Melissa K. Allchin
Biography
Melissa Allchin is an Attorney in Baker McKenzie's Employment and Compensation Practice with more than fifteen years of experience in corporate immigration law. She routinely advises multinational and domestic clients on the strategy, requirements, and procedures to secure visas and work and residence permits and satisfy employment eligibility and other immigration-related regulatory requirements for a global workforce. Melissa frequently speaks on global and US immigration and immigration compliance issues at Firm and client events geared towards global mobility, human resources, and legal professionals.
She is recognized as a ranked practitioner by Chambers USA for Immigration. Client feedback in Chambers USA 2026 includes, "Melissa's experience and deep understanding of immigration processes is invaluable. She takes the time to educate me, explain complex situations clearly and guide me through each step" and "Melissa is approachable, pragmatic, calm and knowledgeable, giving clients confidence in the advice being given. She makes herself available at short notice, and nothing seems to be a problem for her."
She has been a Member of the Firm's Pro Bono and Diversity Committees.
Practice Focus
Representative Legal Matters
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Managed the US and global immigration portfolios of 10+ multinationals that span more than fifty jurisdictions, advising on all employment-based US nonimmigrant and immigrant visa types, developing strategies to ensure US continuous work authorization, and identifying potential immigration strategies in jurisdictions outside of the United States,
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Advised clients in the IT, service, and manufacturing industries on internal Form I-9 audits, tailored remediation plans to mitigate potential civil exposure, conducted bespoke training sessions for HR professionals, and developed and implemented internal compliance project plans.
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Represented a client in the manufacturing industry in an ICE Form I-9 audit for its more than 150 employees, navigating the complexity of compliance with federal employment eligibility requirements and California state law.
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Advised rapidly expanding domestic IT clients on immigration considerations in advance of the establishment of new entities that led to the deployment of key executives, managers, and specialists to set up operations in new jurisdictions such as the US and emerging markets in Asia and Africa.
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Developed and implemented cross-practice compliance surveys for a global manufacturing company to identify potential areas of risk, which resulted in tailored training sessions on immigration-related compliance concerns aimed at key business leaders.
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Authored a global mobility focused questionnaire for common scenarios related to business travel of foreign nationals into the United States to help an expanding US-based manufacturing company educate their foreign national employees on immigration considerations and guidelines for business travel.
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Provided macro and micro level insights and global forecasting to a fortune 500 global manufacturing company in order to help the company effectively and proactively manage their population of more than 200 active assignees throughout the world.
Professional Associations and Memberships
- American Immigration Lawyers Association
- Chicago Bar Association
- American Bar Association
Admissions
- Illinois~United States (2007)
Education
- Loyola University Chicago School of Law (J.D.) (2007)
- Loyola University, Chicago (B.A., magna cum laude) (2001)
Languages
- English
Firm Committee Memberships
- Pro Bono Committee - Member
- Diversity Committee - Member