Weekly Immigration Update: April 13 – 19, 2018
May Visa Bulletin Update: USCIS to Honor Employment-Based Final Action Dates Only Next Month
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Our services
You tell us where, when and why. We'll tell you how. From individuals and small local businesses to the world’s largest companies, we support all of your immigration needs, all over the world.
Americas
Asia Pacific
Europe
Middle East & Africa
For Businesses
Whether you are running a large multi-jurisdictional immigration program, or need assistance with immigration in a particular country or region, Fragomen can help you seamlessly manage the movement of your workforce. Designed to meet your need for comprehensive support, our full range of work permit and authorization services help to ensure process compliance with immigration regulations in more than 170 countries worldwide.
These services include:
Application preparation and filing for temporary work and residence permits, entry clearances, entry visas and immigrant matters
Visa issuance assistance
Guidance on entry and departure procedures
Guidance for successful security and medical clearance processing
Guidance for complex cases, including advocacy before government agencies
Advice on dependent and family member visa processing, ability to work matters, student-related matters and maintenance of status
Our designated teams of experienced professionals take the time to understand your company’s business objectives, immigration goals and assignees. They communicate openly with you and your assignees throughout the immigration process, building trusted partnerships and providing holistic, customized support.
For Individuals
Even the simplest immigration requirements can be hard to understand—never mind the parameters of a multi-layered immigration scheme. If you find yourself lost in a sea of immigration regulations, Fragomen can help. We will make the complex simple as we guide you and your family through the immigration requirements of your new country. With our clear, concise and personalized support, you will understand your role in the immigration process and know exactly what you need to do to get you and your family to your new home as quickly as possible.
Fragomen Connect™
At Fragomen, we blend personalized service delivery with advanced technology to modernize and elevate immigration program management.
Our proprietary software—known as Fragomen Connect™—automates significant steps within the immigration process—reducing the opportunity for errors and creating efficiencies. Designed to support the needs of your human resources and mobility teams, as well as your employees, Fragomen Connect™ will help to ease the management of your immigration program through simple-to-use features and robust integrated tools, including:
24/7/365 real-time access to your cases from anywhere in the world
Case status, history and important dates at your fingertips
Powerful dashboards that provide snapshots of your immigration program and statistics
Sophisticated calendaring and reminders
Documents, questionnaires and forms pending action
Online document storage for materials gathered during the immigration process
Customized reporting suite with on-demand report generation and download capabilities
Immigration overviews and educational resources to help users understand immigration processes, procedures and terms for different countries
Access to the latest immigration regulations and news
Fragomen Connect™ is exclusive to the firm and provided to client stakeholders as part of our immigration services.
At Fragomen, we know that running a streamlined immigration program requires much more than transactional immigration services. It requires strategic “big picture” guidance; information that allows you to keep up with evolving laws; training for your employees; leading-edge technologies and analytics, and much more.
While many of these services incur a fee at other immigration firms, at Fragomen, we believe that providing these types of services helps us to build strong and trusting relationships with our clients, improve the transparency of our services, and increase the value of your immigration spend.
Our value-added services include (but are not limited to):
Strategic Planning Recommendations
Strategic immigration program planning can help you meet your global mobility goals in a timely and cost-effective manner. To support this, Fragomen leverages our experience to provide you with specific ideas about strategies and practices that reduce your immigration compliance risk and offer you the greatest chance of success.
Client Alerts and Updates
We send Client Alerts and updates to notify you when significant changes in regulations, requirements, policies or procedures are anticipated or implemented worldwide. You can sign up to receive alerts automatically, or access current or past alerts via our Immigration Alerts section.
Client Training
We know that immigration is often a complicated field, and believe that true partnership involves the sharing of information. Fragomen offers our clients training on a wide range of immigration topics, as well as training on the use of our proprietary technologies for case and information management. (In some instances, extensive training may incur a fee.)
Case Management Technology
In an effort to make the complex simpler, Fragomen’s proprietary, state-of-the-art case management technology gives clients a detailed view of their case matter(s) and acts as a central resource for information transfer and document upload and storage. Whether you need to see a specific population for program management purposes or need to see a specific case matter for a foreign national and his or her dependents, our case management system is a one-stop shop for all your case and program management needs.
