There seem to be so many people out these that prepare immigration visas and work permits and visa applications. But how do you know that they are good? Since this is a very personal process don’t you want to be sure that you hire the very best? How do you know if you are hiring the very best immigration lawyer to assist you, your family or your employer with a process that is so incredibly personal?

1. SEEKING TO HIRE THE BEST IMMIGRATION LAWYER?
What Should You Look For When You Are Seeking To Hire An
Immigration Lawyer To Handle Your Immigration Law Case?
There seem to be so many people out these that prepare immigration visas and work permits and
visa applications. But how do you know that they are good? Since this is a very personal process
don’t you want to be sure that you hire the very best? How do you know if you are hiring the
very best immigration lawyer to assist you, your family or your employer with a process that is
so incredibly personal?
There are so many people that purport to do immigration work on the internet. Some advertise
some very cheap prices. Should you shop a process like this based upon price? When you have a
particular ailment do you seek the cheapest doctor you can find or do you look for the very best
doctor that you can find who is capable of providing you (and your family) with the very best
information, the very best service (communications) and the very best ability to respond to your
medical concerns. Picking an immigration attorney to assist you should be no different.
People around the world strive to obtain legal status within the United States for several personal
and business reasons; however, obtaining this goal starts with choosing the best immigration
lawyer for you. Nowadays the world seems to be filled with immigration lawyers and mobility
agents, so where do you start?
What should you consider when deciding which immigration lawyer is the very best one to
represent you and the members of your family?
The first thing to consider is if the law firm or the immigration lawyer that you are choosing has
a specialty in practicing immigration and nationality law. Immigration and nationality law in the
U.S. deals with federal law or is a “federal practice”, meaning you (or your family member or
employer) can choose a lawyer from any U.S. state regardless of your country of origin. This
means that you have many more options from which to choose. For example, the immigration
and nationality lawyers at the NPZ Law Group have clients throughout the U.S. and located
throughout the world. While many of our Law Firm’s clients do like to come to see us in the
office, this is not always necessary. Technology has made the ability to be able to serve clients
throughout the U.S. and the world a matter of day-to-day practice.
Going back to the issue of specialty in the immigration law field, you will want to check out the
various specialties that are handled by a particular immigration lawyer or law firm. Instead of
picking the largest law firm that handles the most volume of cases, it may be in your best interest
to find an immigration and nationality law firm that focuses on immigration law. Immigration
law is a very complex area and it seems to be constantly changing as immigration law is a
“political football” that tends to change constantly depending upon such things as the state of the
economy, perceptions on Wall Street, the need for STEM workers in the U.S., the desire for the
U.S. to open its doors to Foreign National – Alien – Entrepreneurs, and/or the desire or need for
temporary skilled or unskilled foreign national labor. As the area of immigration and nationality

2. law continues to change, law firms have continued to become specialized with regard to the
types of immigration law practice that they undertake.
For example, some immigration law firms concentrate their practice(s) in the area of family-
based immigration law. These law firms or practitioners sometimes handle waivers and
provisional waivers of inadmissibility and some do not. Other immigration law firms and
immigration practitioners concentrate their practices in the area of business immigration law.
These firms focus on assisting employer and their Human Resources staff to understand the
nuances of temporary nonimmigrant transfers such as H-1B, L-1, O-1, P-3 visa petitions, etc.
These immigration and nationality law firms also assist with permanent transfers of foreign
national to the U.S. using pre-certified green card classifications such as the National Interest
Waiver (NIW), the Outstanding Researcher, Multinational Executive or Nurses in the Schedule
A, Group I classification. These immigration law firms or immigration law practitioners may
also assist with permanent transfers of foreign national to the U.S. using the PERM Labor
Certification process.
However, now that the business immigration law arena has become more complex, some
business immigration law firms have expanded their levels of service so that they can assist
employers with H-1B Site Visits, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Labor Condition Application
(LCA) investigations and I-9 Form Employment Eligibility Verification Audit investigations. Of
course, assisting clients with such demanding projects requires a great deal of manpower. Be
sure to assess the number of lawyers and legal professionals in a firm and seek to understand
whether the immigration practitioner that you are choosing has the right amount of support either
from other lawyers or professional staff so that they can properly attend to the cases that they
have in their office including yours.
The next question you should ask yourself is, will my case be handled by an immigration lawyer
or an immigration attorney or by an immigration law professional in the firm? Oftentimes,
immigration lawyers have support staff that work closely with them to prepare documents. These
individuals are oftentimes referred to as immigration specialists or immigration paralegals. Large
immigration law firms tend to delegate the majority of their cases to immigration paralegals. As
such, you want to be sure that when you call with questions you will receive answers from a
lawyer. While the immigration paralegal or immigration specialist may be your primary contact
at a law firm, you will want to be sure that the advice that you are receiving is vetted by the
immigration lawyer who is personally responsible for your case. As mentioned before,
immigration law is complex, therefore if you are paying for the specialization of an attorney you
want to be sure you are getting one.
In some law offices, the immigration and nationality law function/work is actually “outsourced”
completely. This means that your important and personal immigration law matter is being
handled by an offsite immigration paralegal or immigration preparer who works for some other
organization. Some of these folks are in the U.S. and some are actually outside the U.S. Many
large corporate organizations actually outsource their immigration work so that it is done in a
very inexpensive manner. Some offices use offsite paralegal specialist who prepare the
documentation and information for the lawyer or law form to file with the USCIS. It is important
for you, as the client, to understand if your work is being handled by the law office onsite or if

