If you’ve decided you want to attract high-skilled immigrants to work for your company, be prepared for the process. This isn’t the sort of decision that can be made on a Monday and implemented by the end of the week. It could take months or even years, depending on your choice of a business innovation program.
However, it’s often a decision worth putting the effort into seeing through. Below, we’ve broken down the process into six steps.
1. Prepare your business
The first step is to figure what roles within the business you would like to fill with high-skilled immigrants. With most companies, these are positions which the HR team have struggled to fill with American candidates. There are certain skills that are more in abundance outside the U.S. If your company needs these skills, you’re on the right path to finding them.
2. Be aware of your legal obligations
You need to remain within the boundaries of the law while bringing new employees to the United States. Contact the U.S Customs and Immigration Service for all the information you need on this.
3. Decide which program you are going to use
There are plenty of visa programs to choose from.
These include Extraordinary Ability, H-1B Visa Sponsorship, J-1 Visa, L-1A and L-1B Visas and National Interest Waiver, Student Exchange and Visitor Programs.
It’s your job to decide which one is appropriate for the types of employees you’re aiming to hire.
You need to consider whether you’re after temporary employees or looking to make them permanent residents of the United States. The job functions they’re filling will play a role, as will the country you’re hiring from. It’ll be simpler if this country was a treaty with the United States.
4. Obtain certification from the Department of Labor
You’ll need to obtain a certification from the U.S Department of Labor (DOL) before moving forward with the visa process. The certifications you need will vary depending on the business immigration program you choose. Details of how to get these certifications will be available within the documentation of the course. These certifications exist so the DOL can verify that your foreign employees won’t harm job opportunities, wages, or working conditions for U.S workers.
5. Petition USCIS for visas
It’ll be partly down to you to obtain visa for your international employees. Once again, the process you follow will depend on the type of visa you’re after. Be aware that obtaining certification doesn’t guarantee you’ll land a visa for all your employees at the first attempt. You’ll also need to go through USCIS if you wish to extend or change the status of an employee’s visa in the future.
6. Craft some top-notch job adverts
If you’re not experienced with writing great job advertisements to attract high-skilled immigrants to your company, consider outsourcing this to a company which is skilled at immigration labor advertising. Once you’ve completed these steps you’re pretty much all the way there to attract a new wave of great workers from international companies.