Reporting
Reporting is a critical tool for program managers. Recognizing this, Fragomen offers standard reports free of charge, including:
Monthly dashboards
Monthly and quarterly consolidated usage reports
Open case status reports
Expiration reports for employees and accompanying dependents
Comparative spend reports
Quarterly business reports
Business Review Meetings
To keep your immigration program on-course, Fragomen provides periodic business review meetings. These meetings are designed to assess the success of Fragomen’s service delivery; review client changes to corporate goals, policies or practices that could affect their immigration program; analyze and determine potential program modifications; and discuss “big picture” strategies based on current and anticipated needs.
Immigration is Fragomen’s core business. This means that our clients work with experienced legal professionals who are respected as thought leaders in the field of immigration law and relied on by companies, individuals, other law firms, third party advisors and governments throughout the world.
Why consider an alternative residence or citizenship?
How we partner with you to achieve your objectives
How will you benefit from our third party advisors?
What solutions do we offer third party providers?
We understand your motivations for seeking alternative citizenship and/or residency, and can provide the legal advice and superior level of service that will enable you to achieve your goals. Because Fragomen is either organized or operates as a law firm throughout the world, you can trust that we will provide you with legally sound options for secondary citizenships and/or residency.
Why consider an alternative residence or citizenship?
We recognize that there are many reasons why you may wish to seek alternative citizenship and/or residency, including:
Quality of life
Personal and family safety and security
Political, economic and social stability
Family’s future and education
Ease of travel
Culture and community
Global investment and business opportunities
Diversification of assets
Asset protection
Tax and private wealth planning and management
We will take all of your motivations into consideration and propose legally compliant solutions across different jurisdictions that will help you meet your goals.
How will you benefit from our third party advisors?
We work closely with your third party advisors to provide a holistic approach, drawing on our established relationships with a range of services, such as tax, wealth management, finance, education, property, security and concierge services. Should you require advice beyond the realm of immigration services, we will work in partnership with these third-party providers and seamlessly coordinate all professional services surrounding your global citizenship and residency.
What solutions do we offer third party providers?
You will partner with a colleague that can provide the level of service your clients expect. Our global citizenship and residency offerings complement your services, and we work to ensure compliance with all local laws to minimize risk for your clients and their families.
Enjoy a premier, bespoke service. Your high net worth clients are accustomed to around-the-clock attentiveness and white glove service. Ours are too. From the moment we begin working with you, we take the time to understand the needs, wants and service expectations of your clients. Our goal is to mirror the elite caliber of service you already provide.
We focus solely on immigration, so our services complement—but do not compete with – your services. By working with Fragomen to provide your clients with the immigration advice they need, we act as an extension of your organization, creating a positive and symbiotic relationship that enhances the breadth of client service for both organizations.
How we partner with you to achieve your objectives
We provide legal advice that is clear, on-point, practical and, above all, trustworthy. We partner with you to determine processes and protocols for immigration service delivery that best suit your needs and those of your clients.
As a law firm, compliance is the cornerstone of our services, and we share the exceedingly high compliance standards required of international service providers. We know that you and your clients are focused on remaining compliant with laws around the world. We guarantee that the immigration advice that we provide will be primarily focused on compliance with each country’s laws and requirements.
Many successful companies operating in the international business landscape share a common element—they have partnered with Fragomen to develop strategic, world-class international immigration programs. Fragomen helps you structure your immigration program to reflect your unique corporate preferences, policies and practices, and take advantage of processing and cost efficiencies.
We partner with you every step of the way as you grow and evolve, making adjustments where needed and introducing new opportunities and technologies to support the immigration aspects of your assignees’ relocation or travel.
