Our experienced immigration team provides comprehensive services to address our clients’ needs regarding immigration benefits and compliance matters.  We provide legal guidance and services to businesses, investors, developers, educational institutions, hospitals, individuals and families on a wide range of immigration law issues. We work closely with our clients’ in-house counsel and human resources professionals to create comprehensive immigration strategies and conduct immigration compliance training.

Non-English speaking clients will find themselves in a comfortable environment at Bousquet Holstein, as our firm offers legal counsel in Arabic, Italian, Mandarin, Russian and Ukrainian.  We pride ourselves on being responsive.

Individuals seeking a new life and businesses with international offices or competing on a global scale should be mindful of changing immigration rules and practices. Employers hiring international talent, including foreign nationals studying at U.S. universities, and those transferring their company-trained talent from overseas operations, need to be acutely aware of U.S. Immigration regulations and compliance issues.

INVESTORS AND DEVELOPERS

Bousquet Holstein attorneys bring their vast and impressive experience to investment-based immigration matters. We work as a team with other practice areas in our firm, providing our immigration clients with experienced counsel in  business transactions (including corporate and securities law, lending, and mergers and acquisitions), real estate, taxation, employment, employee benefits and other disciplines.

We provide services to non-immigrant investors applying for the E-2 (Treaty Investor) and L-1 (Intra-Company Transferee) categories, as well as counsel immigrant investors applying for permanent residence under the EB-5 Program.

In EB-5 immigrant petition cases, we represent clients who invest into a qualified project or making an investment through an approved regional center.  In addition, we represent developers who are to develop a regional center, prepare a petition for a regional center designation, help develop a contract with an existing regional center to raise EB-5 capital for development projects, structure EB-5 project, prepare transactions and offer documents for EB-5 capital raise, and advise clients on all aspects of EB-5 and applicable securities regulation.

EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGN NATIONALS

Bousquet Holstein attorneys consult employers and foreign nationals in preparing employment-based petitions, specifically in the following visa categories:

• H-1B (Temporary Worker),
• L-1A and L-1B (Intracompany Transferee),
• R-1 (Religious Worker),
• E-1 and E-2 (Treaty Trader and Treaty Investor),
• O-1 (Extraordinary Ability in Business, Athletes, Science, Arts, Education, Motion Pictures)
• P-1, P-3 (Extraordinary Ability in Business, Athletes, Science, Arts, Education, Motion Pictures)
• Schedule A occupations category (Exceptional Ability)
• Mexican and Canadian TN (NAFTA) applications.

Additionally, our attorneys help employers navigate through Form I-9 and E-Verify compliance for all employees, and special immigration-related employment matters, such as Labor Condition Application (LCA) and public access file compliance.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

We work with universities, students, post-graduates, researchers and faculty, providing individualized immigration counsel and representation based on their unique situation. We help out clients navigate through the complexities of this area with respect to student and exchange visitor visas (J-1 and F-1), two-year home residency requirements, J-1 waivers, H-1B cap-exempt petitions, as well as practical training (OPT) after completion of their course of study. We consult faculty members and researchers on applying for both immigrant and non-immigrant work status in the U.S. based on their unique circumstances.

FAMILIES

We have helped many families reunite in the U.S. with their family members, guiding them on filing petitions for alien relatives, adjustment of status, naturalization, humanitarian reinstatement, humanitarian parole, consular processing, waivers and other family-based immigration matters.  We also assist our clients with removing conditions on their conditional green card (I-751)) as well as apply for replacement I-90 cards.

START-UPS

We assist start-up companies and foreign businesses with the establishment of U.S. operations, corporate entity formation and recruitment of talent. We also develop business immigration strategies for multinational companies.

CORPORATE TRANSACTIONS                   

We offer legal guidance on the immigration consequences of mergers, acquisitions, reductions-in-force, corporate name changes, relocation of an employer or its employees, and other corporate transactions, with the aim of reducing the risk of potential immigration-related liabilities.

With the increase in immigration liability enforcement imposed on employers, we encourage companies making corporate changes to ensure that they include immigration compliance on their due diligence checklist. Our business and immigration attorneys will work with the acquiring entity to conduct a Form I-9 audit during the due diligence period of the transaction.

EMPLOYMENT

With immigration and employment laws constantly changing, employers are increasingly required to stay updated on compliance and regulation changes. We advise U.S. businesses on all aspects of employment and termination of foreign employees.  In a wide range of industries the release of certain goods, software or technologies to foreign nationals in the course of their work is treated by the law as an export, thus we guide our clients on implications relating to export controls, trade sanctions, employment discrimination and data privacy requirements.

CRIMMIGRATION

Rather than retaining different attorneys to address criminal defense and immigration issues stemming from the same set of facts, Bousquet Holstein brings together the expertise of these complicated areas of law to resolve our clients’ legal issues in a more effective and cost efficient manner.

USEFUL LINKS

U.S. Services and Immigration Services (USCIS) https://www.uscis.gov/

USCIS Forms and Fees https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/learners/apply-citizenship/forms-and-fees

USCIS Field Offices https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/field-offices

USCIS Compilation of Laws, Regulations and Guides https://www.uscis.gov/laws/laws-regulations-and-guides-immigration-and-nationality-act

I-9 https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central

E-Verify https://www.uscis.gov/e-verify

Department of Labor https://www.dol.gov/

O*Net Dictionary of Occupational Titles https://www.onetonline.org/

U.S. Department of State http://www.state.gov/

Visa Bulletin https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/law-and-policy/bulletin.html

Visa Services https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en.html

Visa Fees and Reciprocity Tables https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/fees/fees-reciprocity-tables.html

U.S. Embassy and Consulate Information http://www.usembassy.gov/

Foreign Affairs Manual and Foreign Affairs Handbooks https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/agency-policy/external-reference-links/fam-fah

Practicing Attorneys