Yvonne M. LaFleur, Chief of the Business and Trade Branch of the INS, has stated in a letter to immigration attorney Michael Maggio that a company in the US meets the definition of US employer, for H-1B purposes even though the alien employee’s salary is paid by an employer in a foreign country as long as “the US entity controls the alien.” According to LaFleur, the key issue is control of the employee, not the source of the employee’s salary. In the same letter, LaFleur noted that there is no statutory or regulatory limit on the length of time that a B-1 business visitor nonimmigrant can remain the US as long as long as the visitor is maintaining valid nonimmigrant status.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk. The information provided in this article has not been updated since its original posting and you should not rely on it until you consult counsel to determine if the content is still valid. We keep older articles online because it helps in the understanding of the development of immigration law.