3. your work is being sent out of the law firm. The reasons why it may be important whether or not
your immigration work is done by the law office itself or whether it is outsourced may be: (1)
outsourcing impacts the cost for the services and the client should be charged a fair fee for the
immigration law services; and (2) the ability of the immigration lawyer to respond to queries on
an immediate basis may be impacted by whether or not the matter is outsourced; and (3) the
extent to which the law office assigned the matter has taken appropriate steps to protect the client
confidences that may flow to the outsourced organization. Outsourcing immigration and
nationality work raises a variety of ethical issues that are beyond the scope of this article.
Oftentimes, immigration lawyers work closely with their paralegal staff to get the cases done.
The immigration lawyer that you speak to should be able to explain the immigration and
nationality protocols in his/her office and to allow you to have access to the lawyer as well as the
lawyer's staff. For example, at NPZ (VISASERVE), we have a "three-points-of-contact-rule"
(TM). This means that any given client of our firm has access to at least three (3) people who are
working on or who know about the immigration and nationality law case that has been assigned
to the law office. Because our world continues to be complex and it becomes more difficult to
reach the lawyer directly. For this reason it is a "best practice" in any immigration and nationality
law office to allow a client to have multiple persons with whom they can communicate about the
status of their case(s). Additionally, because the immigration and nationality law practice is so
personal to the client and his/her family members, it is also a best practice for immigration and
nationality law offices to allow access to lawyers on a 24x7 basis. Given the expansion of
technology and its ongoing interplay with immigration and nationality law, this “best practice”
can be achieved with relative ease both to the immigration attorney and to the client (and/or the
members of his/her family).
As referenced above with regard to the practice areas of the immigration law firm or practitioner
that you have identified, once you have found a law firm or practitioner that specializes in
immigration and nationality law, it is now important to learn about the specific cases that this
law firm is experienced in handling. Immigration practitioners and immigration and nationality
law firms work on cases such as work visas for academic and business purposes, intracompany
transferees, crimmigration matters, NAFTA work visas, family petitions, green cards, citizenship
applications (nationality issues), removal defense, asylum, as well as spousal and dependent
visas for families of employees. Once you know what kind of matter it is that you are seeking to
do, you should be sure that the law firm that you want to hire to assist you with your case has the
experience that is required to successfully handle your type of case.
For example, it is not uncommon for the immigration and nationality lawyers at the Nachman
Phulwani Zimovcak (NPZ) Law Group, P.C. to spend a great deal of time speaking with Human
Resources Managers and Executives before undertaking to prepare and H-1B nonimmigrant
work visa for a potential professional and specialty occupation employee. Or, for example, to
answer questions that a Human Resources Professional may have about why the H-1B visa that
they are applying for may or may not be “subject to the cap”. Also, our immigration lawyers will
oftentimes spend a great deal of time helping the staff of potential client organizations to
understand what their DOL obligations may be with regard to the hiring of an H-1B
nonimmigrant worker. Oftentimes, many of the issues that impinge on the immigration project
significantly impact the prospective employer. The same is the case with regard to the

