Business Visas
With the digitalization of the workforce, there has been an uptick in business travel for employees to attend meetings or perform other short-term activities worldwide. Our global immigration team understands that business travelers represent a key population of every global mobility program, and our teams provide experienced consular support at each step in the application process. As a law firm, we provide initial visa assessments, document collection/gathering, and coordinate the submission of applications to the appropriate consulate, ensuring that all business travelers remain compliant with local laws while still meeting business needs.
Work Visas and Residence Permits
Planning is critical to ensure an assignment or new hire placement, and the required immigration requirements are executed smoothly. Our global immigration team provides pre-assessments of candidates to confirm the appropriate visa and work permit requirements based on local regulations and qualifications. Once the strategy is confirmed, we provide clear instructions to the company and individual on each step of the immigration process, ensuring that expectations are managed from the start. Once the individual enters the foreign country, our local providers coordinate on the ground support to ensure work and residence permits and local formalities are completed correctly. Our team then tracks the individual’s permits, ensuring that any renewal formalities are started timely and there are no interruptions from the immigration perspective. To further support organizations and individuals, our teams assist with obtaining permanent residence and citizenship when appropriate and beneficial. We first assess an individual (and their families’) situation to find the best strategy and then work with them to ensure awareness of the steps needed to maintain their new status.
Immigration document procurement
Global immigration processes often require extensive documentation, and, in many instances, it may not be easy for individuals and employers to obtain the missing documentation. Our global immigration professionals are experienced with document procurement and provide seamless support to ensure that this burden is minimized throughout an immigration process. As part of our comprehensive offerings, our team assists with obtaining new certified vital records, court documents, police clearances, duplicate diplomas, university transcripts, degree verifications, new passports, or certified translations. We also assist with authenticating, apostilling, and legalizing official documents so that they can be utilized in the destination/host country without delay.
Immigration Compliance
We continue to see an upward trend of countries increasing the complexity of their immigration requirements and focusing more on compliance and enforcement mechanisms. Coupled with the enhanced use of online portals and other technology systems, the automation of immigration compliance checks has become the norm rather than the exception of the past. As a result, companies need to ensure that their newly hired employees have the right to work and monitor and confirm that their employees have the necessary visas and permits while working in a new country. The global immigration team utilizes our experience to partner with clients to implement and streamline immigration procedures and systems to ensure that their employees remain in compliance with changing immigration rules with the focus on minimizing business disruptions.
Immigration Strategy and Benchmarking
The global immigration team has decades of experience representing clients across diverse industries, including information technology, financial services, manufacturing, automotive, retail, and talent. Our team provides expertise in developing mobility strategies that align with business objectives while managing compliance and risk. This includes guidance regarding global M&A, new office openings, increased staffing, and large-scale global immigration and talent acquisition project management.
We assist organizations with creating immigration training programs, global best practices, and compliance protocols. This support more specifically includes country updates and impact, ensuring compliance with changing regulations and policies, preparation and review of internal policies and programs, support during government audits and right to work checks, and customized reporting to assist with program forecasting.
