If my company hires people with J-1 visas, can we get in trouble?

If your company hires employees from other countries and they come here on a J-1 visa (a student visa/travel visa), can you get in trouble for that or should you be worried about it? If you are in strict compliance with the visa requirement, no. Certainly with the student visa and those types of visas, there are certain things that must be done to provide cultural activities in addition to work. The circumstances where the person came here and the length of time that they’re here, all of those things are regulated, and the company has the responsibility, to some extent, to make sure that the person is in compliance and the company is in compliance. So, it’s really more of a compliance issue, unless the government is already accusing you of having done something wrong. In the one instance it’s good to get legal advice to make sure you’re in compliance, on the other hand if an investigation has been started you certainly should seek legal advice to make sure that no harm is going to come to you or your company.