Languages:

SUCCESS STORIES

The following are recent cases on which our firm has worked. While no two cases are alike, we offer these stories as examples of the types of cases for which our clients have recently received approvals.

• Our office recently received an E-2 Visa approval from the U.S. Embassy in Korea. The E-2 Visa applicant originally came to our office as a B-1 visitor in the Summer of 2004. He was negotiating the terms of a business purchase and asked our office to review the various contracts and leases. After reviewing the documentation, we met with the client to explain to him what the contracts meant and to point out the potential problems of purchasing the particular business. The documents were prepared by the potential Seller’s attorney and were very one-sided in favor of the Seller.

  Based on our meeting, the client determined that it was too risky to purchase the proposed business. Shortly thereafter, our office became aware of another business for sale (similar to the one he was previously interested in) and put him in touch with the Seller of the new business. Our client decided he liked the new business (a convenience store) and asked us to prepare the necessary contracts.

  Our client’s goal was to obtain an E-2 visa based on his anticipated purchase of the convenience store business. Our office drafted the legal contracts with that in mind. Since there is never a guarantee that an applicant for an E-2 visa will be approved, in order to protect our client’s substantial investment in the business, we drafted an escrow agreement which allowed our client to put the purchase money in escrow with the condition that it would be given to the Seller only upon approval of the E-2 visa. If the E-2 visa were not approved, the money could be returned to our client. Our office prepared an extensive package explaining how the E-2 Visa requirements were met based on his anticipated purchase of the convenience store business. The case was approved and the client will enter the U.S. in E-2 status to begin operating his new business. His wife and children will join him.

• A client came to our office in early September, 2004, having been offered a job as an accountant with a local CPA firm and hoping to change his status to H-1B. Due to the impending H-1B cap (65,000 for fiscal year 2005), our firm had to quickly prepare the H-1B package and get it filed. We prepared the package and filed it for the client later that same month. The H-1B case was approved in seven (7) days. He, along with his wife and 2 kids, should be able to complete their visa applications abroad and enter the United States sometime in December.

• Near the beginning of August, 2003, an overseas company contacted our office regarding the possibility of transferring an employee from their company to the United States to open a subsidiary company in the U.S. Our firm gathered the necessary documentation and information regarding the overseas parent company, and assisted the company with setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary (U.S. corporation) in the United States. By the beginning of September, our firm had prepared and submitted an L-1 package to the USCIS, in which we demonstrated the need for the transfer of an intra-company employee to the United States to manage the new office of the wholly-owned subsidiary. Our firm filed the L-1 package through Premium Processing at the local Service Center, and the case was approved in five (5) days. Following approval, our firm prepared the Visa Application package which was used in obtaining the L-1 Visa at the U.S. Consulate overseas. The employee was in the United States and managing the wholly-owned subsidiary before the end of September.

• An individual in J-1 status contacted our office desiring to obtain a waiver of the two-year home residency requirement under INA Section 212(e). Unfortunately, when the client entered the United States the local university where he was working as a research scholar made a mistake on their forms, indicating that the scholar was receiving government funding during his stay in the United States. This would have made the scholar subject to the two-year home residency requirement of INA Section 212(e). After reviewing the J-1 Program at the university where the scholar was working, we were able to communicate with the proper university officials and obtain the necessary documentation to prove to the USCIS the initial forms were incorrect, and that the scholar received no government funding during his stay in the U.S. Subsequently, we contacted the Department of State Waiver Review Division and obtained an advisory opinion stating that the research scholar was not subject to the two-year home residency requirement under INA Section 212(e). Therefore, the J-1 alien did not have to file for a J-1 waiver, thus saving him the time and effort associated with filing for a waiver.