In addition to the many problems around the world that affect the hiring of international workers, the pandemic has also had a big effect on the way U.S. companies handle immigration tracker. To handle complicated immigration rules, HR needs a good way to report on what’s going on.
If an employer doesn’t have accurate, “clean” data, they could be fined, their employees could lose their jobs, and their visas could be revoked. They could also lose valuable talent. Employers might not know that in some cases, it can also lead to civil or criminal fines or penalties.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) asked American workers about the immigration process. The results showed that 65% of the people surveyed thought that if the U.S. doesn’t update its employment-based immigration system, it will lose highly skilled workers to other countries.
Good news! Here are some of the most important data points you can keep track of to manage the immigration status of your employees.
Fees and Case Management
Number of employees from other countries – If you don’t keep track of your international employees well, you might not always know how many you have at any given time. Because the current immigration process is so complicated, you could miss important information.
- If any of your employees have non-immigrant visas, it is very important to keep track of their max-out dates. They are good for three years at first, but can be extended up to six years. If this information isn’t given correctly, there could be fines or delays in the process.
- Lawyer Fees – Your vendor may have a complicated billing schedule, depending on how complicated your immigration program is. Some firms charge based on immigration case type, RFEs, additional case questions, compliance audits, or (less often with immigration firms) hourly billing.
- Timing NIV vs. Permanent (IV) Status – Non-immigrant visas (NIVs) are good for three years at first, but they can be extended to six years. A “green card” gives a legal permanent resident the right to stay in the country permanently. This is a big change, from NIV to permanent status. If you do it wrong, your employee could get a notice that they are in violation of their visa instead of their green card.
- Time left in status: You don’t want to wait until the max-out date because that means you’re out of time. If you keep track of how much time is left in the immigration process for your employees, you won’t be surprised by anything bad.
- Response times from lawyers – At this point, we shouldn’t have to dig for important information or use multiple email threads to ask follow-up questions about specific cases. However, it’s still important to keep working on ways to improve. Even more so when your employees and your People team are often moving at a very fast pace.
- Compliance Addresses: Addresses that are wrong or out of date are a red flag for immigration officials. For processing to go smoothly, addresses must be up-to-date and match what is on file. Tracking addresses by hand is inefficient and could get the employee or the company into trouble with the law.