Program management support includes:
Immigration policy and program design assistance, or refining your existing policies and procedures
Strategic planning and comprehensive regional and/or global program management, utilizing Fragomen’s case management technology, reporting capabilities, performance metrics, and industry benchmarking for best practices
Workflow analyses to achieve maximum efficiency in case preparation and data-sharing
Due diligence guidance regarding the impact of immigration regulations and requirements on corporate restructuring, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, and reductions in force
Short-term assignment planning and back-to-back assignment strategies
Knowledge Management Advice
Immigration requirements can change at lightning speed, and keeping up with these changes can be challenging. We empower our clients by acting as their knowledge center for immigration-related information.
Our dedicated Global Knowledge resources—including immigration professionals around the world—identify the issues most critical to our clients, and maintain a database of changes to immigration requirements to support our client account teams.
This broad and up-to-date knowledge allows our client teams to provide you with the best available strategies for success, and alert you when issues might affect your immigration program or foreign national assignees.
Fragomen's Global Knowledge Team has also developed communications, systems and processes to educate clients on local and global processes, procedures and policies.
Our specific knowledge management resources include:
Global immigration alerts and updates
Country summaries
Fragomen news
Immigration links
Blogs
Social media postings
Publications
Databases of country-specific and region-specific immigration information
Many of our knowledge management resources are provided to transactional services clients without charge. However, certain resources are subscription-based or may otherwise incur a fee.
OmniaPrime™
With the complicated and conflicting demands of global mobility programs, in-house immigration professionals can find it difficult to keep up with local country requirements and changing processes. Fragomen offers a proprietary information management tool—called OmniaPrime™—that contains databases of detailed information on immigration processes, red flag issues, processing times, and other information relevant to immigration compliance. This tool augments our knowledge management resources, and supports transparency and client education.
OmniaPrime™ is accessed through a web-based portal for ease of access and use, and includes the following:
Immigration index
Minimum salary database
Immigration departure requirements database
Processing times database
Triggers for government notification
Local employment contract requirements
Short-term work authorization options
Government filing fees
Corporate restructuring planning guidance
Spouse/domestic partner derivative status database
Legalization and apostille requirements
OmniaPrime™ is available as a subscription service.
Working with governments—whether it is to file an application, resolve an incorrect application of laws, or advocate for benefits on behalf of your company—can be time consuming, confusing and overwhelming for you and your employees. Fragomen leverages our experience working with and advising government immigration authorities worldwide to appropriately make your government processes smoother, simpler and manageable, where possible.
Several of our top immigration professionals have held important immigration-related government positions in the past. This knowledge allows us to give you a bird’s-eye view of the complexities and solutions available to you, and helps us to work cohesively with government authorities to advocate on your behalf and help you to face your challenges and achieve your goals.
Fragomen’s dedicated Government Strategies and Corporate Compliance Group has resources located in each region worldwide. This gives us a unique vantage point and allows us to offer innovative strategies for success.
Remaining in compliance with requirements for verifying employment eligibility is paramount. Employers who violate these laws are subject to significant civil fines and penalties, along with public relations issues and interruptions to day-to-day business operations in the event of an audit. Flawed processes, inadequate record retention procedures, and errors and omissions can heighten your risk.
To help employers meet these requirements, Fragomen has developed comprehensive service models that range from guidance and training on all aspects of employment verification compliance to advanced, web-based solutions. Our professionals around the globe understand country-specific requirements and best practices for implementing and maintaining a sound program.
Our services include:
Guidance on employment verification compliance and best practices
Process, procedure and policy review and development
Preventative employment verification audit and review
Training for human resources professionals and teams
Customized program design, management and support
Representation in the case of government visits and investigations
Sophisticated, online software solutions that automate process compliance and help protect you from risk
visaOntrack® (Australia)
Fragomen Employment Verification Tool (EVT) (United Kingdom)
I-9 Service Center (United States)
Not only are reporting requirements for companies that sponsor staff on subclass 457 visas time sensitive, but noncompliance can impact the ability to sponsor expatriates in the future. Employer obligations continue well beyond the departure of sponsored staff, and violations can lead to extensive financial penalties, administrative sanctions, business interruptions and reputational damage.
Fragomen’s visaOntrack® tool assists Australia-based companies with reporting and record keeping obligations to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP). This proprietary, web-based software is tailored to complement business immigration compliance and risk management strategies. Human resource and mobility teams can securely access subclass 457 visa records at all times and extract detailed reporting and statistics to effectively manage sponsored employments.
