Immigration – muluh & partners

With Muluh & Partners being an active proponent of Corporate Law, it has attributed an intrinsic value to immigration law alongside Labour (Employment) law as far as expatriates are concerned. As a result, we have developed unrivaled resources for managing within the Central African sub-region (Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Congo, Central Africa, and Equatorial Guinea) specific immigration programs and visa processing.

Initially, we strategically partner with each client to establish immigration program policies and formulate procedures. Partnering with each client provides us with an in-depth understanding of their business needs and goals and allows us to refine immigration procedures and solutions as the relationship evolves. The growing integration of global society in many parts of the world is a fact. Thus the business manager increasingly thinks in terms of the international market for goods and services. Capital moves around the world in the greatest haste, seeking its highest return. Information flows with rather limited regard for national boundaries. Digital and networking technology enable all forms of information, whether text, sound, or image to be reduced to binary code and to be transmitted on the internet to any point on the globe almost instantaneously.

Based on the above, international rules and institutions that seek to regulate this integrated globe are rapidly evolving to cope with change. Nowhere is this evolution occurring more rapidly than in the field of regulation of the movement of people to meet up with the challenges of our time. Muluh & Partners employs the most efficient strategies to facilitate employee mobility, while proactively addressing all aspects of immigration compliance.

In addition to providing our clients with world-class immigration services, we have dedicated practices that work with our clients to ensure that their programs are in compliance with local immigration regulations.

Compliance
Muluh & Partners partners with clients’ internal professionals to provide strategic guidance, training, and support through comprehensive and centralized compliance initiatives.

Investment Visa Services
We provide guidance and assistance to individuals seeking immigration benefits through investment. The government of Cameroon has put very flexible laws in a bid to encourage foreign investment. To realize its goal, immigration laws in place move pari passu with the Labour Code which is a composite document mindful of the fact that it touches on adjectival as well as substantive law. None respect for the said law has cataclysmic effects. Aggressive enforcement efforts and constantly fluctuating regulatory requirements for hiring foreign nationals and verifying employment eligibility are intrinsic to today’s immigration environment. As a result, employers across the globe must be vigilant in complying with all aspects of immigration-related laws and regulations. The increasingly global marketplace, national security concerns, and mandated initiatives calling for a renewed sense of corporate responsibility are compelling businesses to make immigration compliance a top priority.

Through research and practice, our experts have demonstrated a strong commitment to helping clients maintain a legal workforce. Our professionals are renowned for their experience in immigration compliance and we utilize state-of-the-art technology to monitor the status of our clients’ workforces so that their employees can adhere to all visa requirements and meet filing deadlines.

Counseling
Providing direction and guidance on the structure and implementation of an immigration program is inherent to the representation of our corporate clients. Whether a client needs assistance in starting a program from the ground up or wants help in restructuring in the face of organizational or staffing changes, Muluh & Partners partners with clients to develop the best solutions. We provide advice and recommend immigration best practices for clients based on the size, type, and industry of the organization, addressing components such as staffing and resources, technology utilization, service delivery models, compliance strategies and procedures, training and education, and performance measurement. We also help clients integrate their immigration program with related corporate initiatives, particularly in Human Resources areas such as recruiting, career development, relocation, and expatriate administration.

Muluh & Partners also specializes in working with clients involved in mergers and acquisitions, and reorganization activities to efficiently address related immigration issues. We assist clients in performing due diligence investigations, which require a detailed analysis of the current immigration status of the employees, a determination of the impact of the corporate change on status, and the filing of applications necessary to maintain each employee’s status. After a thorough evaluation, we advise and assist the client in implementing any immigration strategies that may be necessary. Regardless of the circumstances, we provide a complete range of services to ensure that the employer and all of its employees are adequately protected from the potential legal effects that the immigration laws may have in a changing corporate structure.

Visas
Cognizant of the mobility of people across borders, CEMAC countries (Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Congo, Central Africa, and Equatorial Guinea) have put in place stringent immigration laws and penalties, compliance with local immigration laws is more important than ever. However, incidents of non-compliance are common among short-term business travelers, who may mistakenly assume that they do not require Work Permits because of the brevity of their stay and can consequently be victims to labor, tax, and immigration police officers as well as the judiciary.

As a result of this, we make use of the laws in place and equally make the most of what some people refer to as the lacunae of the applicable text. Generally speaking, the law makes provision for temporal and long-stay visas. Based on this, we take care of the needs of tourists, businesses, and work visas. With respect to employees, we are cost-effective because we are able to determine whether the employee would need a Work Permit or not depending on whether he/she is coming for technical services or not. When the need arises, we equally go in for visa extensions.

Muluh & Partners goes as far as facilitating entry procedures for those coming in from countries where Cameroon does not have an Embassy. In other words, we make arrangements for visas upon arrival at the airport. For short-term assignments that do not involve local employment in the destination country, Muluh & Partners provides comprehensive legal analysis, visitor visa processing. We conduct thorough compliance assessments of employees’ short-term travel plans, including the activities to be undertaken while on business travel, and the nationality, residence, and immigration status of the employees.

In keeping with the integrity of Muluh & Partners, our team creates and disseminates Client Alerts that discuss changes to immigration laws, regulations, and activities around us, and provides reports on any pending or anticipated changes in the field. We also conduct client briefings and workshops whenever significant changes in regulation, policy, or procedure are anticipated or implemented.

Keeping our clients posted
As a result of the challenges and hurdles in the business world, we of Muluh & Partners put in the best of our abilities in meeting with our clients on a regular basis to review account status, analyze immigration program procedures and overall efficiency, and address strategic issues such as corporate policy and compliance. Our objective is to develop cutting-edge, proactive plans for continuous improvement and program improvement. It is our duty to manage the stress of our clients.

Work Permits
The Labour Code in one of its articles is to the effect that a contract of employment concerning a worker of foreign nationality must be endorsed the Minister in charge of Labour previously to commencement thereof. Where such endorsement is refused, the contract shall be null and void. In the same vein, contracts of employment of foreign workers shall be renewed only after the endorsement of the Minister in charge of Labour.
Against this background, we of Muluh & Partners do procure and renew Work Permits for our clients. This can be done before or upon arrival in Cameroon which as the case might be started us issuing an LOI (Letter of Invitation). With this, the employee or person coming for a business meeting would be issued a temporal or long-term visa as the case might be.

For more information about our immigration group, please do not hesitate to contact us via [email protected] or call +237 9639 4603 or +237 3342 9575