Sponsoring Your First Foreign Employee: A Founder's Checklist

Founders sponsoring their first employee are usually surprised by two things: how much of the process depends on internal HR documentation, and how early the clock actually starts.

Before your first conversation with counsel, it helps enormously to have a job description with genuine minimum requirements, an org chart showing the reporting line, and a sense of prevailing wage expectations for the role and location.

For roles heading toward a green card sponsorship (rather than a temporary work visa), the PERM labor certification process requires a recruitment step that must reflect how the company actually hires — cutting corners here creates risk that surfaces months later, not immediately.

We also recommend founders decide, early, whether immigration sponsorship will be a standing part of their hiring process or a one-off. That decision changes how we structure internal documentation from day one.

This article provides general compliance information for employers and is not legal advice for any specific hiring decision.