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Latest Legal News...

H-1B Site Inspection Update -- 25,000 Visits Nationwide

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced plans to conduct 25,000 site visits this fiscal year in connection with H-1B petitions filed by U.S. employers. The purpose for the visits is to confirm that the information provided by the employer to USCIS in the H-1B petition is accurate and that the employee is working at the location specified and being paid the salary stated in the petition. The number of site visits is a five-fold increase from the previous fiscal year.

Employers should ensure that all of the information supplied to USCIS in connection with an H-1B petition is accurate and, if the employer is given advance notice of the visit, the employer should contact its legal counsel. The information obtained through site visits could be used as a basis to deny the petition or revoke previously approved petitions if the government finds the employer to have violated the basis on which the petition was approved. Furthermore, adverse information could also be shared with the enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and could expose the employer to possible civil and criminal penalties.

Upcoming Forums and Events

Legal Breakfast Briefing

Both the Cincinnati and Columbus ERA offices have a Legal Breakfast Briefing coming in the month of February. Click on the following links for more information.
Cincinnati Briefing
Columbus Briefing

Employment Law Update

The Cincinnati ERA office will host an employment law update on Thursday, March 11, 2010, to help HR professionals to avoid litigation and keep personal knowledge up-to-date.

Click here to view the agenda and the registration form for the law update.

Revision to federal and Ohio Posters

The recent changes in the federal EEO poster and the Ohio minimum wage posters are mandatory. We have revised our combination posters for both federal and Ohio and will have them available for purchase. The good news is that we have been able to again hold the prices with no increases. Please login and then click here to order the newly updated federal and Ohio posters. As always, if you have questions, call the Hotline at 513-679-4120.

Click on the following links to view the updated federal and Ohio posters.

Training

ERA's training programs build relevant skills and competencies for the real world. Led by subject matter experts, we offer over 125 training and development programs in the areas of: Leadership Development, HR, Legal Compliance and Personal Development.

HR Consulting Services

Our goal is to share our expertise and strengthen HR in your organization. A few of our most popular services:

Wage, Benefit and Policy Surveys

ERA has been collecting and reporting on local/regional salaries, benefits and policies for over 60 years. We conduct 30 surveys each year, with the majority of key positions covered in a variety of industries. On average, over 300 companies participate in each of our surveys. This gives us salary and benefits data on over 10,000 local employees. You can trust our objective survey data to keep you current and make sure you aren't paying too little or too much. Do you have a more specialized survey need? We can design and conduct surveys to collect information on the jobs and benefits specific to your industry.

ERA Insight Newsletter and Updates

ERA publishes monthly newsletters summarizing key legal issues, keeping you current & compliant. We also send regular updates on legal briefings, round tables, forums, training programs and other events to keep you in the know. Click ERA Insight to view the most recent version of this newsletter.