US immigration rules impose additional requirements on the wages of foreign workers pursuing certain immigration benefits (visa status or permanent residence). In those cases, ISS must perform a preliminary 'immigration wage analysis' to verify the required wage rate for the opportunity. Note: PISA is not involved in immigration wage analyses. If you have questions, please email intlwage@purdue.edu.
1. Which immigration benefits require immigration wage analyses?
- H-1B
- E-3
- EB-2 permanent residence for university teachers or staff
- EB-3 permanent residence for staff
2. Which situations require a preliminary immigration wage analyses before the offer may be issued?
- New Faculty Searches
- Tenured, Tenure-track, Clinical and Professors of Practice: A preliminary immigration wage analysis must be completed to ensure that if the chosen candidate is international and needing immigration sponsorship, the offered wage meets with US government requirements for the sponsored immigration benefits. The Office of Institutional Equity adds ISS as an ad hoc reviewer to the requisition in SuccessFactors. ISS performs the analysis and inserts the result into the Requisition Comments. It might be necessary to scroll down through the Comments to see the wage analysis results. The Office of the Provost verifies the offered wage against the immigration wage analysis prior to approving the department's proposed offer letter.
3. How can a a preliminary immigration wage analysis be requested before the offer is issued, even if it is not required?
- Visiting Faculty / Research Faculty:
- Immigration wage analyses may be performed at the Department's request. Most Visiting Faculty are sponsored through the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program which does not require immigration wage analyses. However, if the Visiting Faculty requires or prefers H-1B or E-3 visa status processing, then the immigration wage analysis is required.
- If the department is conducting a search through a SuccessFactors requistion, then they must notify OIE that an immigration wage analysis is wanted.
- If the department is not conducting a formal search, then complete the Immigration Wage Request Intake and email to intlwage@purdue.edu with a copy of the proposed posting / ad.
- Postdocs:
- Immigration wage analyses may be performed at the Department's request. The request can come from the hiring manager or the business office.
- Most Postdocs are sponsored through the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program which does not require immigration wage analyses. However, if the postdoc requires or prefers H-1B or E-3 visa status processing, then the immigration wage analysis is required.
- Staff:
- New Positions / Reclassifications
- Immigration wage analyses may be performed during the development of a new position or reclassification of an existing position.
- Compensation requests the analysis. If the hiring manager is interest, please let your Compensation Specialist know; hiring managers cannot request analyses independently. A properly drafted position description is required by ISS to support the wage analysis.
- Promotions / Extensions
- Immigration wage analyses may be performed in advance of a promotion or as part of an evaluation whether to extend sponsored immigration status
- For promotions, complete the Immigration Wage Request Intake and email to intlwage@purdue.edu with a copy of the updated / redlined position description. We will verify the details with the Compensation specialist for your department.
- For pre-extension inquiries, complete the Immigration Wage Request Intake and email to intlwage@purdue.edu with confirmation that the duties, worksite and other details of the position have not changed. If the position has changed, additional details will be required.
4. Why are the immigration wage analyses described above only "preliminary"?
US immigration law mandates two separate wage analyses to occur if the immigration benefit is requested from the government (as listed above in Section 1):
- Prevailing Wage Analysis, where we look outside the organization to compare the wage to data compiled by the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and
- Actual Wage Analysis, where we look inside the organization to compare the offered wage to the university's pay equity system.
Both analyses must occur prior to the immigration paperwork being finalized. However, in certain situations, we are conducting the analysis prior to a candidate being selected. In these cases we can perform only the prevailing wage. That is because the prevailing wage analysis is based only on the terms and conditions of employment - the responsibilities, geographic area of employment, requirements, travel and other details, all of which are known once the opportunity is finalized. We cannot conduct the actual wage analysis because we have no candidate to compare to the existing workers within the organization. Once a candidate is chosen, and if that candidate is international and requiring immigration sponsorship, then an actual wage analysis is conducted as part of the processing of the immigration paperwork.
If an offer is issued and signed, and the Department believes then that the chosen candidate might be international and needing sponsorship, the Department should not request an independent immigration wage analysis. Instead, the Department should contact PISA to request the immigration process. PISA will help guide the Department on that request.
If there are questions about the immigration wage analyses, please email intlwage@purdue.edu.
