Have you been searching for an “employment lawyer near me”? If so, there’s a good chance that you have questions or concerns about hiring a non-national employee. So today we want to talk a little bit about how an employment lawyer can help you as an employer.
Employment Lawyer Near Me: How An Immigration Lawyer Can Help You
The first step in finding an “employment lawyer near me” is to determine what you need help with. How specifically can an immigration employment attorney help you as a company owner or CEO?
Department of Labor Certification
Before your company is eligible to hire a non-national employee, you must be certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. To be certified by the department of labor, you must first fill in an application titled “Application for Alien Employment Certification (form ETA-750A)” (which can be found here) Be aware, though, that with the new movement to eliminate the use of the word “alien” from government policies, this form may be renamed. Once your application has been approved, you must file a petition with the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services for a visa for the potential employee.
An immigration attorney will be able to help you and your company with every aspect of this process. While your attorney cannot guarantee your approval by the Department of Labor and they cannot guarantee that your potential employee will be granted a visa, they can guide you in the application process and ensure that you meet the necessary criteria and the necessary deadlines for the entire process. These may seem like small things, but the slightest misstep can cost you the ability to hire a non-national employee.
Hiring Overseas
There are many reasons why you may choose to hire an employee from overseas – they may be the only available professional in a particular field, they may be an expert in a field who needs to train other employees, or they may be a professional who specializes in unique equipment, machinery, or code. Whatever the reason for bringing an employee from overseas, there are specific protocols that you must follow to ensure that that employee is in the U.S. legally and are eligible to work for you however temporarily.
In addition to being approved by the U.S. Department of Labor and filing a petition for a visa, the non-national potential employee must be able to prove that they are eligible to be admitted to the U.S. under the provisions of the Foreign Labor Certification. Most importantly, it must be proven that by this foreign national coming to the U.S. job opportunities, wages and working conditions of American workers are not negatively impacted.
An immigration attorney can help you to find eligible employees by explaining the requirements of the U.S. immigration system as it applies to employment. They can also help to keep you on track with deadlines and file dates as mentioned above.
Understanding Your Rights
As an employer hiring a non-national employee, you and your employee have certain rights that your attorney can help to protect. More importantly, your attorney can familiarize you with these rights so that you are better able to identify when they have been breached by governmental organizations. For example, what are your rights if ICE comes to your place of work to inspect documentation of foreign nationals? As an employer, how do you prevent this type of interruption to your schedule and production? How, too, do you protect your non-national employees?
Representing You and Your Non-National Employees
If a situation like the one above does take place and your rights and/or the rights of your non-national employees are infringed, it’s important that you step forward and do something about it. Allowing illegal and discriminatory situations to take place in your workplace has a number of negative effects on your business –
- It conveys the idea that you do not protect non-national employees of your company
- It conveys the idea that you are okay with unjust treatment of non-nationals
- It conveys the idea that you are content to let government organizations abuse their power, which can lead to repeated incidents of the same type.
- It leads to a general mistrust of your company by creating a negative reputation regardless of whether or not you committed a crime.
Your Rights and Responsibilities As An Employer Of Non-Nationals
As an employer, you have certain responsibilities – for example, ensuring that you are employing someone who is legally eligible to work in the United States. There are means to determine whether this is the case, but there are also rules in place that prevent you from asking specific questions and performing certain procedures. You must familiarize yourself with your responsibilities as an employer of a non-national so that you are not jeopardizing your role as the head of your company and you are not trampling on the rights of a non-national employee.
Another concern as an employer of non-nationals is your rights when it comes to demands made of your company by local and federal authorities. For example, California has enacted many policies that allow employers to offer protection to their non-national employees, unfortunately, many organizations are attempting to strongarm employers into refusing that protection so that punitive sentences can be carried out by other agencies.
Tired of Searching For an “Employment Lawyer Near Me”?
If you’re tired of searching for an employment lawyer near to you and you live in or around the Pasadena, California area, Nelson and Associates can help! To get started, just give us a call today at 626-683-3451!
