Immigration

A global economy means that businesses of all sizes recruit and hire personnel from all corners of the globe. Immigration compliance in the workplace is more critical now than ever. As part of Stinson's nationally-ranked Labor, Employment & Benefits practice, our immigration law attorneys help ensure that our clients succeed in all facets of immigration in employment.

We help businesses navigate the application procedures for immigrant and nonimmigrant visas, appeals and litigation, and provide proactive training and audits to maintain compliance with Form I-9 requirements. Our immigration attorneys represent Fortune 500 companies, medium and smaller-sized corporations, research institutions, academic institutions, hospitals, medical clinics, private medical practices and individual physicians, law firms, engineering firms and individuals.

In addition to our legal experience, our attorneys have served in several advisory and leadership roles, including the Conrad 30 J-1 Waiver Program offices in Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois, the Delta Regional Authority in connection with its J-1 waiver program, past chair of Arizona Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, liaison for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' (USCIS) Phoenix District Office. 

International Personnel: Visas, Waivers & More

We know from experience that the key to successful filings is a proactive, organized and responsive approach. Our highly experienced corporate immigration attorneys regularly assist our clients with:

• Employment, student, and family-based nonimmigrant (temporary) visas, including B, E, F, H, J, K, L, M and Q.
• Obtaining nonimmigrant status for foreign nationals in H-1B specialty occupations, L-1A executives and managers, L-1B Specialized Knowledge Managers, TN-Treaty nationals, B-1 visitor for business, and advising on various NAFTA-related issues.
• Labor certifications and national interest waivers for foreign nationals.
• Obtaining first preference immigration petitions for foreign nationals with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and multinational executives and managers.
• Employment and family-based immigrant (permanent) visas and adjustment of status and P visas for entertainers, artists, athletes and athletic organizations.
• Physician J-1 waivers.
• T, U and V-visas.
• Obtaining permanent residency and naturalization for foreign nationals.
• Immigration through investment.
• Humanitarian-based immigration, including applications for asylum, withholding of removal and Torture Convention relief.
• VAWA petitions.
• Refugee and Asylee adjustment applications.
• Administrative appeals to the Administrative Appeals Office and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).
• Immigration litigation before the Executive Office of Immigration Review, the BIA and U.S. Courts of Appeals.

Form I-9 & E-Verify Compliance

Our attorneys help businesses manage all aspects of I-9 and E-Verify compliance, including:

• Training employer's I-9 administrators in the proper completion, storage, re-verification and destruction of Forms I-9 and E-Verify procedures, including handling TNCs.
• Drafting Best Practices Manuals for Form I-9 Procedures.
• Conducting I-9 audits and coordinating and leading self-audits to identify deficiencies, implement corrections, and identify possible unauthorized employment.
• Training on immigration-related discrimination laws and avoiding liability for "document abuse" discrimination in the I-9 process.
• Responding to Social Security Administration "no-match" letters.
• Conducting immigration-related due diligence during mergers and acquisitions, such as reviewing corporate practices and policies, assessing liability for I-9 deficiencies, and recommending training and implementation of procedures.
• Advising business on contractor I-9 compliance to avoid liability for unauthorized workers on-site.

Experience

• Our immigration attorneys have successfully petitioned the USCIS for temporary and permanent (green card) visas across a wide spectrum of management, engineering and business unit workforces across the U.S. for a global diversified manufacturing company with annual sales approaching $3 billion and exceeding 12,500 employees.
• Representation of physicians in J-1 status throughout the United States in obtaining waivers of the two-year residency requirements through State 30 and federal waiver programs.
• Successfully processed EB-1 Extraordinary Ability, Outstanding Researcher petitions, National Interest Waivers, Academic Labor Certifications as well as Non-Immigrant petitions for a wide range of academic and teaching positions at universities and educational institutions.
• Serve as U.S. immigration counsel for one of the largest railway systems in North America, which provides rail and intermodal freight transportation to most principal centers in Canada as well as the Midwestern and northeastern United States, and provides employment to approximately 20,000 individuals in Canada and the United States.
• Served as immigration counsel for a privately held software products and solutions company focusing on the advanced technology needs of the machining industry and serving leading companies in the automotive and aerospace industries. We have successfully processed numerous immigrant and nonimmigrant visas for computer software and design engineers from abroad.
• Represent a global market leader in the design and manufacture of industrial machine-guarding safety products and related control accessories. The company is represented in more than 22 countries, with affiliated corporate offices in the United States, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria and Brazil. We have successfully transferred executives, managers and workers from the company's foreign offices to work in their U.S. operations.
• Successfully obtained E-1, E-2 and L-1A visas for a variety of retail businesses.
• Serve as "go-to" immigration counsel for the USHL, petitioning the USCIS to bring to the United States talented athletes, coaches, managers and teachers.
• In addition to representing businesses on complex visa-related immigration issues, we coordinate I-9 audit and training for large, multi-site employers including an employer with more than 10,000 employees and 50 locations and assisted them to self-correct technical errors that would result in millions of dollars in savings in fines had they been audited by ICE prior to conducting the self-audit and correcting technical errors.