Biography: Corporate Immigration

Timothy G Payne, a partner, joined the firm in 1995 and practices exclusively in the area of immigration and nationality law. His practice focuses primarily on temporary and permanent residence processing for executives and employees of multinational corporations. He has represented corporate and institutional clients I-9 compliance audits, and regularly assists clients in establishing best practices in the corporate immigration area. In the wake of recent legislation governing the H-1B and L-1 visa programmes, he has helped clients develop strategies to adjust their immigration sponsorship policies. With the development of the Department of Labor's new online labour certification programme, filing and document compliance procedures changed dramatically. He has helped clients successfully document recruitment and navigate through the new 'PERM' process. Mr Payne regularly works with the firm's corporate and litigation practices in performing due diligence related to the immigration status of employees involved in a merger, acquisition or other corporate change. Over the past 10 years, Mr Payne has been a regular speaker on business immigration issues.

Mr Payne is a member of the National Immigration Bar; a former chapter chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Greater Chicago chapter; AILA liaison to the Nebraska Service Center of US Citizenship and Immigration Services; had former involvement in the AILA department of labour liaison committee; and had former involvement in the Business Immigration Policy committee.

Mr Payne received his JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology in 1993 and his BA from University of Illinois in 1988. He is admitted in Illinois.