We are an immigration law firm serving clients in Metro Washington, DC and beyond. We provide comprehensive immigration services for employers and foreign nationals across all industries from all countries. Our knowledge and experience of immigration laws allows us to provide our clients with strategic advice and effective planning for all phases of the immigration process.
Jinu Patel
Ms. Patel has over 20 years of experience as an attorney. Before opening her own firm, Ms. Patel was in-house Immigration Counsel for a multinational IT firm in located in Bethesda, Maryland. While there, she handled all aspects of business immigration as well as various family and miscellaneous immigration matters.
Prior to that, Ms. Patel worked as a regulatory investigator for fraud and insider trading of NASDAQ listed securities. In this position, she gained extensive knowledge of government policies and the inner in working of government run investigations. Ms. Patel received her law degree (Juris Doctor) in 1998 from the American University – Washington College of Law, in Washington, DC.
She is admitted to practice by the Maryland Court of Appeal.
Ms. Patel is an active member of the Washington DC Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Nonimmigrant Visas
H-1b VISA
The H-1B visa is a nonimmigrant visa that allows an alien to work in the U.S. for up to six years (or more, in certain circumstances) in a professional position. The H-1B visa is employer specific, meaning that the alien can work only for the petitioning employer on the H-1B petition. An alien can work concurrently for two or more employers pursuant to H-1B petitions.
L-1A VISA
An L-1 visa is issued to executives, managers and employees with specialized knowledge transferred from a company outside the United States to a United States branch office. L-1 applicants must demonstrate that they are employees of the company sponsoring them and that the petitioning company has employed them abroad in an affiliated office for at least one year during the three year period immediately preceding the filing of the petition (there are exceptions if the L-1 employee has been working for the affiliated entity in the United States). If the L-1 employee is being transferred to the United States to establish a new subsidiary, affiliate, parent or branch office, the L-1 visa is initially issued only for one year. L-1 visas are granted for a maximum period of 5 or 7 years.
J-1 VISA
For Physicians
This category includes graduates of foreign medical schools pursuing graduate medical education or training at United States accredited schools of medicine or scientific institutions. The training may be clinical or non-clinical.
In order to pursue medical residencies and other clinical training in the United States as a J-1, the alien must enter the United States under the sponsorship of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG). An alien who participates in this type of exchange visitor program is subject to a two-year home country physical presence requirement, which is rarely waived. However, it should be noted that the H-1B visa may be available for certain alien physicians who have not yet satisfied the two-year home residence requirement.
O-1 VISA
The O-1 nonimmigrant visa is for the individual who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements.
The O nonimmigrant classification is commonly referred to as:
- O-1A: individuals with an extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business, or athletics (not including the arts, motion pictures or television industry)
- O-1B: individuals with an extraordinary ability in the arts or extraordinary achievement in motion picture or television industry
- O-2: individuals who will accompany an O-1, artist or athlete, to assist in a specific event or performance. For an O-1A, the O-2’s assistance must be an “integral part” of the O-1A’s activity. For an O-1B, the O-2’s assistance must be “essential” to the completion of the O-1B’s production. The O-2 worker has critical skills and experience with the O-1 that cannot be readily performed by a U.S. worker and which are essential to the successful performance of the O-1
TN VISA
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) creates special economic and trade relationships for the United States (U.S.), Canada and Mexico. The nonimmigrant NAFTA Professional (TN) visa allows citizens of Canada and Mexico, as NAFTA professionals, to work in the U.S. in a prearranged business activity for a U.S. or foreign employer. Permanent residents, including Canadian permanent residents, are not able to apply to work as a NAFTA professional.
