Training Local Businesses

I presented a three-part workshop on Friday to local businesses that was a great success. The first part of the workshop was an overview of how immigrants are currently categorized, statuses that allow for blanket work permission, and statuses that allow work permission for specific employment but the employer does not need to file anything with immigration. Many employers do not realize that it can be easy to hire non-immigrant F-1 students in three different circumstances, or that many dependent statuses (such as E-3 and L-2) allow for blanket work permission.

After going over some of the "easier" ways to hire non-immigrants, I spent about an hour going over the H-1B status: what are the qualifications for both the individual and the position; what is a Labor Condition Application (LCA); what are the steps to hiring; what is the cost; and what are the issues with the H-1B quota and timing the petition. Although I could do a hands-on training for the H-1B status (since I filed H's for almost 20 years), I could not go into extensive details in this situation because the audience skill level was diverse and I only had an hour. However, I think everyone walked away being able to identify which candidates could qualify for an H-1B, the general steps and cost, and when it might be worth the trouble to pursue that option.

Finally, I spent an hour discussing some of the new statuses, such as H-1B1 and E-3, which require little work on the part of the employer and other statuses that are more difficult, such as E-1 and L-2 which, nonetheless, beat the H-1B because they do not have quotas. Since there is a lot of discussion about H's these days, many employers tend to overlook (or simply have no knowledge of) other statuses that can be easier to obtain in the long run. Although it was a fairly intensive 3 hours, I received many positive comments about the training. The knowledge gained by the attendees helped them understand immigration better and gave them some new ideas about recruiting and hiring professional non-immigrant workers.