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      Subjects

      This handbook

      Subject

      Immigration Sponsorship

      Labor condition applications and public access files, prevailing wage determinations, permanent labor certification audits, school certification and student record reporting, employment verification programs, and the penalties for getting any of it wrong.

      01
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Withdrawing and Refiling a Labor Certification

      Requests to modify an Application for Permanent Employment Certification are not accepted once it is filed. An employer that needs a different job title, wage, worksite or requirement must withdraw and refile. Withdrawal does not erase an audit notification already issued, does not preserve the priority date, and does not extend the validity of recruitment beyond the windows the regulation sets. The refiled case is new in every respect except the retention duty, which attaches to both.

      6 min readFederal law

      02
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Tentative Nonconfirmations and the Right to Contest

      When an electronic verification case returns a mismatch, the employer notifies the employee privately, provides the written further action notice, and lets the employee decide whether to contest. If the employee contests, the employer refers the case and hands over the confirmation stating the employee's deadline. Throughout, the employer may not terminate, suspend, reduce hours, withhold pay or training, or delay a start date. Only a final nonconfirmation permits action.

      5 min readFederal law

      03
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Successor Employers and the Records They Inherit

      A buyer acquiring a workforce chooses between adopting the seller's employment verification forms and completing new ones, and adopting them means inheriting their defects. Wage attestations pass to a successor only where it assumes the predecessor's obligations in a sworn statement placed in each public access file. An approved labor certification and its priority date may follow a successor that assumed the predecessor's rights and assets. Program enrollment does not transfer to a new entity.

      6 min readFederal law

      04
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Student Record Reporting and the Cost of a Late Entry

      A certified school reports each term whether an enrolled student registered, dropped below a full course of study or failed to appear, and it does so within a fixed period after the registration deadline. Separately, it reports defined changes within twenty-one days of the change. Both duties rest on the school rather than the student. A missed entry leaves the record contradicting the student's actual situation, and that contradiction is what a reviewer reads.

      6 min readFederal law

      05
      Immigration Sponsorship

      The Verification Form: Who Signs, and by When

      The employee completes and signs the first section of Form I-9 no later than the first day of employment, and never before accepting an offer. The employer examines the documents the employee chooses to present and completes the second section within three business days of the first day of employment, or by the first day where the engagement is shorter than that. The completed form is retained for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later.

      6 min readFederal law

      06
      Immigration Sponsorship

      The Actual Wage Obligation and the Memorandum Behind It

      An employer must pay the sponsored worker at least the actual wage paid to all other individuals with similar experience and qualifications for the specific employment in question at the same establishment, or the prevailing wage for the occupation in the area, whichever is higher. A written memorandum explaining the system used to set the actual wage goes into the public access file, and lawful pay factors must be applied consistently across the comparison group.

      5 min readFederal law

      07
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Dependent Employers and the Additional Attestations

      An employer is dependent where its sponsored workforce exceeds a threshold set by total full-time equivalent headcount: a small numeric cap for the smallest employers, a larger cap in the middle band, and a percentage of the workforce above that. Dependency adds a non-displacement attestation covering a window before and after the petition filing, and a recruitment attestation requiring good-faith recruitment of domestic workers. Applications covering only exempt workers switch both off.

      5 min readFederal law

      08
      Immigration Sponsorship

      How a Wage and Hour Investigation of a Sponsor Proceeds

      An investigation may open on a complaint by an aggrieved party filed within a limited period, on credible information from a reliable source, or on the agency's own initiative where the employer has been found a willful violator. The investigator examines the public access file, payroll, the applications and the petitions. Remedies include back wages, penalties in tiers, debarment and reinstatement, and a determination is contested by requesting a hearing.

      5 min readFederal law

      09
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Layoffs, Notification and the Duty to Consider Former Workers

      Where the employer has laid off workers in the area of intended employment, in the occupation for the job opportunity or in a related occupation, within a defined period before filing, it must document that it notified and considered all potentially qualified workers who were laid off, and the result of that consideration. A layoff means an involuntary separation other than for cause. A related occupation is one requiring a majority of the same essential duties.

      5 min readFederal law

      10
      Immigration Sponsorship

      School Certification and the Recertification Cycle

      A school that enrolls nonimmigrant students files Form I-17 and is certified for named campuses and named programs of study. The petition must be updated within twenty-one days when the underlying facts change. Certification runs on a two-year cycle, with the recertification petition filed inside a window before expiration. Student records must be produced within three work days of a request, and failure on any of these supports withdrawal of approval.

      6 min readFederal law

      11
      Immigration Sponsorship

      The State Job Order and the Print Advertisement Rules

      The job order is placed with the state workforce agency serving the area of intended employment and runs for a period fixed by regulation, with the start and end dates entered on the application. Two advertisements run on different Sundays in the newspaper of general circulation most appropriate to the occupation. An advertisement must name the employer, describe the vacancy and the area specifically, and may not state requirements exceeding those filed.

      6 min readFederal law

      12
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Document Abuse and Unfair Documentary Practices

      It is unlawful to request more or different documents than the verification rules require, or to refuse documents that reasonably appear genuine and to relate to the person presenting them, where this is done for the purpose of discriminating on the basis of citizenship status or national origin. Charges are filed with the enforcing office within a fixed period, adjudicated before administrative law judges, and remedied by penalties, back pay and injunctive orders.

      5 min readFederal law