Happy New Year!
Just a few suggestions to start 2023 right for your foreign national employees and to ensure that the company is complying with immigration regulations.
Provide your employees with a copy of the certified LCA (Labor Condition Application) by their first date of employment under that LCA.
- H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 employees are required to receive a copy of the certified LCA on or before their first date of employment under that LCA.
- Once the LCA has been certified we email it to you for review/signature.
- When we email you the Public Access File (PAF), we provide a Receipt Notice that the employee can sign confirming that they have received a copy of the certified LCA.
- Provide the employee/prospective employee with a copy of the certified LCA by their first date of employment under that LCA and have them sign the LCA Receipt Notice.
- Store the signed LCA Receipt Notice in the employee's PAF.
Provide your employees with the original I-797A Approval Notice when we send it to you.
- When the USCIS approves a nonimmigrant petition, it will typically issue an approval notice on Form I-797A. The I-797A has a tear-off I-94 at the bottom. We forward the original I-797A to your office within a day or two of receiving it. Be sure to provide the original I-797A to the employee immediately after you received it.
- The employee needs this original document as evidence that they are in valid status in the U.S.
- The employee may also need the original I-797A notice to renew a drivers license and/or apply for a U.S. visa if they travel abroad.
- We email you a copy of the I-797A so you will have this for your records.
- The USCIS should also send you an original I-797C (Courtesy Copy) for your records.
Provide your employees with a copy of the nonimmigrant (H-1B, TN, O etc.) petition when we forward the scanned copy to you.
- When the USCIS approves a nonimmigrant petition for one of your employees, we email you a scanned copy of the petition that was filed.
- Forward the scanned copy of the petition to the employee when you provide them with the original I-797A approval notice.
- The employee will need the scanned copy in order to apply for a U.S. visa if they travel abroad.
Contact us before implementing any changes to job title, job description, work location and/or wage decrease for any of your foreign national employees. Wage increases are OK - just ask your employees.
- Most nonimmigrant petitions are specific to job title and description, work location (including work-from-home location) and wage. If any of these are going to change, please contact us before the change is implemented.
- We will review the proposed change against the existing petition and let you know if an amended petition is required before the change can be implemented.
Forward immigration alerts to your foreign national employees so they are kept apprised of immigration changes that may impact them.
- Immigration alerts are typically sent only to the HR representatives of the companies we represent; however, a lot of that information impacts your foreign national employees.
- Please forward immigration alerts to your foreign national staff as you see fit, or have them visit our website to review the alerts. Client alerts are typically archived on our website within 24 hours of being sent out.
-
Client alerts may be viewed at: https://www.freijylaw.com/immigration-alerts/
Send us copies of new visa stamps and I-94s as your foreign national employees and their dependents travel internationally.
- We will check that the visa/I-94 was issued correctly, and if not, we will provide instructions on how to get them corrected.
- We will track the expiration dates of these documents.
We value our relationship with you and your foreign national employees and look forward to working with you in 2023. All the best for a successful new year!
