Pay for EE's Green Card?

Caroliso

Do any of you have a policy of paying for employees' green card application processes? This would be for a foreign national who is in a professional position with specialized (although not super-rare) skills. We have paid for several Visa processes and now she is out of extensions and in order for her to stay I think she needs a green card, which she wants and we want her to stay.
I think our practice has been not to do, but I'm not sure I can make a case for why we shouldn't, so I'm wondering what others do.

TN HR

I will charge you a nominal fee to run her through the BASIC SAVE PILOT and give you pRoof FRom oUr gOvErNMeNt that you have HIRED a citizen. If MLS has a probelm with my plug stealing their thunder they can see my retained attorney.

Seriously, this is strictly a matter of following your policy or being willing to set a precedent. In terms of legal ramifications there are none.

gEne

Caroliso

Thanks, Gene, I am interested in what others do so I can set our policy.

LivindonSouth

Notwithstanding GeNe'S rambling poSt, I can tell you, as we have posted numerous times, the process will milk you and milk you and it's not as simple as plunking down a hundred bucks and getting a shiny lime-green, laminated card. Hold on and get ready for a lengthy, costly process.

pork1

CAROLISO: First, have you accomplished the local search and have proof that there is NO US Citizen available to meet the needs of the company to fill this position? You must disregard that you have a person in the position now, who is a foreign national and capable of filling the position. You must be prepared to forward proof of your search and it must be in detail, sufficient to withstand the audit of your search and received no responses, or/and those that did respond, did not qualify for hire on an equal basis. On what basis did you "not consider" the US Citizen, as qualified?

From this point you turn to the application and submission to the Department of Labor for the authorization to recruit off shore. They will turn you then to the USCIS/DHS for the next step of recruiting and hiring off shore.

We attempted to recruit an experience Hispanic Farm Manager, who responded to one of our National Search ADs. It was a big waste of time. Just because we wanted a Hispanic fluent Manager, it did not satisfy the DOL requirement for a search and reason to "by pass US Citizen respondents", because they could not speak nor understand the languages involved. Being a manager does not require the ability to read and write Spanish.

Good luck with your efforts, but don't get surprised if your foreign national must return home before her card expires.

PORK

Caroliso

Pork, have only so far done what is required to receive an H1-B visa, which is as you probably know is a matter of posting, not of conducting a full scale search.
You raise a good point about the search process. I am aware that there are several justifications for a work-based green card, and one of them has to do with being a scholar and well established in their field, and I think this is the approach the EEs lawyer plans to take. I don't know if that changes anything, but I am forewarned about the work and cost.

pork1

You might want to do a google for the H-1A & B process. I did several months ago and there you might find the requirements. Your post reads like the ee is already connected with an attorney; be careful not to press forward with out knowing the specifics of the process, for you would not want to be caught-up in a National Origin dispute.

You either have DOL authorization to hire from off-shore or you don't, and that would be regardless of the ee's status presently sitting in the position.

I certainly wish you well, but the DHS environment today is much different when we were pressing for a special foreign national!

PORK

hhaynal

We don't have a policy, but are thinking of implementing one. Just recently we were faced with a dilemma with a prospective candidate that we really want to recruit. His visa is due to expire and we would have to immediately begin green card process once employee is on board. Estimated cost to company is approx. $25,000. If we are going to put in that much of an investment, we want to make sure the employee stays for a while, or pay the fee back. No decision on how we're going to handle this has been made as yet.

Any thoughts from the forum?

LivindonSouth

The last time I was involved with this process I was told by the attorney who was guiding the process that an employer is prohibited from deducting the costs from the alien's check and is also prohibited from requiring that the alien repay the fees and costs associated with the process.

There is one other piece of advice that I will offer. And that is to NOT follow the guidance of the alien's attorney. That person is working for the alien, not for the employer. The employer needs its own labor attorney who is specifically familiar with the process. The alien's attorney might tell you any number of things, many of which will be totally false, misleading or just plain illegal. I used to get mail regularly from an attorney in Denver who guaranteed me that he had a file of Canadians who could come to work immediately without any government red tape.

Following the advice of the alien's attorney would be like letting the plaintiff's lawyer brief you on your testimony when you're the defendant.

HRLASS

I second Livindon - find an attorney who specializes in immigration law to represent the employer - don't count on the employee's attorney. Good luck. It's a tough process.

hhaynal

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-20-05 AT 07:08AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Our immigration counsel is ours.....they are on retainer to handle all of our immigration matters. In the past, the company has sometimes footed the bill in getting visas and green cards, although the general practice is that the company does not pay.

We don't have a policy in place that would have the employee pay back fees allocated for obtaining a visa or green card, but are considering implementing one. Something akin to the education policy where employees must stay with the company for a stated period after completion of educational program or pay back fees company paid on employee's behalf.

We are still mulling over whether there would be any national origin discrimination issues but have yet to make any decision.

pork1

"ANY NATIONAL ORIGIN DISCRIMINATION ISSUES", will only arise after the fact and from the foreign nationals attorney's ability to fundalmentally put a suit together whether factual or not. Thus the reason that we HR professionals must get it right from the start.

PORK

HRLASS

Be careful with this one. We did consider a policy to not hire employees with immigration issues - i.e. desires for H-1b sponsorship, green card sponsorship, etc. and discovered that policy or practice of elimination of immigrants (and related citizenship questions on applications) is illegal under the EEOC national origin discrimination category.

LivindonSouth

It is NOT and NEVER has been illegal to not hire an individual not currently authorized to work in the United States. Whoever gave you that notion provided a bum steer. Nor is it illegal to pose that lawful question on your application. Nor does the EEOC make law. It is illegal to discriminate against a person legally qualified to work in the US if the discrimination is based on national origin. Most aliens, I assume, would love to be 'sponsored'; however, no employer is obligated to consider such sponsorship.

E Wart

It is a lenghty and costly process. I don't recommend your getting invovled unless you go in with your eyes wide open.
One suggestion, if this employee is this good... you may want to consider doing something like giving them a bonus (if they are exempt) for something they have done. Then they can use the money any way they want to (you have no control over this) and you haven't set a precident.
You do have to get a GREAT attorney (or at least the employee does) so they don't get taken.
Good luck. Hope they start early.
E Wart

lhill

We are in the process of obtaining a green card for an employee whose H1B is about to expire. I had no choice in this one; he's a personal friend of the CEO, but if I had, I would have voted against it. Costly, yes. Lengthy, also yes. While I like this individual tremendously, business is business, and his job could be done easily by anyone with his degree.

Linda

LivindonSouth

If your last comment is true, then the process will discover the truth. Unless your CEO has someone falsify the truth and not follow the process properly, which is probably a federal crime.

E Wart

Linda, I have a great immigration attorney in Atlanta who has been most helpful with me in the past. Normally our employees have hired him and we don't pay for it. He isn't cheap.
let me know if you need his name. [email]ewarthen@newcombspring.com[/email].
May be too late if you have already started the process. I don't know how it is getting through if someone in US could do the job.
E Wart