California Immigration Lawyer Blog

I recently received an inquiry at my San Francisco immigration law office from an "employer" who recently discovered that a person whom he had hired as an independent contractor was in the United States illegally. The employer had not originally known that the "employee" was illegal because independent contractors are exempt from the requirements of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (*IRCA*) that require an employer to verify that an an employee is authorized to work in the United States. The "employer" wanted to explore the options of legalizing the contractor. While thinking about the options, I became interested in how the law defines an independent contractor.

According to 8 Code of Federal Regulations Section 274a.1(j) an independent contractor is an individual or entity who carries on an independent business, contracts to do a piece of work according to their own means and methods, and are subject to control only as to results.

The decision of whether or not someone is an independent contractor is determined on a case-by-case basis. Factors to be considered include whether the individual or entity:

• supplies the tools or materials;
• makes services available to the general public;
• works for a number of clients at the same time;
• has an opportunity for profit or loss as a result of labor or services provided;
• invests in the facilities for work;
• directs the order or sequence in which the work is to be done and determines the hours during which the work is to be done.

I began to wonder if people used independent contractors to get around the IRCA requirements. Apparently Congress thought about that as there is a regulation which states that an "employer" may not avoid the requirements of IRCA by hiring an independent contractor if a person or entity knowingly uses a contract or subcontract to obtain labor or services of an unauthorized alien. 8 C.F.R. §274a.5.