Immigration Changes and Considerations in a Nearing Post-COVID-19 World

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted immigration processes considerably over the past eighteen months. Now that the COVID-19 vaccines are mostly broadly available and as people start to return to pre-COVID-19 way of life, it is important to reevaluate immigration practices to ensure they are in line with legal requirements and review the issues that will continue to impact employment immigration in the months ahead. 

 

The presentation will address: 

• LCA Requirements, 

• I-9 Requirements, 

• Consular Update, 

• Travel Ban & Visa Suspension Proclamation Update and 

• National Interest Exemptions Update

 

Kate Kalmykov focuses her practice on business immigration and compliance. She represents clients in a wide-range of employment based immigrant and non-immigrant visa matters including students, trainees, professionals, managers and executives, artists and entertainers, treaty investors and traders, persons of extraordinary ability and immigrant investors.

Kate currently leads the Immigration & Compliance practice group in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia offices. She works with clients of all sizes in understanding and complying with the immigration laws relating to the hiring and retention of foreign talent. Specifically, her practice focuses on supporting clients and advising them on temporary and permanent residency immigration options for multi-national executive, business, scientific, and information technology personnel. In addition, her practice provides support to companies in the global transfer of personnel. Kate often assists in developing immigration options and strategies in the most unique circumstances, responds to complex Requests for Evidence (RFEs), Notices of Intent to Deny (NOIDs), and appeals denied cases. She has lead the development of employer compliance programs for DOL related filings including H-1Bs and PERMs, as well as for I-9 employment eligibility verification. She develops and conducts nationwide I-9 compliance trainings and policy manuals for human resources personnel, advises on best practices for EVerify employers, provides guidance on avoiding immigration-related unfair employment practices claims and has successfully defended and minimized penalties in immigration-related government audits.

 

Lizbeth M. Chow advises multinational corporate clients across various industries, including architecture, financial, food chain, and technology, on a broad variety of corporate immigration matters, including nonimmigrant visas (e.g., E-3, H-1B, L-1, TN), consular processing, permanent residence, and citizenship. Lizbeth helps global businesses manage their employees’ international assignments and understand the employment of foreign nationals on both a temporary and permanent basis in the United States. She ensures clients’ compliance with immigration laws, Department of Labor regulations, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policies.

 

Before joining Greenberg Traurig, Lizbeth worked at a global immigration law firm in New York, where she provided immigration services from global Fortune 500 companies to boutique clients primarily in the financial services and financial technology industries. Lizbeth counseled employers and human resources departments on a wide range of compliance issues concerning work authorization, portability of immigration benefits, and maintenance of status. She also led efforts to optimize the process of drafting complex responses to Requests for Evidence.