Features include:
Dedicated portal that captures all key information required by DIBP
Compliance with DIBP information retention, reporting and record keeping requirements
Notification of events related to a sponsored worker or business
On demand access to records and supporting documents for ongoing management or in the event of an audit
Online notifications to Fragomen of events relating to your business and expatriate staff
Internal management reporting and alerts
Continuous updates in accordance with government policies
Fragomen Employment Verification Tool (EVT)
Employers in the United Kingdom can be fined up to £20,000 per person for employing illegal workers. Complying with the updated requirements of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act of 2006 is imperative to avoid penalties and manage risks.
Fragomen provides a full range of Points Based System (PBS) compliance services and resources, and understands the common mistakes and pitfalls employers face in maintaining employment verification compliance. From this, we developed our Employment Verification Tool (or EVT). This easy-to-use, online tool streamlines and automates the process of determining an individual’s immigration status prior to employment. It is designed to help simplify the process of checking a new employee’s entitlement to work in the United Kingdom, while imposing automated process compliance. Both employees and human resource staff utilize the system to streamline the process of document verification.
Features include:
End-to-end employee and employer verification process for new employees
Annual work status checks for applicable employees
Online document upload and storage
Searchable database of verifications to assist in the case of a government audit
Continuous updates to reflect any changes in government requirements
The procurement and authentication of documents is a requirement for immigration processes in many countries. In many jurisdictions, the evidentiary requirements of the application process can be lengthy, complex and difficult to coordinate. In today’s global business environment, an individual can often have documents that have been issued in multiple countries around the world. Due to these and other factors, document procurement, authentication and legalization can potentially delay work permit and visa processes.
Fragomen’s experienced team of worldwide document services professionals are adept at navigating the nuances of these requirements and plotting the optimal course of action to keep application processes on track.
Our Document Services Team can help you secure documents from government agencies and law enforcement authorities from a wide range of countries. They take a centralized and proactive approach, utilizing strategic planning to bolster organization and streamline processes for success.
Our document services include:
Obtaining vital records, academic records, criminal history reports, and assignment documents for applicants and their family members
Obtaining or authenticating corporate documents, including powers of attorney, technical services agreements, certificates of good standing and incorporation certificates
Document legalization assistance
Translation services assistance, where required
Home-country registration assistance of births or marriages abroad
Consular assistance with document procurement and legalization matters
Full service immigration support is not as simple as merely preparing the proper documentation. At Fragomen, we understand that consulates, embassies and other diplomatic posts worldwide are integral to immigration processes for many travelers and their families. We also understand that the experience of interacting with officials at diplomatic posts can be overwhelming.
Our dedicated Consular team members and Local Advisor partners can help to alleviate these concerns by providing instructions and services supporting consular processes and requirements. This covers assistance for short term business travel visas and other consular or related matters filed in embassies, consulates and high commissions.
In countries where we have offices, and in certain other locations through our Local Advisors, we offer consular support including some or all of the following:
Consultation regarding visa eligibility and options, procedures at diplomatic posts and corporate strategy
Comprehensive guidance throughout the consular process, including: scheduling visa appointments, preparing visa applications, making fee payments, filing visa applications (where permitted), detailed consultative services, and assistance with gathering and authenticating necessary supporting documentation
Liaising with local posts to support our clients’ compliance with current processes, procedures and documentary requirements
Expedited and high-touch VIP services, where permitted
Compliance assessments
Guidance on compliance with destination country immigration laws and regulations
Fragomen’s U.S. Consular Team can provide the following additional services:
End-to-end assistance with the U.S. consular process, including: scheduling visa interview appointments, obtaining MRV fee payment receipts, completing Department of State forms, assisting applicants with gathering necessary supporting documentation, providing applicants with detailed instruction letters and cover letters to the consulate/embassy, and providing a detailed pre-interview briefing
Acting as government liaison, including at pre-clearance locations, where possible
Filing treaty trader and investor company registration applications
Direct consular filing of immigrant petitions for alien relatives and immigrant visa processing assistance
Filing transportation letter, abandonment of legal permanent residence applications and returning residence applications
Preparing and filing immigrant and nonimmigrant waivers of inadmissibility
Assisting with U.S. citizenship matters, including reports of births abroad, first-time or renewal passport applications and relinquishments of citizenship
Business travel globally is fraught with risk. If you don’t have the correct visa, you can be denied entry to or exit from your desired destination and your business trip will be ruined. Fragomen’s worldwide presence and resources give us unfettered access to current information on the latest developments in business visa rules and policies in critical business markets. We use this knowledge to help clients comply with ever-changing business visa requirements around the world, and avoid costly mistakes.
