This Wisdom of the Crowd (ACC member discussion) addresses which department within a company handles US immigration work. This resource was compiled from questions and responses posted on the forum of the Employment & Labor Law ACC Network. (Permission was received from the ACC members quoted below prior to publishing their comments in this Wisdom of the Crowd resource.)
Question:
I'm interested in knowing which department (Legal, Human Resources (HR), Compliance) handles immigration work (in conjunction with outside immigration counsel) at your companies.
Wisdom of the Crowd:
Response #1: Legal and HR handle immigration (primarily work visas) in collaboration; Compliance is not involved except as it relates to I-9 compliance issues. Legal engages outside counsel, negotiates fee arrangements, and reviews the bills while HR handles tracking and coordination with employees. Our process involves more direct HR contact with outside counsel than in other areas. It is by no means a best in class process and we've been reviewing it to make improvements.1
Response #2: At both in-house positions, I have held (both organizations with approximately 3,000 employees), the legal department retains outside immigration counsel, tracks visas and coordinates with outside counsel in the visa process. HR handles the actual steps for visa EB-2 Program Electronic Review Management recruitments. At my prior employer, we had about 20 visa cases a year; at my current employer it is about half that.2Response #3: Legal and HR for our company.3Response #4: I've been in situations where HR controlled and legal controlled separately. I thought the latter makes more sense as legal seemed better able to work through the difficult situations.
In the company where HR controlled the process, HR was also responsible for the budget and drove certain decisions where legal didn't want budget authority over the mess they created. It was unfortunate, but that was the only way for legal to not tarnish themselves in the process.
Best result in my experience is legal and HR working together, but legal having final ownership.4Response #5: HR and Legal handle in collaboration. We rely heavily on outside counsel, so HR primarily does the recruitment process and Legal oversees the process and advises on difficult cases.5Response #6: We handle the nonimmigrant processes in house, within legal, in cooperation with HR - who we rely on to provide information. The green card functions have been outsourced to outside attorneys, managed by us in legal. Keep in mind we are also an institution of higher education, so that changes the mix a bit. Total, we have about 60,000 employees in multiple states. I think the percentage who require sponsorship is pretty standard for our industry.6Response #7: Legal and HR work together on immigration matters. Legal selects outside counsel. HR works directly with outside counsel on visas and green cards using a fee schedule negotiated by Legal (mostly flat fees). I typically get involved only when there is an unusual situation or a problem.7
__________________________ 1Anonymous Poster (May, 2016).
2Melissa Oliver-Janiak, Senior Attorney, Standard Insurance Co., Oregon (Employment & Labor Law, May 19, 2016).
3Kristine Quema, Deputy General Counsel, DMG MORI USA, Illinois (Employment & Labor Law, May 19, 2016).
4Thomas Chow, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer & Secretary, Exponential Interactive, Inc., California (Employment & Labor Law, May 20, 2016).
5Leah Shough, Associate General Counsel, JustAnswer, LLC, California (Employment & Labor Law, May 23, 2016).
6Christopher Wendt, Immigration Counsel, Mayo Clinic, Minnesota (Employment & Labor Law, May 25, 2016).
7Catherine Duclos, Deputy General Counsel, Technicolor, Indiana (Employment & Labor Law, May 27, 2016).
Region:
United States
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