Overview
Elaine Kumpula helps corporate clients manage international assignments of top executives and other key employees, from initial planning through localization or final departure from the host country. She coordinates complex global assignments, ensuring that employees enter host jurisdictions on time and in compliance with destination country laws and regulations. Elaine also represents domestic, foreign and multinational clients on U.S. immigration matters.
Elaine leads Faegre Drinker’s global mobility team and has managed global visa matters for clients sending employees to 40+ countries on six continents. She has represented clients, including Fortune 500 companies, within the food, agribusiness, financial, construction, beverage, biomedical, manufacturing, automotive, advertising and technology industries.
Professional Global Services
- Developing tailored expatriate programs that align with assignment length and purpose as well as company goals
- Developing policies and procedures for managing high-volume moves of employees across borders
- Managing and coordinating activities necessary to secure appropriate host country work authorization and residence for employees and their dependent family members for the duration of an international assignment
- Coordinating extensions of stay and ensuring compliance with host country exit requirements
- Assisting with consular visa applications
- Advising on compliance with host country immigration laws and regulatory schemes
Professional U.S. Immigration Services
As a U.S. immigration lawyer since 1985, Elaine has experience in all facets of U.S. employment-based immigration. She advises clients on legal issues involved in hiring foreign national employees, manages the preparation and filing of temporary, nonimmigrant visa petitions for companies seeking to employ foreign nationals in the United States, and regularly advises clients on nonimmigrant visa options for professionals working in specialty occupations, intra-company transferees, investors, entertainers and individuals of extraordinary ability in their field of endeavor.
Elaine also helps clients sponsor employees for permanent residence, advises on maintenance of permanent resident status, assists individuals with citizenship applications, and counsels on relinquishment of permanent residence or renunciation of U.S. citizenship.
Related Services
Related Industries
Credentials
Bar Admissions
Minnesota
Court Admissions
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota
Education
University of Minnesota Law School
J.D. cum laude (1985)
University of Minnesota
B.S. with honors (1981)
Insights & Events
Latest
Insights
Other Perspectives
- Concurrent Transatlantic Dialogues in Employment-Based U.S./U.K. Immigration
Presenter – 2022 British American Business Network Transatlantic Conference - Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Searching for that Pot of Gold Amidst the Uncertainty in Adjudications for Ex, H-1Bs, and L-1s
Conference Committee and Presenter – 2022 AILA APAC Chapter Annual Conference - E Visa Issues: Are We Swimming with Crocodiles or Crocodile Dundees?
Conference Committee Co-Chair, Discussion Leader and Presenter – 2021 AILA APAC Chapter Annual Conference - Strategies for Managing and Winning RFEs and NOIDs
Conference Committee Business Track Leader and Presenter - 2020 AILA National Conference - Helping Consulting Companies Break the H-1B Code
Presenter – 2019 Upper Midwest AILA Conference - Structuring Local Counsel Engagements
Presenter – 2019 AILA Global Migration Section Annual Conference - Hot Topics: Trump Administration Policies and Their Effects on the “Business” of Business Immigration
Conference Committee, Discussion Leader and Presenter – 2019 AILA National Midwinter Conference - Nonimmigrant Visa Issues: Investor and Employment Immigration
Discussion Leader and Presenter – 2019 AILA Bangkok District Chapter Conference - Immigration Compliance and Enforcement Under the Trump Administration Policy of “Buy American, Hire American” … and More
Discussion Leader and Presenter – 2018 Upper Midwest AILA Conference - Adjustment of Status and Consular Processing
Presenter – 2017 AILA Fundamentals of Immigration Law Conference, Denver, Colorado, 2017 - The Ebbs and Flows of Starting and Running a Global Practice
Conference Chair, Discussion Leader and Presenter – 2017 AILA Global Immigration Forum, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2017 - U.S. — U.K. Immigration — Trump & Brexit Effects
Presenter – British American Group of Lawyers 2017, Chicago, Illinois, 2017 - Global Immigration, Legal Ethics and Practice Management: Maximizing Your Relationship with Non-U.S. Immigration
Presenter, RDC - EMA Spring Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 2017 - Where'd My Time Go?! Effective and Efficient Time Management
Presenter, 2017 Nevada Law Practice Management Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2017 - Extreme Hardship — Post DOS Extreme Hardship Guidance
Discussion Leader and Presenter, AILA Bangkok District Chapter - APAC Conference 2017, Chennai, India, 2017 - H-1B - Either Forever or Never
Presenter, AILA Fall Conference - Bordering on the Bring: Cutting Edge Approaches for Business Immigration, Toronto, Canada, 2016 - What’s Hiding in the Cards — Eligibility Challenges Identifying and Overcoming Issues That May Result in Visa Denials
Discussion Leader and Presenter, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Global Immigration Forum, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2016 - Citizenship — To Keep or Not to Keep
Presenter, AILA Rome District Spring Conference, Vienna, Austria, 2016 - Abandonment of Residence, Expatriation, and Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship
Presenter, AILA National Annual Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, 2014
Leadership & Community
Pro Bono
- Asylum — Lead teams of lawyers and paralegals in representing clients seeking asylum in the United States
Professional Associations
- American Immigration Lawyers Association — Global Migration Section (Steering Committee, 2017-2021); National Conference (Business Track Committee, 2019; Business Track Chair, 2020); APAC Chapter (Co-Chair Conference Committee, 2021; Conference Committee, 2022)
- International Bar Association
- Hennepin County Bar Association
- Minnesota State Bar Association
Civic Activities
- Honorary Consul for Finland In Minnesota and South Dakota (2019 - present)
- The Advocates for Human Rights — Volunteer Attorney for Asylum Program (2007 - present)
- Finnish American Chamber Commerce, Minnesota — Board Member (2010 - present)
Honors
- Best Lawyers® — "Ones to Watch," Immigration Law, 2023
- Honorary Consul for Finland in Minnesota and South Dakota, 2019-present
- Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leader USA, 2023
- Who's Who Legal: Corporate Immigration, 2018-23
- Faegre Baker Daniels — Pro Bono Honor Roll, 2015
Awards Methodology
No aspect of these recognitions has been approved by the highest court of any state.
No aspect of these recognitions has been approved by the highest court of any state.