Yes, but you need to go about it correctly!
B1/B2 (tourist/business) visa applications for foreign remote workers attending meetings in the United States
If you are “employing” foreign remote workers, whether through an Employer of Record or as a contractor, and you want them to attend business meetings in the United States, they may need a US B1/B2 visitor visa first depending on their nationality.
If so, preparation is required. Here are a few pointers to help get started:
Visa appointment backlogs
First, you must consider that it might not be that easy for your employee to get a quick appointment in their home country. Since the 2020 pandemic, wait times for a visa interview appointment have skyrocketed. While the Department of State has taken measures to reduce lengthy wait times, many embassies and consulates continue to post wait times of over 300 days, some even as high as 700+ days.
First, this means you should get started early! If you don’t have a meeting planned yet, but are confident you will have one in the future to which you’d like to invite your foreign remote workers, get started as soon as possible.
Or, if you have a meeting in the next few months that you want a foreign national remote worker to be at and they are from a country with a long appointment backlog, they might have to consider interviewing in a third country with a lower wait time. Doing this requires preparation and guidance as visa officers analyze the case of a “third country national” more stringently than they would a person applying in their home country.
You can check visa appointment wait times here to get started.
B1/B2 refusal rates
Getting a B1/B2 visa for temporary travel to the United States is not a rubber stamp. US visa officers are trained according to US immigration law that every applicant may have immigrant intent and the applicant has to show them through their application and oral interview that they in fact do not intend to immigrate to the US by misusing their temporary travel visa.
If you have employees from countries with a high refusal rate, seeking assistance on their application is important to maximize their chance of approval.
You can check out the US Department of State’s 2019 refusal rate statistics here. You’ll see that, for example, nationals from Nigeria were refused at a rate of 67%, Pakistan 48%, Venezuela 59%, or Mexico 26%.
We highly recommend that anyone from a country with a refusal rate above 20% seek additional assistance on their visa application.
Remote employment
US visa law has not entirely caught up with the realities of remote employment. If your employee lists you as their direct employer with a US address and a salary in USD, the visa officer is likely to think the applicant needs a WORK visa, not a temporary travel visa since they have a US employer. They will be much more suspicious of the applicant’s intentions in the United States and may ultimately refuse the visa on the mere suspicion that the visa won’t be used correctly.
Tip: --Employees who are paid through an Employer of Record (EOR) should list their EOR as their employer on the DS-160; they should then describe their work with a US client.
--Employees who are contractors and paid directly from the US company should describe themselves as self employed and then describe their work with a US client.
Please contact Corstange Law to learn more about how we can help your foreign remote workers through their B1/B2 visa application. We offer expert guidance and a tailored strategy for each case.
e-mail: B1B2@corstange.com