Course list

You might not be a lawyer, but this course will help you think like one. You will begin by exploring the many reasons why it's important to have a corporate business immigration policy. By understanding the impact that hiring foreign nationals can have on your company, you will be able to determine the type of policy your organization should have and then partner effectively with your legal counsel to design it.

There are almost as many different work visa categories as there are letters in the alphabet. In this course, you will examine the benefits as well as the risks associated with the different visas. You will be able to determine the visas that are the most cost efficient, time saving, and risk averse for your company. As you progress through the course, you will discover the steps to take to ensure your foreign national employees are properly documented as legal workers in the United States.

  • Apr 22, 2026
  • Jul 15, 2026
  • Oct 7, 2026
  • Dec 30, 2026
  • Mar 24, 2027
  • Jun 16, 2027

As your company grows or evolves, there can be serious implications for the foreign nationals in your workforce. In this course, you will explore the many considerations you need to keep in mind in the event your company undertakes a merger or acquisition. What if your company needs to downsize? Examine the ways a termination can change an employee's immigration status and what you can do to assist a worker who wants to remain in the U.S.

You will learn how foreign national workers have the right to unionize and what to avoid when they engage in union activities. You will also discover why even undocumented workers are eligible for Workers' Compensation and why that could be a good thing for all employers.

It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed “Hiring Foreign Nationals” or have equivalent experience.

  • Jul 29, 2026
  • Oct 21, 2026
  • Jan 13, 2027
  • Apr 7, 2027
  • Jun 30, 2027

All of us in the workplace are governed by laws, but these laws are rarely taught as part of professional training or covered in any onboarding process. In many cases, we don't know about the laws governing the workplace until something goes wrong. This course provides a foundation for understanding the range, boundaries, and goals of employment law, and offers opportunities for you to apply these concepts to real workplace situations.

This course begins with the concept of at-will employment and its exceptions. What are the different categories of workers and which laws apply to each of them? What do you need to know to help steer your organization clear of lawsuits related to employee status and wrongful termination?

Because the situations we encounter in life are not always straightforward, this course focuses on cases of complicated — but not uncommon — employment situations. Through your coursework, you will examine the various and sometimes conflicting goals of employment laws at play in your industry and organization, ranging from protecting the weaker party from exploitation to creating win-win rules for the workplace. By the end of this course, you will have gained a more nuanced awareness of these issues that you can apply to the situations that may arise in your workplace.

It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed “Hiring Foreign Nationals” and “Immigration Law in Practice” or have equivalent experience.

  • Jun 3, 2026
  • Aug 26, 2026
  • Nov 18, 2026
  • Feb 10, 2027
  • May 5, 2027

We like to think that behaving decently at work and respecting others will protect us from discrimination cases in the workplace. To a certain degree, that is true; however, good intentions are not always enough. It's important to be able to recognize the legal underpinnings of anti-discrimination principles, including where these principles come from and how they have been interpreted by the courts.

In this course, you will delve into crucial background information regarding the origin of today's anti-discrimination laws as you're guided through tricky cases — involving issues around race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and disability status — as well as their implications for today. Sometimes it can be challenging to know how to approach these situations in the workplace. Through a combination of activities and readings, you will become better prepared to manage issues in the workplace in a way that does not leave your organization open to legal action.

Note: The information provided in this course is for academic purposes and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice. 

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

  • Employment Law in Practice
  • Jul 1, 2026
  • Sep 23, 2026
  • Dec 16, 2026
  • Mar 10, 2027
  • Jun 2, 2027

Symposium sessions feature two days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today's most pressing topics. The Leadership Symposium offers you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond. Using the context of your own experiences, you will take part in reflections and small-group discussions to build on the skills and knowledge you have gained from your courses.

