LEARN ABOUT TRANSFERRING YOUR WORKERS TO ANOTHER COMPANY TO AVOID HAVING TO PAY THE ¾ GUARANTEE!
The recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States has led to worry and uncertainty across the country. As employers begin to develop plans to address some of the issues presented and combat the spread of the virus within their workforce, employers are faced with the difficult decision to send workers back to their home country prior to the completion of their work contract. This decision can result in the employer having to satisfy the ¾ guarantee. However, there are alternatives to paying the ¾ guarantee!
With US borders closing, U.S. consular posts reducing or temporarily suspending visa services (list of embassy websites for country-specific information concerning COVID-19), and many countries losing eligibility for temporary work VISAS, many companies’ dependent on these programs face uncertainty on how to get the workers they need, or what to do with the workers they already have, but won’t be able to use due to changes in operations.
If your case is the latter, you contact Farmer, Farmer & Brown, we have options that can help you save money by transferring workers you won’t be able to use, to companies where workers are still needed, which can free you of the financial burden of the ¾ guarantee.
If you need temporary workers but are unclear on how you can obtain them with all the immigration regulation changes, contact us and one of our immigration attorneys will assess your company’s needs.
We also want to urge companies that already have temporary workers under specialty occupation VISAS such as H-1B to be mindful of how the changes in operations such as working from home may affect status compliance for those workers. For these foreign-national employees, there may be additional steps an employer must take to ensure continued compliance with the employee’s visa classification.
In many cases, a change in an H-1B employee’s work location from campus or from the employer’s office location to working from home or some other remote location would require that the LCA be posted at the new worksite and the Public Access File updated accordingly.
Depending on the employee’s visa classification, there may be other unique compliance implications to the employer arising out of work from home policies, office closures or work stoppages, and other changes to an employer’s normal business operations.
We recommend that employers consult with one of our immigration attorneys to discuss any such changes and the resulting impacts on foreign-national employees. Call Farmer, Farmer & Brown Law Firm today at (770) 285-5653 or email us at info@ffbfirm.com to learn more about how to navigate the effect of COVID-19 on your immigration program.