Webinar Recap: Your Guide to Hiring Foreign Nationals

September 22, 2017

Last Updated on February 23, 2023

 

You’ve been asked to open a visa case for a new employee from overseas, but you have no experience hiring foreign nationals. Now what?

Whether you’re new in your career or your company is new to immigration, we understand that the world of global mobility can be confusing. As an HR professional, you’re required to wear many hats and that some of them are easier to balance than others.

When it comes to hiring foreign nationals, you should first determine visa eligibility depending on their qualifications. If your company offers an employment-based green card sponsorship as part of its retention policy, be sure to factor that into your initial visa case, as well.

Visas to Use When Hiring Foreign Nationals

The list below includes a high-level overview of the most common U.S. work visas:

  • B-1 Visas: Business Visitor Visa
  • E-2 Treaty Visas
  • E-3 Visas: Certain Specialty Occupation Professional from Australia
  • H-1B Visas: Person in Specialty Occupation
  • H-1B1 Visas: Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Professional
  • H-3 Visas: Nonimmigrant Trainee or Special Education Exchange Visitor Visa
  • F-1 OPT STEM Extension
  • J-1 Visas: Exchange Visitor
  • L-1A Visas: Intracompany Transferee Executive or Manager
  • L-1B: Specialized Knowledge Intracompany Transferee
  • O-1: Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement

For a more detailed explanation and a deeper look at qualifications and eligibility requirements for each, please reference our Beginner’s Guide to Immigration webinar and our comprehensive guide to understanding work visas.

Employment-Based (EB) Green Cards

Companies who offer EB green cards to foreign talent gain an edge on their competitors, increase the diversity of their workforce and help promote national economic growth. Sponsoring an international employee for a green card can help demonstrate your long-term commitment to them.

  • EB-1: Priority Workers
  • EB-2: Advanced Workers
  • EB-3: Skilled or Other Workers

When hiring foreign nationals, consider selecting dual intent visas to ease the process of sponsoring them for an employment-based green card.

Ensuring Compliance

It is extremely important that your company maintains compliance throughout the immigration process; however, staying compliant as your company grows can become increasingly difficult if you currently use a paper file management system.

A one-stop digital immigration management platform can not only help keep documents like public access files organized but also give you transparency into case statuses, ensure compliance and connect you and your foreign nationals directly to a dedicated team of immigration attorneys.

Global immigration can be a confusing process, but there are immigration resources out there that can help you manage the process of hiring foreign nationals.

Learn more about immigration. Watch our webinar Beginner’s Guide to Immigration on-demand.