Employer’s Liability as a Green Card Sponsor

Over the years, employment-based immigration green cards have become increasingly popular. To better understand the costs, you should understand the PERM labor certification process. If you are an employer thinking of sponsoring a foreign worker for a U.S. green card through the PERM process, we have outlined your liabilities and responsibilities as a sponsor.

What are the costs?

U.S. regulations found at 20 C.F.R. § 656.12, state that the employer must pay all the costs associated with the PERM process. This includes the attorney’s fees and costs associated with the recruitment portion of the case. Once the PERM is approved, you are ready to begin phase 2 of the case with USCIS. The regulations do not require that the employer pay any of the filing fees associated with USCIS. The filing fees can be paid by the employer or the employee. Moreover, the employer is not required to pay any attorney’s fees associated with the USCIS or the Department of State/NVC. After your foreign worker receives the green card, you are ready to begin employment. You must place your new employee on payroll and begin paying the foreign worker at least the prevailing wage salary that was issued by the DOL.

What Are the Penalties?

If the DOL discovers that the employee paid for the recruitment process (or that the employer sought reimbursement from the employee for these costs) the employer could face hefty financial fines and other penalties.

What are the benefits? 

When you have a homogenous workforce who all come from the same background, creativity can become stifled. Foreign employees bring different perspectives and ideas to the team. The blending of perspectives from various cultures is the best possible recipe for creativity and innovation that can take your company to new heights. Sharing different global perspectives and ideas benefits both immigrants and non-immigrant employees alike. This combination can raise the office morale and the company’s reputation, which can lead to better talent coming to work for you. Best of all, employees who speak a different language can be the best tool to help grow your business and connect with different markets.

Final thoughts

The PERM process is the most critical portion of the EB-3 case. If you make a mistake on the PERM or I-140, the entire case could be denied. If at any point during the case, one of the applications gets denied, you do not receive a refund for the money spent. Work with an experienced attorney to ensure that every step of the case is well documented before submission. It is extremely unfortunate when an application is denied for a silly mistake or typo that could have easily been corrected prior to submission.

Purdy Law Employment Based Attorney

Our PERM and EB-3 team at Purdy Law has vast experience representing companies and individuals through the employment based process. We have obtained green cards for many foreign workers, both with experience, little experience, and no experience. Give us a call to schedule your consultation with our PERM attorney today!