Master Class Agenda

7:30 – 8:30 a.m.
Registration

8:30 – 9:30 a.m.
Employment-Based Non-Immigrant Visas: Options That Work!
Often the best way to get that key contributor working for you is the non-immigrant visa route. In this session, you’ll learn all the pluses and minuses of this option, including its application to engineering, IT, medicine, finance, and more.

• Business visitors
• Training visas J and H-3
• Working visas H and L
  
• Other visa options: TN, E-1, E-2, E-3, H-2B, O, P

9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
Employment-Based Immigrant Visas, and Adjustment of Status vs. Consular Processing
Part A
How can you navigate a cumbersome regulatory system designed to say “No!” to almost all immigration? What are the secrets to successfully sponsoring an employee’s immigrant and nonimmigrant visa application? Learn how to make the system work to your advantage in this value-packed session:

• Labor certifications: PERM, Schedule A, and more
• Immigrant petitions: advanced degree workers, professionals, skilled workers,
• Alternatives to labor certification: multinational managers & executives, “outstanding researchers,” individuals with “extraordinary” and “exceptional” ability, national interest waivers
• Maintaining NIV status while waiting for adjustment status

Part B

• Adjustment of status vs. consular processing: who can adjust, who must adjust, who can’t adjust
• Concurrent filings
• Priority date and visa bulletin issues
• Travel while adjustment is pending: advance parole and re-entry portability
• Three- and 10-year bars
• Changing standards and trends at the service centers
  
  10:30 – 10:45 a.m.
  Break

10:45 – Noon
The I-9 Form and Acceptable Documents
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services made changes to the 2007 I-9 Form, which required you to get rid of the old “List A” and use a new set of requirements for proving identity and employment eligibility. This session will feature:

• What you should do when updating your forms, document list, and handbook
• New green cards and how employees can swap out their old ones
• Answers to your recertification questions when faced with contradictory and inconsistent documentation
  
  Noon – 1:00 p.m.
  Lunch

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Employment Eligibility Verification Best Practices
Now that you’ve got your forms up to date, what other steps can you take to ensure compliance with federal immigration laws? This session will take you beyond the minimum requirements, boosting your compliance activities to the next level. We’ll cover:

• Pros and cons of partnering with the government
• Benefits of conducting private I-9 audits
• Identifying patterns of mistakes before federal watchdogs do
• Electronic I-9 completion and storage
• Anti-discrimination guidelines

2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Did I Miss Something? SSA No-Match Letters
In late 2007, a U.S. district court prevented the DHS and the Social Security Administration (SSA) from implementing rules that would have placed additional burdens on employers who receive SSA no-match letters. So what is the status of the court case, and, most important, your responsibility today? This session will bring you up to date on:

• The current approach to dealing with SSA no-match letters
• The proposed approach
• The lawsuit preventing implementation
• What a no-match letter means about an employee’s status

3:00 – 3:15 p.m.
Break

3:15 – 3:45 p.m.
Grace Under Fire: Keeping Your Workplace Under Control During an ICE Investigation
ICE officials acknowledge that they have all but abandoned administrative fines in favor of criminal investigations. Given the increase in work site enforcement actions, employers should be fully informed about the laws surrounding a raid and appropriate ways of responding to one. In this session, you'll learn about:

• Search and seizure laws
• Best practices for interacting with government agents
• Managing internal operations and dealing with the public
• Supporting employees and their families

3:45 – 4:15 p.m.
Update on DHS Enforcement Actions
Over the last couple of years, ICE has carried out a number of highly publicized immigration raids in various industries across the country. From the Swift & Company meatpacking plant raids that spanned six states in late 2006 to the early February 2008 arrest of 130 workers at the headquarters of Micro Solutions Enterprises (MSE) in Van Nuys, Florida, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has kicked its enforcement activity into high gear. Are you in danger of joining the ever-growing list of employers that have been targeted by these raids? Play it safe and learn about:

• Work site enforcement trends, including the shift of ICE resources from national security to targeting employers
• Owners & managers in court: frequently filed charges such as criminal harboring and document fraud, and the risk of asset seizure and forfeiture
• Case studies with an eye to how the raid could have been avoided
• Work site enforcement in Florida

4:15 – 4:45 p.m.
Update on State Immigration Legislative Efforts
Whose job is it anyway? Frustrated with federal inactivity, some states and even cities have taken it upon themselves to pass their own enforcement laws. But how can you keep up, particularly if you’ve got operations in multiple states? This session will provide an overview of:

• Federal vs. state debate and lawsuits
• State law survey
• Fines, fees, penalties

4:45 – 5:00 p.m.
Q&A Session

Your Workshop Leaders:
Authorities on Immigration Law and its Impact on Florida Employers

Your Miami Presenter:

For the past 12 years, attorney Hector A. Chichoni with the law firm of Epstein Becker & Green has assisted employers in the recruitment and retention of talented foreign nationals and counseled them on work site enforcement, proper use of the new Form I-9, compliance with state immigration legislation and ‘No-Match’ problems. His practice focuses on U.S. and global immigration law, with a wide range of clients that include individuals, multinational corporations, health care organizations and universities. Mr. Chichoni is also a frequent commentator on immigration issues and his interviews have appeared in The National Law Journal, Workforce Management, Miami Today, The Miami Herald, The Daily Business Review, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, El Sentinel, The South Florida Business Journal, The Coral Gables Gazette, and Comcast News.

Your Jacksonville Presenters:

Attorney G. Thomas Harper with the Jacksonville firm of Harper Gerlach has practiced law since 1973, focusing on labor and employment law. He counsels clients concerning immigration issues, the FMLA, the ADA, the ADEA, and sexual harassment. He has litigation experience in a wide variety and number of cases, including numerous jury and non-jury trials before federal and state courts and administrative agencies. Mr. Harper has been selected in The Best Lawyers in America for the past 11 years and was listed in Florida Monthly magazine as one of the top lawyers in Florida in Labor and Employment Law. Florida Super Lawyers magazine named him one of the top 100 lawyers in Florida. He is Board Certified by the Florida Bar in Labor and Employment Law. Attorney

Rebecca L. Caballero is a sole practitioner in The Law Office of Rebecca L. Caballero, P.A., where she concentrates in the fields of immigration and family law. She has practiced in all areas of immigration law, including family-sponsored immigration, employment-based immigration, and refugee/asylee law. She has given presentations on various topics related to immigration law to law students, social service agencies, and members of the community, and she has also been a guest lecturer to students in an immigrant rights clinic.

For over 30 years, attorney Stephen H. Davis has been helping people from all over the world legally immigrate to the United States. A nationally recognized expert in immigration law, Mr. Davis has dedicated his practice exclusively to immigration law.

With clients from over 178 countries, Mr. Davis works with companies and individuals who want to work and live in America.

Attorney Margaret Ioannides has specialized in the field of U.S. Immigration and Nationality law since receiving her law and master’s degrees from Georgetown University in 1996. She has worked as an immigration attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as in prominent law firms in Florida and Texas, handling both employment based and family based immigration matters on behalf of corporate and individual clients.

Ms. Ioannides has written on immigration law topics for the Austin Human Resource Management Association and has been published in the Texas Lawyer, the Austin Business Journal, and the Florida Bar’s International Law Quarterly. She has also been interviewed as an Immigration Law expert by Austin’s News Channel 8. Ms. Ioannides also frequently presents to Universities, trade, and community groups regarding immigration and related legal issues Ms. Ioannides is fluent in both Spanish and Greek.