The Principal Immigration Specialist leverages mastery of immigration law, procedure, policies, and agencies to support, improve, and streamline International Scholar Services team’s campus-wide services and compliance and audit responsibilities. This individual draws on extensive experience in immigration services industry to recommend, develop, and implement case-processing strategies intended to make the team more strategic, responsive, and transparent.  

The Principal Immigration Specialist:

• Supports the Director in the development of services strategies for Purdue affiliates such as but not limited to the Purdue Indy campus, Purdue Global, PARI, and PRF; and in support of funded research agreements between Purdue and third-party entities
• Supports the Assistant Director by drawing on legal education and training to provide specialist contributions to in-team mentorship, peer review, and training
• Is responsible for a heavy caseload of employment-based permanent residence and/or complex/rush nonimmigrant visa requests

• For full consideration, please submit a cover letter.
• Bachelor's Degree in legal studies, engineering, technology, international education, international business, education administration, immigration, intercultural communication, counseling, or related field + Eight (8) years of full-time, professional, high-volume employment-based immigration services experience
• Alternatively, JD/LLB or comparable legal education + Four (4) years full-time, professional experience providing employment-based immigration services
• U.S. Citizenship or U.S. permanent resident
• Prior use of an immigration forms-case management database 
• Experience providing high-volume employment-based immigration services
• Experience providing employment-based immigration services to clients, or within, a higher education environment
• Experience with “adjective-based” employment-based processes such as EB-1B Outstanding Professor/Researcher, O-1 Extraordinary Ability, or EB-2 National Interest Waiver
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize work in a fast-paced environment and achieve assigned goals under pressure
• Excellent verbal and written communication, organization, and data entry skills

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university located in West Lafayette, Indiana and is the main campus of the Purdue University system. Purdue is a member of the Big Ten Conference and enrolls the second largest student body of any university in Indiana, as well as the fourth largest international student population of any university in the United States. Approximately 22% of Purdue's undergraduate student body is international. The graduate student body comprises an even higher percentage of international scholars and students. Purdue employs approximately 19,000 faculty and staff, of which roughly 15% are international. The Office of International Students and Scholars (ISS) is committed to the internationalization of Purdue University by providing appropriate services and support to international clientele and various University departments and offices. ISS seeks to enhance the academic, cultural, and social pursuits of students and scholars from abroad through knowledge and expertise in recruitment, admissions, immigration, and advising. Within this office, this International Scholar Services team focuses exclusively on supporting our Purdue-sponsored international faculty, staff and scholars in obtaining and maintaining J, E, H, TN, O and permanent residence status.

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