Join us for the next Symposium in which we'll discuss the ways that leaders across industries have continued engaging their teams over the past two years while pivoting in strategic ways. You will support your coursework by applying your knowledge and experiences to relevant topics for leaders. Throughout this Symposium, you will examine different areas of leadership, including the psychology of leadership; women in leadership; and leading in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world. By participating in relevant and engaging discussions, you will discover a variety of perspectives and build connections with your fellow participants from various industries.

All sessions are held on Zoom.

Future dates are subject to change. You may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete any certificate program. Once enrolled in your courses, you will receive information about upcoming events. Accessibility accommodations will be available upon request. For future reference, download our Symposium course flyer.

eCornell Online Workshops are live, interactive 3-hour learning experiences led by Cornell faculty experts. These premium short-format sessions focus on AI topics and are designed for busy professionals who want to gain immediately applicable skills and strategic perspectives. Workshops include faculty presentations, breakout discussions, and guided hands-on practice.

The AI Workshops All-Access Pass provides you with unlimited participation for 6 months from your date of purchase. Whether you choose to attend one workshop per month, or several per week, the All-Access Pass will allow you to customize your AI journey and stay on top of the latest AI trends.

Workshops cover a range of cutting-edge AI topics applicable across industries, hosted by Cornell faculty at the forefront of their fields. Whether you are just getting started with AI, seeking to build your AI skillset, or exploring advanced applications of AI, Workshops will provide you with an action-oriented learning experience for immediate application in your career. Sample Workshops include:

  • Work Smarter with AI Agents: Individual and Team Effectiveness
  • Leading AI Transformation: Bigger Than You Imagine, Harder Than You Expect
  • Using AI at Work: Practical Choices and Better Results
  • Search & Discoverability in the Era of AI
  • Don't Just Prompt AI - Govern it
  • AI-Powered Product Manager
  • Leverage AI and Human Connection to Lead through Uncertainty

As an employer, how much control or influence do you have on what your employees say or do at — or outside of — the workplace? What does it mean to defame someone in the context of the workplace and how can you avoid doing so? And where is the line between an individual employee's rights and the rights of workers to advocate as a group for better employment?

Using case studies, this course explores the tension between an employee's rights to privacy and autonomy and the employer's business interests through examination of the legal concept of privacy in the workplace. You will have the opportunity to apply your understanding of this and related concepts to actual cases and compare your assessments with those of the judges.

By the end of this course, you will be better able to make informed decisions as you develop and implement appropriate employee privacy policies that fall within the zones of legal discretion available to your organization.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

  • Employment Law in Practice
  • Jun 17, 2026
  • Sep 9, 2026
  • Dec 2, 2026
  • Feb 24, 2027
  • May 19, 2027

Employee wages and benefits account for a significant percentage of the operating expense budget of most workplaces. Wages and benefits are highly regulated and there is considerable detail involved. This course will give you the background you need to anticipate and avoid potential pitfalls surrounding the wage and benefit laws that affect your organization.

This course cuts through a mass of available information and provides what you need to know about these topics within the context of employment law. You will explore wages and employer-provided benefits, including health insurance, vacation, sick pay, and retirement. Through your coursework, you will have the opportunity to investigate how these concepts apply to the organizations with which you are familiar. At the end of this course, you will be better positioned to assess workplace situations so you can determine when and why you might need to consult with an HR professional or an attorney, and you will be better prepared to discuss issues with these professionals.

Note: The information provided in this course is for educational purposes and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

  • Employment Law in Practice
  • Apr 22, 2026
  • Jul 15, 2026
  • Oct 7, 2026
  • Dec 30, 2026
  • Mar 24, 2027
  • Jun 16, 2027

How can you protect your company from having former employees divulge trade secrets or take customer relationships to competing firms? How does the law regard inventions and copyrights; who owns them?

Answers to these questions will vary depending on the status of the employee. There are specific protections for rank-and-file employees, as well as certain expectations of executives when it comes to misappropriation of company assets and non-compete contracts. This course will help you understand the rationale behind these laws and how they play out in real-life situations.

