when you are looking at candidates and you have a candidate, and you are thinking about, okay, I'm hiring this person on an H-1B for this position. And I know I'm going to have them work at corporate headquarters, but they might work from home sometimes, especially during a pandemic, or it's just part of our culture, we work from home three or four days a week, or I've got multiple locations, I might send them out to Sacramento, I might send them out to New York, I might send them down to Florida, and they might rotate through our different offices. How do I plan for that? How do I account for that?
When you're thinking about an H-1B, remember, an H-1B is employer specific and job specific. What does that mean for this question? When you're thinking about job specific, if you only include corporate headquarters in your H-1B petition, the employee is limited to working at those corporate headquarters in most situations. And any change in that employment matters - whether you want the employee to work in your Sacramento location for three or four months, or a pandemic hits. What do you have to do?
This all leads into you having to file an amended H-1B petition with additional lawyer fees, additional filing fees, additional costs, whereas if you can take into account some of these situations on the front end, I might put them in these different locations, you can include those locations in the labor condition application, each of those locations will be covered in the H-1B petition. And then you and that employee have more mobility, more flexibility during the course of that three year H-1B and it just provides you the employer an opportunity not just for cost savings, but for business efficiencies. And so those types of planning on the front end are really key when putting together a strong H-1B petition for your candidates.
Again, I know these issues can be not always predictable. I know they can be confusing. If you're facing some of these issues right now at your company, your organization, we do offer complimentary consultations. You can give us a call. You can send us an email. We're happy to respond and try to get you answers to those questions as quick as we can. Thanks for listening.
