Ocular Recruiting

Ophthalmology and Optometry Recruiter - Nationwide

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Top Medical Talent

Top Medical Talent strives to connect great candidates with perfect jobs with integrity,  efficiency, and quality.

Barmen

Human Resources Assistant

Account Manager

Onelife Fitness

Certified Personal Trainer

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts

Guest Experience Manager

🩺Helping healthcare facilities recruit top tier talent | CEO at Top Medical Talent | Advisor on recruiting and hiring - Let's preserve time and resources | HR Professional | 🌱WFPB supporter

Hi, 
Thank you for visiting my profile. 
My friends call me Meri, so please feel free to do the same. 

📚📚📚 Here is my story📚📚📚📚

📌I was born and raised in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
When I turned 20, I  landed a job in The Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. 

📌I spent 4 years there working to put myself into school and move to the USA. 
The contract called for 84 hours/week. It was a blast - literally! 

📌While in Baghdad, I worked at the New Embassy Compound (NEC), the largest US Embassy in the world.

📌I moved to the States in 2011 and first lived in Honolulu. I moved to Norfolk, VA, in 2019 and shortly after I resided in the beautiful MD - DMV area. I am currently located in Orlando, FL. 

📌I was brave enough to start my own business in the summer of 2022, and I honestly can say I live the "American Dream." 

➡️A kid who survived the Bosnian war and did not have toothpaste in the '90s (but somehow maintained to smile) is 
🙏ready to serve you NOW.

I specialize in helping small & mid-size medical practices/groups recruit 
clinical and support staff.

I often serve as an advisor on 
recruiting, hiring, and onboarding 
to improve retention rates.

How Will I Help You

🏆 Attract, hire, retain, and motivate talent in healthcare
🏆 Meet urgent job shortages 
🏆 Decrease company hiring time
🏆 Assist experts seeking a new employment path 
🏆 Promote and support organizational transitions and management changes.

Who I Work With

👔HR Management / Hiring Managers and Executives of Medical Treatment Facilities, Anesthesia Groups, Pharmaceutical Groups, Healthcare  Consulting Groups, and Healthcare Educational Institutions 

The Reasons why I can Help You

✔️ Over five years as an executive manager
✔️ Team leadership, training, and workforce empowerment expert
✔️ Experienced in Payroll and HR management 
✔️Adviser on customizing recruiting and hiring processes to preserve time and resources 
✔️Certified Scrum Master and Six Sigma 
✔️ Relationships with multiple medical systems / Military, Educational, and Civilian
✔️ Uniquely positioned to have access to top-performing candidates with highly specialized skills
✔️ Large network of HCP candidates

Let's Talk
📨 Email: meri@topmedicaltalent.com
📞 Phone: (808) 372 -0020
🗓️ Meeting: https://calendly.com/topmedicaltalent

Meri Halilovic

UMass Chan Medical School

Responsible for the review, analysis and implementation of policies, systems and procedures for employment-based, international student and exchange visitor program. Provide strategic planning, advice, and guidance on immigration-related issues to departments, faculty, and administration. Develop the Immigration Services team and monitor individual goal setting and performance feedback. Responsible for the development and administration of Immigration Services budget.  Develop strong operational controls and monitoring to ensure processes are actively maintained and continuously improved.  Monitor government regulations and advocate for federal policies or procedures that promote University's ability to attract high quality international talent. Build successful partnerships throughout the organization by communicating appropriate information and providing assistance when needed.

Director, Immigration Services

In this role, I direct operations and the visa sponsorship of international faculty, students, clinical residents and fellows, postdocs, staff, and affiliates to ensure university compliance and talent retention.
Stay up to date with current laws, regulations, rules, policies, and best practices related to relevant immigration requirements. 
Facilitate and ensure compliance with University and federal policies, procedures, and regulations as they relate to immigration and international tax related issues.
Manage Immigration Services effective business practices, work product, and data integrity, including in-house processing of employment, student, and scholar-based visas.
Train, and supervise immigration staff.
Ensure an inclusive, customer-service orientation within the Immigration Services department and in relation to other HR areas, stakeholders and university offices or departments.
Oversee annual billing process  and ensure payment from stakeholder departments.
Manage and conduct an effective Permanent Residency sponsorship program in support of maintaining key faculty and personnel. 
Collaborate with HR partners to improve all HR systems and internal procedures to streamline processes. 
Maintain scaled case load to ensure up-to-date understanding of changing immigration procedures and to offset staff workload as needed.
Advise the international community on complex immigration matters . Assist with individual immigration problems dealing with various federal agencies. 
Liaise with government agencies and other organizations to facilitate visa documentation and employment authorizations.
Collaborate with HR partners to improve overall HR systems and internal procedures.
Provide leadership and ensure high quality service to internal and external partners.
Manage production of various print and electronic publications and communications.

Interim Director, Immigration Services

In this role, I deliver subject matter expertise on all immigration processes, policies, and protocols, such as changes within federal regulations, guidance, and trends. To promote implementation of strategic employment-based immigration practices, I support the Director in analysis and upgrade of visa sponsorship policies. 
Moreover, I am engaged in assisting university personnel in signing specific immigration petitions. I also aim to strengthen relationships with immigration attorneys and employees to drive compliance with policies and government regulations by leading external delivery partners. 
Through collaboration with the external counsel, I administer all immigrant and non-immigrant visa aspects, such as O-1 visa and Conrad waivers. Utilizing my leadership skills, I direct I-9 clerk in managing all I-9 matters for visa holders, developing immigration expiry reports, and administering all immigration communications to the community.
I also serve as a Mentor as part of the University's People Strategy. In this role, I provide guidance on how to grow within the organization by sharing my skills and expertise. 
The achievements of this role include:
Provided immigration-related advice to HRBPs, talent acquisition, HR team members, and business units.
Official SEVIS officer, steering aspects related to  J-1 Exchange Visitor programs, while keeping abreast with SEVIS-related and regulatory updates.
Enabled successful execution of permanent resident case management procedure, comprising stakeholder consultancy, job description reviews, and resume screening during PERM recruitment for sponsored Green Card applications.