You begin with a focus on the employee's obligations to their employer: When is it acceptable to compete with a former employer, when is it not acceptable, and how can you tell the difference? The course proceeds with an exploration of the variety of contracts that employers can use to protect themselves from employees competing in various ways. You will have a chance to evaluate restrictive covenants and reflect on the question of what constitutes legitimate business interests. You will gain familiarity with aspects of the reasonably tailored tests. The course ends with a look at the legal responsibilities that apply to copyrights and inventions and introduces the role that a well-crafted holdover clause can play in protecting the interests of a business.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

  • Employment Law in Practice
  • May 6, 2026
  • Jul 29, 2026
  • Oct 21, 2026
  • Jan 13, 2027
  • Apr 7, 2027
  • Jun 30, 2027

Leading across cultures is about adapting, communicating, thinking critically, and understanding your own biases. Dr. Jan Katz of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration will help you explore the five key dimensions of cross­-cultural leadership: culture, context, risk, linear/parallel hierarchy, and individualism/collectivism . After defining and sharing examples of each, Professor Katz will help you explore their impacts on business and how you can adapt to variations in different cultures. This course gives you the tools you need to continuously improve your cross-cultural leadership skills.

In the course project, you will examine the cultures and dimensions you work in, explore how compensation relates to risk, examine the hierarchy at your company, and evaluate your own leadership style as it relates to the cultures you work in. You will also get to investigate the 2015 Greek financial crisis and interview an international colleague before creating an action plan for your own future education around the impact of cultural variation on leadership.

  • May 6, 2026
  • May 20, 2026
  • Jun 3, 2026
  • Jun 17, 2026
  • Jul 1, 2026
  • Jul 15, 2026
  • Jul 29, 2026

The workplace is filled with employees, clients, and leaders from different backgrounds and cultures. Your Social Style® plays a role in how you communicate and behave in the workplace. This course will prepare you to communicate effectively, efficiently, and empathetically with different cultures no matter your Social Style®.

In this course, you will practice becoming more aware of how your Social Style® is interpreted by others and how that impacts your interactions with others at work. You will also develop strategies for overcoming social blind spots in order to mitigate the risk of ineffective communication in cross-cultural settings. Finally, you will discover the ways you can adapt your Social Style® without compromising your core values for effective communication. By the end of this course, you will have gathered the tools needed to communicate appropriately and effectively in a cross-cultural environment.

Social Style, Social Style Navigator and TRACOM are registered trademarks of the TRACOM Corporation. Social Style Model is a trademark of the TRACOM Corporation. Related content is used with permission from The TRACOM Corporation.

  • Apr 22, 2026
  • May 20, 2026
  • Jun 17, 2026
  • Jul 15, 2026
  • Aug 12, 2026
  • Sep 9, 2026
  • Oct 7, 2026

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How It Works

Frequently Asked Questions

Global hiring is now a routine business reality, and it also creates high-stakes legal and compliance decisions for HR, managers, and the teams that support them. Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate helps you build a practical, work-ready understanding of U.S. business immigration so you can make better decisions, spot issues earlier, and partner more effectively with immigration counsel.

Throughout the certificate program, authored by faculty from Cornell Law School, you will move beyond terminology and learn how to think through real employer scenarios, such as whether your organization should sponsor a foreign national, which temporary work visa pathways may fit, how to stay compliant with employment eligibility verification, and how to assess pathways from temporary status to permanent residence. You’ll also strengthen your ability to navigate common employment-law issues that frequently intersect with immigration decisions, including termination risk, discrimination exposure, wage and hour questions, privacy, and protection of confidential business information.

If you want clearer immigration decision making, stronger compliance instincts, and the confidence to collaborate effectively with legal counsel while supporting business talent goals, you should choose Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate.

Many online programs rely on passive content consumption and generic quizzes. Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate is built around active, applied learning so you can practice navigating the real-world immigration decisions required in a professional setting, with structured scenarios, case-based exercises, and multi-part projects tied to workplace realities.

