5 Corporate Immigration Policies All Employers Should Know
The laws regarding business immigration can be difficult to understand, but one wrong move and you risk your new employee being denied their work visa. Hiring a corporate immigration lawyer in Berks County, PA will ensure that all the rules are properly followed and all the paperwork is in place to ensure that the immigration is a success. Nevertheless, you should familiarize yourself with these top corporate immigration policies regarding H-1B visas to make the process go as smoothly and possible.
Termination of an Employee
Getting rid of an employee with H-1B status isn’t as simple as giving them their two-week notice. An employer must notify the Department of Labor and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and then pay for the return transport to the employee’s home country. Otherwise, the employer may be liable to pay continued compensation to the employee even after termination. You will want to speak with a corporate immigration lawyer in Berks County, PA before undergoing this process just to be sure that the proper steps were followed.
Leave of Absence
If an H-1B employee requests a leave of absent, this will not affect the employer. However, if the employer forces the employee to take a leave of absence, they will be required to continue paying the employee. Even if the company’s policy does not require them to pay a U.S. employee under these circumstances, they are still obligated to compensate employees with H-1B status.
Criminal Activity
If an H-1B employee has been convicted of a crime or you suspect them of having committed a crime, the first thing you should do is call an attorney. A criminal immigration lawyer in Berks County, PA will be able to advise you on how to appropriately handle the situation.
Salary and Benefit Reduction
By law, you are required to pay H-1B employees either the higher of the actual wage (wage relative to U.S. workers in similar positions) or the prevailing wage (the average wage for U.S. workers in similar positions in the region). However, if an employer wants to make wage or benefit cuts throughout the company, they may be required to pay back wages to the H-1B employee. That’s because even if they have lowered the wages of all U.S. employees and therefore the actual wage has dropped, the employer is still obligated to pay the higher of the two wage categories.
These are just a few of the rules that you as an employer will need to understand before hiring a foreign employee. Therefore, before you draft that employment contract, you should contact a corporate immigration lawyer in Berks County, PA.
