Immigration - Related Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions: Impact on Work Visas and Permanent Immigration Processes – United States

Mark Girgis, Chief Legal Officer, Hypertec Group, Canada

As global mergers and acquisitions are forecasted to continue strong in 2023, albeit more frequent and smaller in size, an informed in-house counsel must understand how these transactions and resulting reorganizations will impact their foreign workforce in the United States and include immigration in the due diligence process. The authors of this article will discuss best practices in managing and maintaining foreign national workforce status during mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, restructurings, and other significant events that may occur in the business operations. The subjects covered include the concept of ’successor in interest” and absorbing the obligations of acquired companies; amending existing immigration documents for compliance; work permit compliance in the M&A context, including L-1 Intracompany Transferees, H-1B Specialty Occupations, and E-1 Treaty Investor and E-2 Treaty Trader visas; understanding immigration related risks in M&A ; and conducting immigration due diligence prior to closing to avoid penalties and disruptions, including the effect on pending permanent residence (’Green Card”) applications.

Mark P. Girgis is Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of the Hypertec Group, a global provider of information technology solutions that includes the production and distribution of servers, workstations and personal computers, business resiliency services, home health monitoring support services and value-added services. Mr. Girgis manages all legal affairs of the corporation including negotiating and structuring complex domestic and international transactions, mergers and acquisitions, human resources and employment law including international mobility, contracts, overseeing corporate governance, and managing legal disputes.

Founded in 1984, Hypertec is a large and rapidly growing global provider of innovative information technology solutions. They offer a wide range of technology products and services, which are trusted by cloud service providers, communication service providers, organizations in the financial services, media and entertainment, public sector and health services industries. Their range of products and services include their own designed and manufactured application optimized servers, storage, workstations and personal computers, hardware and software products, home health monitoring support services and a full range of complementary value added services. The Hypertec Group is headquartered in Montreal with facilities in Quebec City, Toronto, Ottawa, and in the United States in Indianapolis, Tempe, and San Jose.