You learn in a small, cohort-based environment (typically about 35 professionals) with an expert facilitator guiding discussions and giving feedback on your work. In addition, the curriculum is designed by Cornell faculty, and many programs include opportunities to engage in live sessions where you can ask questions and learn from peers navigating similar challenges.

The program content itself is also intentionally business facing. You won’t just review visa categories in the abstract; you’ll analyze trade-offs across time, cost, risk, documentation, and employee expectations, and you’ll explore how corporate events such as mergers, layoffs, and union activity can change the immigration and employment-law risk profile.

Plus, by enrolling in Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate, you get two years of access to Leadership Symposium featuring two days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today’s most pressing topics, giving you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond.

Enrolling in this certificate also provides you with a 6-month All-Access Pass to eCornell's live online AI Workshops, interactive sessions led by world-class Cornell faculty that combine Ivy League insight with practical applications for busy professionals. Each 3-hour Workshop features structured instruction, guided practice, and real tools to build competitive AI capabilities, plus the opportunity to connect with a global cohort of growth-oriented peers. While AI Workshops are not required, they enhance certificate programs through:

  • Integrating AI perspectives across most curricula
  • Responding to emerging AI developments and trends
  • Offering direct engagement with Cornell faculty at the forefront of AI research

Hiring and retaining foreign national talent touches multiple parts of an organization, not just the legal department. Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate is designed for professionals who need to understand business immigration fundamentals well enough to make informed decisions, flag risk early, and work productively with immigration counsel.

The Immigration Law Certificate is a strong fit if you are:

  • An HR, recruiting, talent management, or global mobility professional supporting U.S. hiring and compliance
  • A manager or executive responsible for staffing plans, retention decisions, or workforce changes that affect foreign national employees
  • A compliance, risk, or operations professional who needs a clearer grasp of how immigration issues intersect with employment practices

Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate is also relevant if you want a structured, non-degree credential that builds practical fluency, not legal licensure. Course materials are educational in nature and are not a substitute for legal advice.

In Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate, you will complete applied, workplace-connected projects that help you translate legal concepts into practical decision making. Projects are structured in parts, so you build toward a stronger final deliverable while getting feedback along the way.

Examples of projects completed by past learners include:

  • Designing legally defensible promotion and discipline processes by standardizing criteria, documenting decisions, and auditing outcomes for disparate treatment and disparate impact risk
  • Building practical accommodation plans across disability types by matching essential job functions to assistive technology, flexible scheduling, and interactive-process documentation.
  • Evaluating a sexually charged workplace scenario against hostile work environment factors and proposing guardrails that preserve business needs while strengthening reporting and supervision
  • Mapping an end-to-end immigration strategy for a foreign national hire and family by comparing temporary visa routes, green card categories, and Visa Bulletin timing to reduce status risk

By the end of Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate, you will have a set of practical drafts, analyses, or action plans you can adapt to your organization, while also strengthening how you reason through immigration and employment-law trade-offs.

Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate helps you become the person who can translate immigration complexity into clear, defensible business decisions.

After completing the Immigration Law Certificate, you will be prepared to:

  • Assess considerations and recommend policy for hiring foreign national talent
  • Distinguish among the basic work visa categories for foreign nationals who want to work temporarily in the United States
  • Assess whether, when, and how to move an employee on a temporary visa to a permanent visa
  • Recognize how politics affects decisions in hiring foreign nationals
  • Assess the goals and boundaries of immigration law that affect an organization and its practices
  • Evaluate when an employer can terminate a foreign national employee without violating the law
  • Conduct activities consistent with the federal prohibitions on workplace discrimination as well as state and local laws
  • Become aware of your social blind spots in a cross-cultural work environment

Students commonly report that Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate strengthens day-to-day effectiveness in global mobility, HR, and cross-functional support roles by making visa categories and the employment-based green card process easier to navigate, clarifying how immigration choices connect to corporate decision making, and providing practical guidance for shaping employer immigration policies and internal practices. Learners also highlight curated resources, case-based scenarios, and a structured learning path that helps them feel grounded in core U.S. employment immigration fundamentals, with flexibility that fits demanding schedules and facilitator feedback that is detailed and actionable.