Legal Permanent Residency
Labor Certification
This is the first step for many in immigrating to the United States. A permanent labor certification is issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) allows an employer to hire a foreign worker to work permanently in the United States. In most instances, before the U.S. employer can submit an immigration petition to the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the employer must obtain a certified labor certification application from the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA). The DOL must certify to the USCIS that there are not sufficient U.S. workers able, willing, qualified and available to accept the job opportunity in the area of intended employment and that employment of the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
National Interest Waiver for Physicians
This route allows physicians to bypass the time consuming step of filing a labor certification. To be eligible for this immigrant visa Physicians must:
- Must agree to work full-time in a clinical practice. For most physician NIW cases, the required period of service is 5 years
- Must work in a primary care (such as a general practitioner, family practice petitioner, general internist, pediatrician, obstetrician/gynecologist, or psychiatrist) or be a specialty physician
- Must serve either in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA), Mental Health Professional Area (MHPSA – for psychiatrists only), a Medically Underserved Area (MUA), or a Veterans Affairs facility, or for specialists in a Physician Scarcity Area (PSA)
- Must obtain a statement from a federal agency or a state department of health that has knowledge of your qualifications as a physician and that states your work is in the public interest (This statement is known as an attestation)
Traditional National Interest Waiver
There are two kinds of national interest waiver (NIW) applications available: the standard case and the physician NIW. In standard NIW cases, there is no formal rule defining what constitutes “national interest”, court decisions have established a list of factors that show the permanent resident’s admission would be in the national interest:
- The alien’s admission will improve the U.S. economy;
- The alien’s admission will improve wages and working conditions for U.S. Workers;
- The alien’s admission will improve educational and training programs for U.S. children and under-qualified workers;
- The alien’s admission will improve health care;
- The alien’s admission will provide more affordable housing for young, aged, or poor U.S. residents;
- The alien’s admission will improve the U.S. environment and lead to more productive use of the national resources; or
- The alien’s admission is requested by an interested U.S. government agency.
Aliens of Extraordinary Ability – EB1-EA
The EB1-EA green card is for aliens of extraordinary ability engaged in the arts, sciences, business, education or athletics. No job offer or labor certification is required. An EB1-EA petition may be filed simultaneously with another green card application. One petition may be approved faster than the other and can offer additional protection if one petition should be denied while another is approved. In order to qualify for the EB1-EA, the applicant must have won a Nobel Prize OR show documentation in three of the following areas:
- Receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence;
- Membership in associations in the field that demand outstanding achievement of their members, as judged by recognized national or international experts;
- Published material about the alien in professional or major trade publications;
- Evidence that the alien is a judge of the work of others in the field;
- Evidence of the alien’s original contributions of major significance to the field;
- Authorship of scholarly articles;
- Display of the alien’s work at artistic exhibitions or showcases;
- Evidence the alien has performed in a leading or critical role for organizations that have a distinguished reputation;
- Evidence that the alien commands a high salary in relation to others in the field; or
- Evidence of commercial success in the performing arts.
EB-5 Visa – Immigration through Investment
USCIS administers the EB-5 Visa Immigrant Investor Program, also known as “EB-5,” created by Congress in 1990 to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. Under a pilot immigration program first enacted in 1992 and regularly reauthorized since, certain EB-5 visas also are set aside for investors in Regional Centers designated by USCIS based on proposals for promoting economic growth.
All EB-5 visa investors must invest in a new commercial enterprise, which is a commercial enterprise:
- Established after Nov. 29, 1990, or
- Established on or before Nov. 29, 1990, that is:
1) Purchased and the existing business is restructured or reorganized in such a way that a new commercial enterprise results, or
2) Expanded through the investment so that a 40-percent increase in the net worth or number of employees occurs
Commercial enterprise means any for-profit activity formed for the ongoing conduct of lawful business including, but not limited to:
- A sole proprietorship
- Partnership (whether limited or general)
- Holding company
- Joint venture
- Corporation
- Business trust or other entity, which may be publicly or privately owned
Job Creation Requirements
Create or preserve at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers within two years (or under certain circumstances, within a reasonable time after the two-year period) of the immigrant investor’s admission to the United States as a Conditional Permanent Resident.
Capital Investment Requirements
Capital means cash, equipment, inventory, other tangible property, cash equivalents and indebtedness secured by assets owned by the alien entrepreneur, provided that the alien entrepreneur is personally and primarily liable and that the assets of the new commercial enterprise upon which the petition is based are not used to secure any of the indebtedness. All capital shall be valued at fair-market value in United States dollars. Assets acquired, directly or indirectly, by unlawful means (such as criminal activities) shall not be considered capital for the purposes of section 203(b)(5) of the Act.
Note: Investment capital cannot be borrowed.
Required minimum investments are:
- General: The minimum qualifying investment in the United States is $1 million.
- Targeted Employment Area (High Unemployment or Rural Area): The minimum qualifying investment either within a high-unemployment area or rural area in the United States is $500,000.