Immigration

Organizations that hire foreign employees must comply with a complex assortment of often-confusing immigration laws and regulations. Especially in the U.S., where the federal government is seizing the assets of companies that employ undocumented workers and imposing felony charges, it is critical that employers understand and resolve the issues related to employment eligibility and documentation.

Dickinson Wright’s immigration practice regularly assists clients with a wide variety of matters related to the international movement of personnel. Our team works closely with lawyers in the firm’s other practice areas, such as tax, labor and employment (including employment discrimination), employee benefits, and entertainment law to assure that all immigration and related legal issues are addressed in the context of business operations and transactions. With offices in the U.S. and Canada, our immigration practice works seamlessly across borders to ensure that our clients’ businesses continue to run smoothly as they navigate through the immigration system.

Some of the immigration practice’s areas of expertise include:

• Advising on the types of visas to best serve our clients’ needs for foreign and domestic operations, mergers, acquisitions, corporate restructurings and divestitures, and maintaining post-transaction work authorizations of foreign nationals.
• Advising entertainers, artists, athletes, and other individuals in the arts/entertainment industry outside the U.S. on the requirements, classifications, and process of obtaining O and P visas.
• Counseling on the proper procedure to obtain visas, on legal admission to the United States and on the maintenance of legal status once admitted.
• Coordinating global immigration and guiding clients through immigration application processes for nonimmigrant visas and green cards as well as permanent employment-based immigrant visas for multinational executives, managers, critical foreign employees, and their family members.
• Advising on employment verification, federal investigations and immigration corporate compliance, including: conducting audits, developing compliance manuals and policies, preparing clients for unannounced visa petition verification investigations, and representing clients in Department of Labor audits and PERM labor certification applications.