What truly sets eCornell apart is how our programs unlock genuine career transformation. Learners earn promotions to senior positions, enjoy meaningful salary growth, build valuable professional networks, and navigate successful career transitions.

Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate, which consists of 6 short courses (4 core and 2 elective), is designed to be completed in 3 months. Each course runs for 2 weeks, with a typical weekly time commitment of 3 to 5 hours.

You can complete most work asynchronously on your own schedule, including short video lessons, readings, discussions, and project deliverables. At the same time, the experience is not isolated or self-study only. An expert facilitator guides your cohort and provides feedback, and some courses include live sessions that give you a chance to ask questions and learn from peers in real time.

If you need to adjust pacing around work travel or peak periods, multiple start dates and the course-by-course structure make it easier to plan your learning calendar in advance.

Students in Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate often describe the program as a practical, work-ready way to build confidence with business immigration concepts and apply them immediately on the job, especially for professionals supporting global mobility, HR, or in-house legal teams.

Learners frequently highlight benefits such as:

  • Clear coverage of visa categories and the employment-based green card process
  • Strong connections between immigration law and real corporate decision making
  • Helpful guidance for shaping or improving employer immigration policies and internal practices
  • Curated resources that point students to credible, real-world reference materials used in the field
  • Case-based scenarios and application exercises that strengthen immigration strategy thinking
  • A structured path that helps students feel grounded in the core fundamentals of U.S. employment immigration

Beyond the immigration-specific outcomes, students also commonly mention the overall learning experience:

  • Flexible pacing that fits demanding work schedules
  • Organized modules that are easy to navigate
  • A mix of short videos, readings, and applied assignments to reinforce learning
  • Responsive facilitators who provide detailed, actionable feedback
  • Peer discussion that adds perspective from different industries and roles

A law degree is not required to benefit from Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate. The program is designed to help HR, managers, and business leaders build practical fluency so you can recognize common immigration and employment-law issues, ask better questions, and collaborate more effectively with counsel.

In the Immigration Law Certificate, you will work through real-world scenarios and guided projects that mirror employer decisions, such as evaluating temporary work visa options, strengthening employment eligibility verification practices, and assessing how workforce changes can affect foreign national employees. That practical focus helps you learn how lawyers tend to frame risk and ambiguity, without expecting you to already think like a specialist.

Because course materials are educational and general in nature, you will be better equipped to spot when you need legal advice and how to support that conversation with the right information and documentation.

Employment eligibility verification is a core topic in Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate. You will learn how the Form I-9 process works in practice, where employers commonly make mistakes, and how to reduce risk while avoiding discriminatory practices.

You will examine how to classify workers correctly, what documentation and retention practices matter, how E-Verify fits into the compliance landscape, and what to do to prepare for an I-9 audit. You’ll also apply what you learn through a project component and scenario-based exercises that mirror the types of issues employers face when policies are unclear or documentation is inconsistent.

The result is a clearer, more operational understanding of I-9 compliance that supports more consistent hiring and onboarding processes, and more informed conversations with HR and legal partners.

Workforce changes can create disproportionate risk for foreign national employees and for the employers responsible for compliance. Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate prepares you to anticipate how common corporate events can affect immigration status, timelines, and employer obligations, so you can respond more strategically and reduce avoidable disruption.

You will explore how mergers and acquisitions can trigger successorship questions and new filing needs, how layoffs or furloughs can affect different visa categories, and what procedures may be required to end employment lawfully while considering immigration consequences. You’ll also examine how union activity, Workers’ Compensation claims, and shifting political interpretations can influence decision making and risk.

By practicing with structured scenarios and projects throughout Cornell’s Immigration Law Certificate program, you will be better equipped to coordinate with internal stakeholders and immigration counsel before changes occur, not after problems surface.