🚀 go-pugleaf

From Andrew Tang:

> I don't know any attorney in the California area, but I do know a good
> one in Miami Florida. I have received many good recommendations on this
> attorney from my friends and I myself am using this attorney for my
> green card application. It may seem a bit strange to hire an attorney
> who is not in your home state, but it really isn't. The company that I am
> working for has offices in Boston(MA), Atlanta(GA), Fort Lauderdale(FL)
> and New York. I myself is based in the New York office and that attorney
> has help my colleagues in those offices to get their H-1's and green cards
> in the past. Anyway, if you are interested, here's the address:
>
>     Law offices
>     Weiss & Hernandez, PA
>
>     Damaras Jarcia
>
>     Suite 1600 Courthouse Tower
>     44 West Flagler Street
>     Miami Florida, 33130
>
>    (305)358-1500 (voice)
>    (305)358-1921 (fax)>
 
From Kostya Bogatyrev
 
> I suggest that before firing your lawyer you check all the circumstances.
> I am currently in process of changing my status from J1 to H1B, and it
> took my lawyer quite a while before my papers were forwarded to INS,
> but I don't think he is entirely responsible for that.
>
> Possible causes for a delay may include (but not be limited to) the
> following:
>
>     a. Educational credentials. If the applicant has a foreign-issued
> university diploma, INS may request an expert opinion on equivalency
> (and notarized translations of diploma and transcripts).  
>     b. Labor condition application.  According to my lawyer, he
> had first to obtain a prevailing wage determination from a state
> employment agency, and then compile a file of documents showing
> that hiring a foreigner will not harm American workers.  For a
> small company with no prior experience preparing and submitting
> all the paperwork may be an additional burden.
>
> If your lawyer has already completed preliminary attestation, I
> would say that the application is moving at a reasonable speed.
>
> You have a good point. The personnel director of the company and I tried to 
> determine if this was the case. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the lawyer 
> did absolutely nothing after the initial request for documents.

From Ngadi W. Hermawati

> Well, I just heard that Larry Sakamoto is a well known
> Immigration lawyer in L.A. ... My friend got his case solved.
> For Larry's address, i guess you have to look up on the yellow
> pages for L.A. county. I used one in Tucson to get my Green Card,
> his name is Lawrence Canter from Canter & Siegel ... He's a very
> prof. lawyer.

From Gladis R.Filchtiner

> My recommendation to you is to call the American Bar Association and 
> ask for their referal service. Then, when connected, explain your need and
> also what is the native country of your spouse.
>
> They will give you a short list of lawyers who work in the specific area of
> Immigration Law. To tell what is your spouse native country might help you
> further, since some lawyers even specialize w/ nationals of specific areas, 
> i.e., latin americans, europeans, east-europeans, africans, east-asians,etc.
> The laws are the same but since there are so many 'set asides' and other
> little detais privy to each country, there is specialization even on that.
>
> The ABA is very good in referals and the lawyers like to have clients who
> got referal through them. It shows good standing and good work!
>
> I'm not a lawyer, but some time ago I used their referal service when I 
> needed one, and I found a very good one.

This is very good advice. I should have done this last December. 

From heather wallick

> Hi, I work for an attorney in boston.  we recently had to
> file an adjustment of status application in San diege and had to have
> a lawyer go to file it with us.  We were given the name of Attorney
> Robert Kent.  To my knowledge he is respected and an AILA (American
> Immigration Lawyers Association) member (otherwise my boss wouldnt deal
> with him.) Just a name... I personally havent had any contact with
> him.
> Choosing a lawyer is hard... good luck!!

The winning advice is from Ravi Bhumbla:

> This is second hand information.  My rooommate used a lawyer here to
> get H-1 and later green card while working for a company in Sorrento
> Valley.  He was quite satisfied with the lawyer.  The lawyer's name is
> Chetan Tanna and I think his partner was a brother-in-law of one of
> the Representatives from San Diego (Bill Lowery?).  Hopefully you
> should be able to find the name etc. in the phone book.

I called Chetan Tanna's office and told his assistant that my wife was 
getting a job offer conditioned on her getting work authorization. His 
assistant sounded very knowledgeable and was very helpful. She explained 
to me the steps in getting an H-1B and gave me a rough timetable. She also 
said that if it helps, they are willing to call up the personnel director 
of the company and explain to them the procedure for hiring a professional 
who is not a US citizen/PR. She said they will answer any questions the 
personnel director might want to ask. They do this all the time. 

I was really impressed. I suggested to the personnel director that since our 
lawyer has not even bothered to file a labor condition application yet (a 
month after accepting the company's downpayment), we should just fire him for 
unprofessional conduct and hire Chetan Tanna. She thought about it for a 
while but decided it was less disruptive if we just kept him. She said 
she'll be on the lawyer's case until the I-129 petition is approved.

Thank you very much for everyone's help and I hope nobody reading this will 
go through the anxiety and aggravation my wife and I are currently 
experiencing.

Comments welcome.

   - Francis
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Francis C Felizardo                             francis@mpl.ucsd.edu
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 0213	      (619) 534 1085
La Jolla, CA 92093-0213