Warshaw Burstein Immigration Practice Group Highlights Notable Recent Successes
02/10/2023H1-B Work Visa Lottery Registration Is March 1-17, 2023
Warshaw Burstein today highlighted notable case successes and approvals that the firm’s Immigration Group, led by Partner David Jacobson, has recently achieved in light of the upcoming H1-B Visa Lottery Registration that takes place March 1-17, 2023.
Some Immigration Group case highlights include:
- The team was hired to assist a professional with the filing of his NAFTA Professional (TN) application for employment in the role of Management Consultant for a rapidly expanding optical/eyewear company in Los Angeles. The individual approached Mr. Jacobson for assistance after his prior multiple applications in this area prepared by other immigration attorneys had been denied. Mr. Jacobson was able to devise an alternate strategy to this case filing to that previously attempted. His creative solution here and the accompanying documentation resulted in an immediate case approval by USCIS for this notoriously difficult and complex TN occupation category filing without even any issuance of a Request For Evidence (“RFE”).
- A foreign national employee of a major corporate client mistakenly and unknowingly allowed his legal status to expire due to not using the correct immigration documentation to enter at the U.S. border. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) thus gave him an incorrect and much earlier expiration date on his I-94 legal status record. This situation was only discovered by the client a year later, well after the expiration of his legal status here. Despite those challenges, Mr. Jacobson was able to successfully petition the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for a “nunc pro tunc” reinstatement of the foreign national’s legal status for the entire past period. This winning argument thereby allowed the employee to then extend his legal status/work authorization here in the U.S. in the same petition without any gaps in his legal status record nor need to first travel abroad and then attempt to re-enter the U.S., giving great relief to both him and the corporate client. ).
- The firm also continues to achieve an unusually high approval rate on our O-1 and I-140 EB1 “extraordinary ability” worker case filings, a category that is subjective and difficult to obtain positive adjudications in. Petitions recently approved include those for Information Technology, Data Scientist and Quantitative Researcher positions. These achievements include deft use and creative interpretations by Mr. Jacobson and the team of the new rules issued by the Biden Administration in 2022 regarding the relevance and importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related occupations to the U.S. economy.
- A corporate client contacted us with an urgent situation. Its employee had applied on her own and without our knowledge for a STEM-based Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension of her current Employment Authorization. She had unknowingly submitted incorrect documentation and information in her I-765 application submission. Her application was denied without any opportunity given to first respond to resolve the problem. Mr. Jacobson was apprised of this situation and asked to handle the preparation and filing of a Motion To Reopen her denied case. If this effort was unsuccessful, the employee would have needed to exit the U.S. immediately with no adequate option to return or be authorized to work for the employer anytime in the near future, thereby causing a major disruption to her life and distress to the client’s business operation as well. Mr. Jacobson prepared and filed the subsequent Motion To Reopen based on his analysis of the situation. The motion was quickly granted, and the employee’s application was then immediately approved accordingly, to the great relief of both the individual and the client.
- We were enlisted to assist a documentary production company in its urgent effort to find an option to allow one of its most prominent and vital Producers to retain her employment authorization in the U.S. before her current work authorization expired. At first glance, the situation was serious as she seemingly had no viable options. However, Mr. Jacobson formulated a creative strategy to allow her to receive a special H-1B visa approval due to the proposed designation to the USCIS of the employer as a “cap-exempt” employer. This request is a difficult argument to make to USCIS as the definition is interpreted by USCIS in a very narrow fashion and almost always requires prior IRS approval/recognition in previous government filings, a condition which did not exist here. Regardless, Mr. Jacobson and his team were able to successfully convince USCIS that this designation was warranted for the first time for the company, despite the fact that no prior IRS official approval/recognition existed. He then was able to successfully convince the USCIS to approve the petition and grant the employee H-1B specialty occupation classification. Again, no RFE was issued in this petition, and the foreign national was thereby allowed to remain employed in the US in legal work status for many more years for the company.
The above examples are just a small sampling of the numerous immigration-related petitions and applications that are successfully filed by Mr. Jacobson and his team every year.
For help with immigration issues, please contact David Jacobson at djacobson@wbny.com.