Senior Manager, Immigration Services

As an Immigration Services Manager, I rendered support for all Green Card cases by acting as Senior Paralegal. In addition to that, I planned, approved, and implemented new methodology for management and processing of visa petitions in line with U.S. immigration law. 
To engage in various meetings with USCIS, Dept. of State, Dept. of Labor, Customs and Border Protection, and other relevant agencies, I partnered with the Director and shared updates with team members. This role has also allowed me to orchestrate interactive J-1 orientation sessions as well as prepared J-1 and H1B new hire materials. I delivered expert-level support in the evaluation of J and H1B cases.
These are the highlights of this role:
Expanded personal skills by achieving completion in First Time Manager Essentials course.
Secured time and cost savings in terms of payments through development and introduction of internal billing system for efficient invoice processing.
Maximized effectiveness of Immigration Services Office staff by executing unit-level process and system improvements that impact global students and scholars via delivery of training and resources.

Immigration Services Manager

During this role, I provided guidance to international scholars and employees on acquisition and maintenance of valid immigration status. My helpful nature enabled me to aid in employment and immigration-related processing activities for global researchers and staff. 
Throughout all the tasks, I strictly complied with federal regulations and organizational policies during electronic and paper record system maintenance. I also finalized the employment eligibility verification on Form I-9 for international hires, while analyzing credentials to issue non-immigrant visa documentation.
The following are the contributions from this role:
	Acted as co-chairperson for Inter-Faith Committee, team leader for COMECC, and member for Regional XI 2019 Local Arrangements Committee.
	Delivered effective presentations at NAFSA regional conferences.

Immigration Specialist

Boston University School of Law

Served as a guest lecturer for a Business Immigration Law course. Discussed J1 and F1 visa concepts and complying and successfully running these programs.

Guest Speaker

NAFSA: Association of International Educators

Presented at NAFSA's Annual Conference on PERM Pitfalls: Uniquely Advanced Issues Colleges and Universities Face. Session covered trending and advanced issues unique to the education sector regarding both standard and special handling PERM. Issues covered included remote, hybrid, and roving workers; dealing with situations where critical deadlines have been missed; and challenges in sponsoring staff who do not have previous work experience outside of their current roles.

Speaker

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Shaw's Immigration Group- a 50-member team located in Atlanta; Europe. Seyfarth provides comprehensive business immigration services throughout the U.S. and globally. 

Business Immigration Analyst
Account manager of several client teams and work with Fortune 500 companies including corporations and research institutions
Prepare H-1B, L-1 and TN-1 visa petitions for companies of varying sizes
Furnish labor certifications under the Department of Labor's PERM system 
Member of Global Mobility teamResearch and prepare both nonimmigrant and immigrant visa petitions

Business Immigration Analyst

Fragomen

The leading provider of corporate immigration services and solutions. With over 130 attorneys and over 800 professional immigration specialists and staff located in 28 offices in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe. Fragomen works in partnership with clients to facilitate the hiring and transfer of employees worldwide. 
	            
Paralegal
Liaison between attorney and clients for Fortune 500 companies including luxury hotel industries, telecommunications and consulting
Create, maintain and manage immigration case files
Research and prepare forms and letters of support for nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions
Exercise independent judgment and decision-making abilities
Use internal Firm resources to ensure timely execution of visa petition
Assist in immigration system data integrity to ensure appropriate case management, visa tracking and system reporting

Paralegal

Babson College

Maintain 500 members of international community compliant with U.S. immigration regulations
Research governmental regulations and communicate information in a timely manner
Work closely with UG & MBA Admissions and Center for Career Development
Advise via specialized workshops on U.S. employment options, taxes and cultural adjustment
Market, organize and support various cross-cultural student programs
Develop and update relevant publications and information handouts

International Programs Officer

With considerable expertise in devising and implementing immigration and non-immigration strategies, I know what it takes to ensure maximum compliance and enable smooth relocation of employees. 
People know me for someone who is always trying to take the first step, kind of like a go-getter individual. 
These are the areas where I really excel at:
Immigration Services
Immigration Law
Regulatory & Federal Compliance
Sponsorship Policies
Reporting & Documentation
Employee Training & Orientation
Program Management
Visa Procedures
Case Management
Moreover, in all my roles, I have been engaged in organizing effective on-boarding and orientation sessions to guide new hires on J-1 and H1B visa aspects. 
To ensure that the immigration process runs smoothly, it’s important that the clients are walked through the process at all times. For this reason, I continually analyze and update immigration resources, such as FAQs, intranet content, and templates. 
Believing that communication and collaboration are the key to success, I am recognized as a team-player; someone who partners regularly on a daily basis to evaluate and authorize visa sponsorship policies as well as introduce best employment-based immigration practices, while directing internal teams.
I am an expert when it comes to providing immigration-related advice, administering cases, and signing immigration petitions.

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Meri Halilovic

Melissa Scher

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