Recognizing the critical nature of this unique area of immigration and the risks associated with noncompliance, Fragomen has a dedicated Business Visa Services Group made up of professionals around the world who are particularly well-placed to meet clients’ business visa needs. This group provides guidance and immigration support to companies and their employees in anticipation of and during the business visa application process. We also offer a proprietary and entirely unique technology for determining if and when a business visa is appropriate.
Business Visa Services
In all countries where we have offices, and in certain other locations through our Local Advisors, we offer business visa services and support.
These include:
Up-front assessment of whether a business visitor visa or work permit is required, and strategic planning
Preparation of business visa application support letters
Advice on process requirements and related time frames
Document procurement and authentication support
Submission of applications or detailed submission guidance, where in-person filing is required by the traveler
Follow-up with appropriate government agency and passport collection
Guidance on anticipated processing times (where available)
Emergency assistance for urgent applications
Passport Services
Fragomen provides instructions on process requirements and assistance with passport applications in select locations, including preparation of first-time applications; renewals; page additions; amendments; replacement of lost or stolen passports; and second passports for frequent business travelers (for certain nationals).
Business Visa Matrix
Fragomen’s proprietary Business Visa Matrix is a powerful business planning and immigration compliance tool that assesses whether a traveling employee can lawfully carry out their intended activities on a business visitor visa in the country they will be visiting, or whether they will require work authorization. Accessible online, this system provides guidance on immigration requirements in over 110 destination countries across more than 160 nationalities.
M&A, Large Scale Projects, Back to Back Rotational Assignments
With an intensifying regulatory environment, businesses involved in corporate restructuring activities, large scale projects, back-to-back rotational assignments and exports face a unique set of challenges and compliance roadblocks in the cross-border movement of workers. Fragomen provides guidance and support to companies of all sizes on the immigration impact of these complex ventures. We act as a strategic partner to help you execute project needs through compliant—yet practical—immigration solutions.
M&As and Corporate Restructuring
Analysis during mergers and acquisitions (M&A), divestures and other types of corporate restructuring activities are typically focused on the “big-picture” and mitigating financial risks—often overlooking the critical area of immigration compliance. Corporate changes without adequate consideration of immigration impacts can lead to serious repercussions for essential employees and the success of the merger.
Fragomen has been helping businesses navigate the immigration-related aspects of corporate activities for decades. Our due diligence investigations include a thorough immigration status analysis, impact determination and management of necessary immigration activities.
Project Support
Large scale projects around the world often require the simultaneous movement of dozens to hundreds of employees, presenting different challenges based on the number of employees, their roles and credentials, and the countries involved.
We can work closely with you on project undertakings to provide guidance on maintaining compliance with local immigration processes regulations. In partnership with you, we can build custom action plans in line with your priorities and targets, helping you to stay on track and achieve your project goals.
Rotational and Back-to-Back Assignments
The use of short-term assignments such as rotational and multiple or back-to-back assignments continues to rise. In reaction, many countries have tightened their programs and implemented heavy penalties for immigration violations. While helping to control costs and build your global operations, the rapid deployment of employees to foreign countries can create myriad compliance concerns.
We help hundreds of companies around the world manage the immigration risk associated with short-term cross-border travel. We can help you understand the intricacies and challenges, and guide you on proactive strategies for avoiding common pitfalls and incorporating compliance into your overall plan.