How our Immigration Legal Services can Help

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We help companies and employers choose the best strategy for hiring and retaining foreign workers in temporary and permanent positions. This includes designing the best immigration options for your company, coordinating with your HR professionals, budgeting fees and costs, and tracking renewal dates and visa bulletin filing dates. 

We have deep knowledge and experience with visa options for companies, investors, and extraordinary or exceptional individuals such as TN, E-2, H-1B, L-1, J-1, PERM, EB, NIW, P, and O visa filings. 

We have represented healthcare systems (J-1 waivers for physicians and H-1B cap-exempt filings), universities (professors and students), manufacturing and engineering companies, (IT, engineering employees)  agricultural enterprises, financial and investment companies, applied research institutions, and small businesses, among others. 

Generally, immediate family members such as parents, minor children, and spouses have faster immigration options than siblings and adult (but unmarried) children. The degree of relationship often affects when your relative will receive a green card. The timing also depends upon the intending immigrant's country of origin, the relationship, and the sponsor's immigration status. 

When planning an immigration strategy for family members, we suggest working with an experienced immigration lawyer as soon as possible. 

Whether you are already married or thinking of becoming engaged, we can help you and your fiancee or fiance prepare and document your immigration application. We also explain the processing timeline, the best filing strategy, and what to expect for fees and costs.

U.S. immigration law provides several paths to obtaining lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, and ultimately, citizenship through naturalization. A green card, technically, is evidence of lawful permanent resident status. Depending on your particular situation, you may be able to "adjust" your current immigration status to that of an LPR while you are in the U.S. or obtain an immigrant visa at a U.S. embassy abroad.

It is extremely important to work with an experienced immigration lawyer to ensure that every step of the immigration process fits into a successful, long-term immigration strategy. One small mistake along the way, can have devastating and permanent consequences. 

"Work visas" are not an immigration status.  There really is no such thing as a work visa. It is not its own separate status or document. Instead, think of the concept of a "work visa" this way: a foreign national is authorized to work in the U.S. only if the person's visa status permits it. 

That means, for example, that U.S. law does not allow someone coming to the U.S. as a tourist to work. Even if the tourist completes the work permit (employment authorization document/EAD) application on the USCIS website and pays the fee, USCIS will process the form, deny the EAD,  and keep the fee. USCIS will not approve an application for an EAD based upon a B visitor visa or ESTA. Visitors cannot work while in the U.S. and cannot apply for an EAD.

It also means, for example, that someone who is in H-1B status is automatically work-authorized because they hold H-1B status. This is a visa status that the employer files on behalf of a temporary foreign worker. Neither the employer nor the H-1B worker needs to apply for an EAD because the USCIS-approved H-1B status automatically authorizes employment. 

U.S. Immigration law provides for employment authorization in very specific situations. It specifies what type of employment authorization a particular visa category holder must have. We can assist you in determining the best visa category for yourself or your employees

Many people coming to the U.S. do so by interviewing and obtaining a visa at a U.S. consulate in their home countries. They attend either an immigrant visa or a nonimmigrant visa interview. Student visas, visitor visas, H-1B  and L-1 visas, or investor visas like the E-2 visa are all nonimmigrant, or temporary visa statuses. 

People seeking to come to the U.S. permanently and obtain LPR status will attend an immigrant visa interview. Upon approval and entry into the U.S., the immigrant will receive an actual green card in the mail at his or her new residence in the U.S. that is evidence of LPR status.

The U.S. requires that most people who enter the U.S. have a visa issued by a U.S. consulate or possess an approved ESTA application. Even if you plan to only be in the U.S. temporarily, check with us to ensure that you obtain the proper entry documents. 

If you are already in the U.S., as an F-1 student, for example, and your employer submits an H-1B lottery registration for you, you will change your status from an F-1 OPT student to an H-1B without leaving the U.S. 

If you do travel out of the U.S. you would have to obtain an actual H-1B visa stamp in your passport to return to the U.S. Once you have the visa, you may be able to revalidate it without leaving the U.S. prior to its expiration date. The State Department has reinstated stateside visa revalidation after a 20-year lapse.