Program Description
Scope of Work
Retained Immigration Counsel List
Fee Schedule
Frequently Asked Questions
University Resources & Links

Program Description

Only the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel has the authority to retain legal counsel to represent the University of Michigan and its schools, colleges, divisions and departments. Since October 3, 2005, all immigration petitions in which the University of Michigan is the petitioner have been prepared by either the Faculty and Staff Immigration Services (FSIS) Staff of the International Center (Ann Arbor campus) or one of the following law firms retained by the Office of Vice President and General Counsel to provide immigration services.

Examples of visa categories that are employer-sponsored are: H1-B, O-1, TN, and Permanent Residency (green card). In addition, the University has designated the International Center as the authorized sponsor for the University of Michigan J-1 Exchange Visitor Program. The hiring unit is responsible for the payment of legal fees, administrative costs, filing fees and recruitment costs (when applicable) associated with all immigration petitions. These expenses may not be passed on to the foreign national.

The purposes of this policy are:

1. To ensure excellence in the quality of legal services provided to the University of Michigan and foreign national beneficiaries;
2. To ensure consistency and accuracy in the representations made on behalf of the University of Michigan to federal agencies;
3. To provide accountability at the highest institutional levels for petitions filed on behalf of the University of Michigan;
4. To ensure compliance with the University's employment policies and practices, and with federal regulations; and
5. To provide a reliable means of collecting and storing data on our foreign national employees, as required by law (H1-B public access files and PERM audit files) and for the University's own data collection needs.

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Scope of Work

Faculty and Staff Immigration Services is responsible for processing the following types of employment-based immigration petitions.

1. All H1-B petitions.
2. Teaching Faculty special handling permanent residency cases. The special handling petition must be filed within 18 months of the date of the offer letter. Otherwise, petitions will be processed by a retained law firm under a different permanent residency category.
3. Advice on drafting offer letters for TN visas
4. Advice on drafting invitation letters for B-1 visitors.

In addition, the International Center processes immigration documents for those coming to the University on the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program as professors, research scholars, and specialists. General advising about the J-1 program is also provided.

The retained law firms are responsible for processing the following types of employment-based immigration petitions.

1. All permanent residency petitions not processed by the FSIS staff (i.e., extraordinary ability, PERM, National Interest Waivers).
2. All O-1 petitions.
3. All J-waiver applications sponsored by Interested Government Agencies.

In addition, the retained law firms will process other types of non-immigrant petitions, such as P-Performing artists or athletes.

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The Retained Firms

The following firms have been retained by the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel to provide employment-based immigration services to all campuses.

Please note: For cases where the University of Michigan will be the Petitioner, employees should not contact the attorneys directly until the department has retained the attorney’s services.

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Fee Schedule

The OVPGC has negotiated rates for legal fees and services that are applicable to all three firms. To view the fee schedule, visit the International Center web site at
http://www.internationalcenter.umich.edu/immig/forms/empvisafees.pdf (.pdf*)

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to frequently asked questions about the Retained Immigration Counsel Program can be found on the International Center web site at
http://internationalcenter.umich.edu/immig/retatty/retatty_faq.html

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University Resources and Links

Office of the Vice President and General Counsel
For questions regarding the retained immigration counsel program, contact Donica Thomas Varner, Associate General Counsel (dvarner@umich.edu).

Faculty and Staff Immigration Services
For information about the processing of an employer-sponsored immigration petitions, visit the International Center web site at http://internationalcenter.umich.edu/about/services.html#immig

Human Resources
For information regarding faculty or staff hiring and employment practices, first contact the HR Manager for your school, college or division. Additional centralized resources include:

• Academic Human Resources for instructional faculty
  http://hr.umich.edu/acadhr/
• Office of the Vice President for Research for research faculty
  http://www.research.umich.edu/policies/um/PRS/PRS.html
• Recruiting and Employment Services
  http://www.hr.umich.edu/empserv/

Office of Research & Sponsored Projects (ORSP), formerly known as DRDA
For information regarding whether you can charge the legal fees and costs associated with an employer-sponsored immigration petition to a sponsored grant, visit the Division of Research Development and Administration web site at
http://orsp.umich.edu/policies/um/visas.html

Purchasing
For information regarding how to process invoices from the law firms, visit the Purchasing Department’s web site at
http://www.finance.umich.edu/procurement/

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* NOTE: If you don't already have a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader to access PDFs, you can obtain a free copy from Adobe.

To download .pdf file with a PC:
Right mouse click on link below, then choose "save as" in Netscape ("save target as" in IE) to save it to your computer, and then double click on it to run it.

To download .pdf file with a Mac:
Click on link below, then choose "save this link as" to save it to your computer, and then double click on it to run it.