Will United States Border Protection Admit Your Foreign Visitor?

The chances that your visiting overseas employee will run into problems with Customs and Border protection may be as high as they’ve ever been, but you can improve the odds. This Today’s General Counsel article, by Sheppard Mullin attorneys Greg Berk and Jonathan Meyer, looks at some of the options. For visitors on a B-1 Temporary Business Visitor visa or an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) visa waiver, the rules are vague, but there are some specific types of conduct to studiously avoid. These include staying more than three weeks at a time, even though the stated rules allow for stays considerably longer than that. Among other red flags: bringing children at the start of the school year. Not all foreign employees should come on a visitor’s visa; in some cases, a work visa would be preferable. “If you prepare and advise your management team appropriately,” the authors write, “you can minimize the risk that your visiting employees will be caught up in enhanced CBP scrutiny.”