Want to Work in the United State? - requirements for foreigners seeking employment in US - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

HR Magazine, Sept, 2000 by Carla Joinson

Employers who cast about further will find that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) allows TN visas for qualified citizens from Mexico or Canada to work within professional categories that range from hotel managers to dietitians to soil scientists. The disadvantage of TN visas is that they're granted for only one year, but they can be extended annually without limit.

A particularly useful visa for companies with international offices is the L-1 intra-company transferee visa. "Executives and managers use L1-A visas. And L1-B visas are for workers with specialized knowledge, like a machinist who understands how your manufacturing works," says Maney. "If your company has a foreign affiliate, you can even look at bringing in whole teams."

Paul Schmidt, senior HR specialist at Cameron, a division of oil field tool manufacturer Cooper Cameron Corp. based in Houston, uses L-1 visas to bring in managers and employees with specialty knowledge from its international operations.

"A newly graduated engineer in Singapore may have book knowledge," says Schmidt, "but he needs to learn how to apply it. We may put design engineers in an offshore department or in valve design. They get hands-on experience, and when they go back home, they have a well-rounded idea of the various departments."

Another type of visa is the J-1, open to researchers, scholars, medical interns, teachers and trainees. David Wu, director of Tampa, Fla.-based Hospitality International Group's immigration program, uses about 200 trainees a year under the J-1 program at the company's various hospitality operations.

"This program works perfectly for our system," says Wu. "We can recruit a lot of manpower this way, and when we send them back to their own countries, we already have a location there where we can provide then with a job. It's easy to put these trainees into our system, and we also create a lot of long-term employees."

Wu emphasizes that a company using this program must have a valid training program for which the trainee is qualified. "We use this training for management and for positions like specialty cooks. You can't bring people in to train as dishwashers and bartenders."

Schmidt also has taken advantage of the J-1 program for about three years and runs trainees through the same program he uses for their U.S. counterparts. "We use the Association for International Practical Training (AIPT) as the sponsoring institution since it can be difficult for a company to become certified for this program," he says. "We also like it this way because AIPT is responsible for all the paperwork." AIPT is a nonprofit organization based in Columbia, Md., that serves as a sponsor for international trainees.

Of course, each of these visas has its own set of rules and restrictions, and HR should consult with immigration experts to see if any of its open positions would qualify. "While the immigration law is vast, and the basic answer to entering the country is 'no,' there is a long string of exceptions," says Maney.