Tips for Managing Your Immigration Function In-House

The process of hiring foreign workers is complicated and time-consuming thus many employers find it necessary to have a dedicated staff with expertise in making strategic decisions regarding hiring foreign nationals. The immigration function is typically housed in various departments at different organizations but most commonly within the HR department. With proper planning and follow up between the immigration attorney and the in-house HR department acting as a team, the company can achieve its goal of delivering consistent, predictable and expeditious immigration support for transferring and hiring of foreign national employees.

Here are a few tips for effective management of your immigration function in-house:

Use a robust immigration management system, for online, real-time case initiation, tracking and reporting.  Any immigration management system should provide full web access to your in-house immigration team, with the ability to look up each of their employees in the immigration. You should be able to check on the status of visa or work permit processing, or to view at a glance such vital information as the expiry date of the employee’s work permit. Your system should also allow for customized real-time reporting on any of the hundreds of data fields that are collected during the immigration process.

Use standard documents to prevent frequently recurring problems. Work with your attorney to create handouts to give to foreign national employees to answer frequently asked questions or to prevent frequently recurring problems. For example, it is helpful to prepare a form letter to be given by the HR person to foreign national employees regarding travel in and out of the United States, covering issues such as visa issuance, airport inspections and proper dates on I-94 cards.

Develop a corporate policy manual for immigration-related matters. Your attorney together with the HR department should develop a corporate policy manual for immigration-related matters. Such a manual could include coverage of issues such as when the company will apply for permanent residence status for an employee; standards on terms and conditions of sponsorship, including financial issues and family members; what questions are appropriate to ask at interviews; when a company will apply for H-1B status for a foreign student; chain of command in the event of a government investigation or charge; and when and by whom I-9s will be completed.

Keep comprehensive immigration library full of helpful resources for global traveling employees. Global corporation frequently sending employees to different countries for business trips or longer assignments  should keep self-help resources including process workflow charts by country;  summaries of the immigration rules of each country divided by business and work rules; helpful links to government immigration pages.

Own and Control the Immigration Legal Function. The bottom line (and news) is that you are most likely going to get blamed if something goes awry, so you may as well be in control of your immigration legal function. You do not need to be a master, but you should understand the basics of immigration law. Choose wisely and lead others, internal and external, who possess the requisite technical knowledge.

While it may not always be possible to achieve full compliance, taking these steps will ensure your company is in a much-advanced position in terms of protecting your travelling employees. It will also provide smooth, predictable and consistent immigration support for your HR department and employees.