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I'm Russell Ford, founding partner of FordMurray, an immigration law firm based in Portland, Maine with clients nationwide. And we're answering common questions for institutions of higher education surrounding the recruitment, retention and hiring of non citizen personnel at their universities, colleges, etc. Today, we're going to focus on:
Who qualifies for special handling? And how does a special handling perm case differ from a normal perm case?
First, who qualifies for special handling? Primarily, we focus on institutions of higher education, colleges, universities, junior colleges, community colleges. Second, and probably the bigger component is there must be a teaching component to the position in order for it to fall into special handling. So whatever the professor or lecturer or other position at your university is, there must be at least one class being taught for them to qualify for special handling.
Well, how does special handling differ from a regular perm? In a regular perm case the government is focused on are their minimally qualified workers, U.S. workers ready, willing and able to fill the position? So they're focused more on - What are the minimum requirements of the position? And are there U.S. workers who can fill those minimum requirements, whereas in a special handling case, the focus is really on the institution and who did the institution determine is the best candidate for the position because the purpose behind special handling was to allow institutions of higher education to hire the best and brightest.
The government defers to those institutions to make the decision as to who is the best candidate in a competitive recruitment process, and then the government defers to them in that process. So the difference between a special handling and a normal perm is quite significant. And if you can qualify for a special handling, it can create some great advantages for you in the recruitment and retention of those types of positions on your campus. If you have more questions regarding special handling, we're here to help. Check out our website. Give us a call. We're happy to answer those questions for you through a complimentary consultation.
