Immigration Planning and Compliance

Carlton Fields provides comprehensive immigration law services to clients that include large U.S.- and foreign-owned corporations, startups, entrepreneurs, private universities and academies, artists, and athletes. As U.S. immigration policies develop and change, our forward-looking guidance and training helps our clients operate in an often challenging climate.

Compliance Counseling and Training

Our team drafts corporate immigration policies and provides training and training materials to clients’ HR, compliance, and legal departments. We handle all issues related to:

• Completion and maintenance of I-9 employment verification forms
• E-Verify use, including desk reviews by the monitoring and compliance verification unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• Preparation for ICE audits or raids, including those that occur at hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities, restaurants, and hotels
• H-1B public access files (PAFs)
• Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) visits to employer sites that employ foreign nationals on temporary work visas
• Audits and reviews of student records pursuant to the student and exchange visitor information system (SEVIS) for universities/academia
• SEVIS audits for flight academies that train pilots

Work Visa Processing

We counsel clients on the full range of visas that enable foreign nationals to work in the United States, and help clients to process all related paperwork. Our services include:

• Counseling on nonimmigrant work visa options
• Permanent employment-based visas/labor certification
• Visas for artists, athletes, and entertainers
• Visas for investors and entrepreneurs
• Family-based visas

Green Card – Immigrant Visa Processing

We counsel clients on employment-based routes to obtaining U.S. residence (a green card). Our work includes defending against terrorism- and security-related bars to admission and processing all necessary green card paperwork (including green cards processed through the EB-5 investor program).

EB-5 Investor Program

We advise on and process EB-5 petitions for direct and indirect investors, and regional centers and developers.

U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization

We counsel clients on the naturalization process based on residency or a family relationship, and process the necessary paperwork for naturalization, derivative citizenship, or renunciation of citizenship as well as abandonment of U.S. permanent residency (including for personal, tax, or health reasons).