Corporate Immigration and the Changes Impacting Employers

Last Updated on February 23, 2023

 

As organizations continue to function in a globalized manner, immigration – and more specifically, corporate immigration – changes will drastically impact how business is done.

According to the Office of Immigration Statistics, 76,638,236 people were admitted to the United States on an I-94/I-94W visa in 2015, which was a 2.28 percent increase over 2014. And of these more than 76 million entries, 10.5 percent were admitted as temporary business visitors. Add to that the 1,051,031 individuals who were granted legal permanent residence in 2015 in the United States, and it’s no surprise that the effects of immigration may weigh heavy on the minds of employers.

Attracting a global workforce is extremely beneficial for a company’s strategic vision and financial health, but it can also cause a mess of paperwork and even legal trouble. Some of the impacts that an increasing amount of corporate immigration can have on employers include the need to:

  • Stay on Top of a Changing Legal and Political Landscape
    • Both in the United States and abroad, immigration is often at the heart of legal and political discourse. This heightened focus on immigration makes it even more clear that the legal and political landscape surrounding immigration is, and will continue to be, in flux. Employers operating multi-nationally need to stay in the know on how to best position their organization strategically within the current structure, while simultaneously predicting and adapting to future changes.
  • Keep Regulations and Policies Straight for Different Countries
    • There are more than 190 countries, each of which have their own nuanced laws and regulations relating to corporate immigration. It’s up to the employer to figure out a system to keeping the immigration regulations and policies straight for every country that they operate in and for every type of visa that their employees require. Whether that is creating a homegrown process, purchasing new technology or working with a consultant, employers will likely need to invest in a solution. Investing in finding a solution to the complicated nature of immigration policies from multiple countries before there’s a problem, however, can save a lot of money, time and frustration in the long run.
  • Protect the Organization from USCIS Audits
    • With laws and regulations, comes compliance. And with compliance comes non-compliance and the potential for an audit. No matter how focused an organization is on meeting immigration compliance standards, the risk of an audit still remains. The U.S.Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) recently announced that it would take heightened measures to monitor and penalize fraud, specifically for organizations that utilize the H-1B visa.

Legal counsel, human resources personnel and all other staff involved with any part of processing paperwork related to immigration are the best protections against an audit. And to protect the organization against the headache of an audit, it’s in the best interest of employers to take the necessary steps to arm their staff with the correct skills, technology, and information to adequately perform their jobs.

For more information on how you can determine if your organization is at risk for an audit, read our recent blog, Is Your Organization at Risk for an Audit?