5 issues that require a Business Immigration Lawyer

Whether it’s business or pleasure, immigration is a tentative venture. Transitioning from your familiar safety net into the legal bureaucracy of US immigration requires knowing what obstacles you might face during the process, and, more importantly, knowing what that process entails.

Employment immigration

Temporary or indefinite, the ability to immigrate based on employment requires specific work visas. They are determined more specifically to your personal case by immigration attorneys, and can often change based on current political policies. Permanent immigration visas apply to high-skill or high renown workers and multinationals, professionals, the clergy, or employment creators.

Temporary workers are often expected to require visas if their work is seasonal if they are visitors for businesses, treaties in some form or another, transferees and/or people of specialized, unique, and talented professions. The latter of which has become much more difficult and expensive to obtain during the current administration, and treaty visas i.e. E-1 and E-2 may not even apply to your nationality. Each visa has a specific set of prerequisites and costs. For instance, the specialty occupation worker H-1B visa has a quota for applicants and a severe issue of oversubscription. Following the preconditions and changes in visa, availability is much easier with US immigration lawyers giving consultation.

Family immigration and green cards

Obtaining an immigration visa is more straightforward provided you have a qualifying relationship with a US citizen family member or a permanent resident. Most commonly, this involves the K-1 visa, whereby a sponsoring US citizen permits their fiancé(e) the ability to immigrate to the US provided they legally marry within 90 days. Children of K-1 visa applicants are eligible for a K-2 visa.

You must provide evidence of having had contact with the fiancé(e) at least two years prior to petitioning. Both parties must be eligible to marry, and the immigrating fiancé(e) can’t have a criminal record. The visa itself lasts for 6 months before further actions need to be taken. An immigration lawyer handles the petitions and moves them to a successful conclusion.

Recovering seized goods and paying off fines

The US customs and border protection agency has strict non-compliance penalties for illegal trade practices. There are two types of seizures.

First, the CBP can seize an item if they have probable cause that it is undeclared, counterfeit, contraband, or simply containing illegal substances. Once seized, in severe cases, the item becomes Federal property and the individual loses all claim to it. Alternatively, the item(s) may be seized until a fine has been paid off, oftentimes relating to cases where the goods are restricted rather than prohibited.

Depending on the legality of the seized goods, in more abstract cases or ones with probable cause of miscommunicated compliance, fines can be reduced and penalties can be retracted. It depends entirely on the strength of your case and the ability for attorneys to reason out a good defense.

Losing nationality aka expatriation

An expired visa or finding yourself in dire circumstances can lead to loss of nationality. Within immigration, this process often forces people to obtain a Certificate of Loss of Nationality. US immigration lawyers can assist with how to move forward and assess the status of the visa.

Issues with ICE and complying with immigration waivers

If you are inadmissible for any type of immigration into the US under erroneous circumstances, combating a waiver of inadmissibility with capable immigration lawyers can overturn the verdict.

Regarding employment immigration, I-9 and similar waivers of compliance are required not only from immigrants but also from any individual working within the Order of Law in the United States. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may request and require forms from any organization, and, in doing so, can jeopardize a company’s financial stability if technical deficiencies are found. It is therefore crucial to buffer these issues with business immigration lawyers.