Business Immigration 101: Insight from a Fort Worth Business Immigration Lawyer
Your company could benefit from bringing in foreign workers, but if you’re like most businesses, you realize that it’s a comprehensive, time-consuming process. And that means you need to work with a Fort Worth business immigration attorney who can help.
Working With a Fort Worth Business Immigration Lawyer
Your attorney can help you apply for and receive visas for qualified foreign workers, including those that fall into these categories:
Outstanding Professors and Researchers
Professors and researchers who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in their academic fields and who have at least three years of teaching or research experience in that field could qualify for this visa category with employer sponsorship.
Multinational Executives and Managers
Foreign executives and managers who work for multinational companies can qualify for these visas, provided they’ve been working for the company for at least one of the past three years and will continue to work with the same company in a similar position.
Persons of Extraordinary Ability
People who can demonstrate recognized achievements in arts, the sciences, business, athletics or education, such as Nobel Prize winners and other people of distinguished talent, may be eligible for EB-1 visas with employer sponsorship.
National Interest Workers
When someone’s work will benefit the United States’ national interest, he or she may be eligible to enter the U.S. without employer sponsorship and without a labor certification requirement. Knowing whether your company must sponsor an immigrant is an important step in the process – and your attorney can give you the guidance you need.
PERM Labor Certification Applications
This is the typical or “basic” labor certification process used to establish the foreign national is not taking the job away from a qualified U.S. worker. This is the first step in the permanent residence process.
EB-5 Immigrant Investors
Business investors who will create jobs for American workers by investing in new commercial enterprises in the U.S. may be eligible for a visa without any type of employer sponsorship. If you intend to start a company in the U.S., this type of immigration may be right for you.
University Professors
Not all professors qualify for entry in the U.S. based on exemplary accomplishments, but there are special types of visas available to professors who will come to the U.S. to teach local students.
Special Immigrant Religious Workers
Many religious workers are eligible to apply for permanent residence in the U.S. using a special immigration category – the EB-4 category – but many religious organizations don’t have the resources to work with immigration officials to make it happen. An attorney can help smooth out the process and ensure your organization and prospective immigrant workers are able to meet filing requirements.
Business Immigration Overview
Current U.S. immigration laws provide for people who have the skills necessary for U.S. jobs to be admitted to the country on either a temporary or permanent basis. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services relies on more than 20 different types of nonimmigrant visas and five types of immigrant visas when determining who’s eligible for entry to the U.S. and whether those people are eligible to work here. Every visa is officially defined by Congress to meet the country’s needs, including economic needs.Nonimmigrant Business Visas
In many cases, people who apply for business visas in the United States can work here temporarily – and they’re only permitted to stay for a certain length of time. Nonimmigrants who receive permission to work in the U.S. must usually be sponsored by an employer based here, and they’re typically subject to specific requirements, such as working for the same employer throughout the duration of their stay.Immigrant Business Visas
Immigrant work visas, which allow permanent residence in the U.S., are always limited in number, and the U.S. government only allows a set number of immigrants from each country each year. Workers who come in under immigrant work visas become permanent U.S. residents and gain the right to live and work in the country for the rest of their lives. People who come to the U.S. on an immigrant business visa are typically sponsored by a U.S. employer, and the employer must demonstrate a need for each immigrant it sponsors. Most of these visas also require the employer to offer worker protections and complete a Department of Labor certification that says there aren’t any qualified, able or willing U.S. workers to take the job that’s being offered to the foreign national.What Can a Fort Worth Business Immigration Lawyer Do for Your Company?
Working with a Fort Worth business immigration lawyer may be the best route for your company to take. If you hire foreign nationals for any reason, your company is responsible for ensuring that the workers are legally documented and eligible to work in the United States – and that your company has filed the proper forms with the U.S. Department of Labor. All businesses who hire foreign workers are responsible for meeting certain requirements and following compliance steps outlined by the U.S. government, including use of the sometimes-complicated E-Verify system. Unfortunately, many employers don’t have a thorough compliance strategy in place – and many don’t know how to deal with the Department of Labor, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That’s where Susan E. Lane comes in. Susan can help ensure that your company is on the right side of the law when it comes to hiring foreign workers – and she can help you sponsor employees, help your prospective employees file the appropriate paperwork, and answer your questions about every step in the business immigration process. She can help your business and employees work through complex issues like:- Adjustment of status petitions
- Consular processing for employment-based immigration
- Labor certification
- Employment creation visas
- Exchange visitor programs
- Treaty trader, investor and Australian specialty visas
- Practical training visas
Forbes Magazine recognizes Cantey Hanger on firm’s work on behalf of ExxonMobil.
January 22, 2019
15 Cantey Hanger attorneys named Super Lawyers.
September 10, 2018
Best Lawyers’ recognizes 11 Cantey Hanger LLP attorneys.
August 15, 2018
Cantey Hanger is Recognized as One of 20 Companies in Fort Worth to Break the 100 Year Mark.
December 11, 2018
FORT WORTH, TEXAS – Experienced business immigration law attorney Susan Lane has joined Cantey Hanger LLP as a partner.
Since being licensed in Texas in 1986, Lane’s practice has focused exclusively on immigration and nationality law. She has a wealth of experience representing a wide range of employers – such as universities, high tech companies, multi-national corporations, start-up businesses, manufacturers and churches – in complex, employment-based immigration matters.
Her practice includes non-immigrant petitions as well as immigrant cases, including PERM labor certifications, petitions for outstanding professors and researchers, petitions for multi-national executives and managers, and national interest waivers.
Lane earned her J.D. from The University of Texas at Austin in 1986. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with highest honors from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Arts in Letters. She is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the State Bar of Texas, the Tarrant County Bar Association and Southlake Chamber of Commerce.
She has a son in college and a daughter in high school. They live in Southlake.
November 29, 2018
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website: www.uscis.gov
Retrieve I-94 record and travel history: www.cbp.gov/I94
Monthly Visa Bulletin: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/law-and-policy/bulletin.html
AR-11 link for change of address: https://egov.uscis.gov/coa/addressChange.do
Physician link for medical exams for permanent residence: https://my.uscis.gov/findadoctor