4. sponsorship of an L-1A intracompany manager/executive, an L-1B specialized knowledge
transferee, and O-1B artist visa petitioner or an E-1 or E-2 Treaty Trader or Treaty Investor.
Every type of immigration issue presents a myriad of different problems and/or issues, and the
prospective immigration client (be it the individual or the organization) needs to be sure that they
are able to locate an immigration and nationality attorney specialized and experienced in dealing
with the specific subset of issues particular to the particular case at hand. This concept aligns
closely with the ethical obligation of the immigration and nationality lawyer that is referred to as
his/her “level of competence”. Oftentimes, this inquiry is manifest in the response to the
layman’s question: Does the immigration and nationality law firm that you are seeking to engage
have a good reputation among its clients?
Once you are aware of your specific needs in the immigration and nationality law field, it is
always a good idea to do some research! Ask family members or others in your community who
has used an immigration and nationality attorney for references. However, be sure to check to
see that the lawyer that your friend or family member has used performed services similar to the
ones that he/she will be performing for you. For example, if you have a removal defense matter
(one in which you have been served with an Notice To Appear (NTA) and you are being
removed from the U.S. you may want to be asking about a referral from someone other than a
friend or family member who used an immigration and nationality lawyer or practitioner for an
H-1B visa.
Of course, there is always the online search for an immigration and nationality lawyer. Going
online to search for immigration and nationality law firm is a great idea but you need to be aware
that while the internet has a great deal of good information it also has a great deal of bad
information. You may want to go online and read reviews. Reviews can certainly be helpful.
However, the reviews should be able to answer such questions for you like . . . did the
immigration and nationality law firm handle cases similar to yours? How did the law firm handle
cases like yours? You will also want to look for positive feedback as that would be extremely
important in helping you to decide if the law firm is equipped to handle your case in a timely,
competent and cost-effective manner. Consider looking for immigration and nationality lawyers
on SUPERLAWYERS, AVVO, LAWYERS.COM, and other legal service rating sites. While
some of these sites are self-serving, they do give lists of immigration practitioners in the field.
Additionally, many immigration and nationality lawyers (like the NPZ Law Group) continue to
post comments (in real time) by clients on their websites.
Finally, and importantly, it is always a good idea to ask whether the law firm that you are
seeking to hire speaks your language? A “competent” immigration lawyer is required to
“communicate” effectively with its immigration law clients. This issue presents has two layers of
complexity. First, it is important to be sure that you are comfortable with the immigration lawyer
that will be handling the case. Is he/she compassionate? Does the immigration attorney make you
feel comfortable? Is the immigration and nationality lawyer speaking too much
legalese? Generally lawyers that speak in a manner that is too complex for you to understand
probably do not understand the issues him/herself. It continues to be our experience that the best
immigration lawyers are the ones that can slowly and carefully and effectively explain the legal

5. issues that the client has to the client and then can also effectively communication the options
that the individual may have to solve his/her immigration and nationality problems.
Sometimes this is done in the client’s native language using an interpreter. Immigration and
nationality lawyers that use interpreters in their office should be sure that the staff members are
apprised of the “secret” nature of the “attorney-client communication” and seek to be sure that
the staff members handles the matter with the same compassionate care and concern that he/she
has for the client’s immigration and nationality law issues. For example, it is often the case that
individuals who want to receive Naturalization in the U.S. have some form of disability. If they
do then it may be possible to obtain a waiver of the Naturalization interview by submitting a
Disability Waiver for the Naturalization Application using the N-648 Form. This process
includes a very fine line of communicating with the client, the client’s family member and
oftentimes the medical professional responsible for the preparation of the N-648. Including client
confidences there are HIPAA issues that inhere in the immigration and nationality project for this
client which need to be appropriately addressed by the immigration and nationality lawyer. The
best immigration and nationality lawyer is the one who is able to spot these issues and to address
the appropriately.
Further to the issue of “communication” with the immigration lawyer and his/her client is the
issue that oftentimes foreign language barriers can be tricky in the world of immigration and
nationality law. As mentioned before, immigration law presents many nuances to the layman and
to immigration law professionals alike. The immigration and nationality practice area requires an
understanding of layers and layers of detail and complexity. The layers often cross into other
areas of the law such as international taxation, estate planning for foreign nationals, employment
and labor law, criminal law, etc. Having a immigration and nationality law attorney or an
immigration and nationality law firm who speaks your language and is able to communicate
plainly and concisely is important for you to be able to understand the nuances of your case.
Also, the assistance of legal professionals that speak your language can be helpful for
researching and strengthening your case. A law firm that possesses immigration and nationality
lawyers with this asset can be extremely valuable to you.
Your success in obtaining legal status in the United States depends on the immigration and
nationality law firm or lawyer you chose at the beginning of your complex journey. It is in your
best interests to find an immigration and nationality lawyer who will be creative and determined
to achieve your goals. Immigration law is always changing, and increasingly so as the world
becomes smaller. It is important to find an immigration lawyer or immigration law firm that will
give your case the attention and specialization that the immigration and nationality law requires,
while being able to communicate with you in a clear, concise and competent manner. Obtaining
legal papers can be a strenuous and an extremely difficult process, but finding the right
immigration lawyer or law office in the beginning will help you to achieve success.
For more information about choosing the best immigration and nationality lawyer or the best
immigration and nationality law firm to assist you, your friends or your family members or your
Human Resources staff, please feel free to contact us at the Nachman Phulwani Zimovcak (NPZ)
Law Group, P.C. (also known as VISASERVE) by e-mail at info@visaserve.com or by
telephone at 201-670-0006 (x107) or (x104). We have offices in NY, NJ and IN and affiliated

6. offices in India and Canada. We also have a presence in Ohio, Boston and Chicago from where
we continue to assist our clients on a routines basis with great success.