US Immigration Podcast

Interviews with Leaders in Immigration

Michael Im: Insight in E-2 renewals without an Immigration Attorney (Ep. 9)

by Leave a Comment

In this episode we talk to Michael Im on what it is like to work on his own E-2 visa renewal without an immigration attorney.

 

 

E-2 Visa checklistMichael Im is a Korean national and multiple business owner in the United States. He has worked successfully with an immigration attorney in the past, but this time has decided to do it all himself.   In this episode you will hear:

  • His personal immigration story
  • His initial impressions of his original attorney
  • What drove him to work on his own visa renewal
  • Business Advice: Be positive and act positively
  • His personal habits that he attributes to his success: Encourages others around him to also be positive
  • Parting Thoughts: An immigration attorney is certainly the right choice if you are struggling with immigration issues

John Gezelius: Proving the Source of US Investment Funds for Foreign Entrepreneur and Investor Visas (Ep. 8)

by Leave a Comment

In this episode we talk to Immigration Attorney John Gezelius on Proving the Source of US Investment Funds for Entrepreneur and Investor visas

John GezeliusJohn Gezelius is an attorney in the Los Angeles suburb of Tustin, California. He is a 1978 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and attended law school at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California, where he received both a Juris Doctor degree and then later a Master of Law in transnational business and law. He has a transactional practice and his focus is on investment related immigration.

 

In this episode you will hear:

  • A high level description of the EB-5 Visa
  • Why it is important to fully document the source of investment funds
  • How his background as a US Air Force Intelligence Officer gave him a unique opportunity to detect fraud
  • How Money Laundering and Fraud detection is the inverse of proving the source of funds
  • The three key sources for fund documentation:
  1. Payment
  2. Deposit
  3. Taxes
  • Why having a trusting and forthcoming relationship with an investor client is key to your mutual success

 

John also shares with us:

  • Immigration Services offered: EB-5 visa representation and source of funds documentation
  • Business Advice: Paint a legal picture so that the only answer will be “of course”
  • His personal habits that attributes to his success: I'm always afraid of screwing something up, so I often over prepare (and make it easy to find what I have done in the petition).
  • Parting Thoughts: I wish I had started sooner, the businesses are fascinating and the relationships are great… I'd have more friends (and contacts) if I had.

Ismael Fernandez, PhD: EB-5 Targeted Employment Area Designations using GATES (Ep. 7)

by Leave a Comment

In this episode we talk to Economist Ismael Fernandez, PhD on EB-5 Targeted Employment Area (TEA) Designations using Geographical Alignment of Tract Employment Statistics (GATES) Analysis

 

Ismael FernandezDr. Fernandez is the chief economist and co-founder of Foreign Investor Resource Group. He is responsible for the planning and execution of most services provided by FIRG and ensuring the quality and accuracy of all the economic and employment studies provided by the company. In addition to the immigration arena, he has extensive knowledge in the fields of risk management, financial accounting, and strategic decision making. He holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and an MBA from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

In this episode you will hear:

  • What a Targeted Employment Area is
  • The benefit of a Targeted Employment Area to EB-5 investors
  • The drawback of Targeted Employment Areas
  • How to obtain a TEA designation
  • What a Geographical Alignment of Tract Employment Statistics analysis is and how it can be beneficial for hopeful TEAs

 

Ismael also shares with us:

  • His personal habits that attributes to his success: Patience and Perseverance
  • Parting Thoughts: Interview, select, then trust the professionals you hire.

Layli Eskandari: H-1B visas and Remote Workers (Ep. 6)

by 2 Comments

In this episode we talk to Immigration Attorney Layli Eskandari on H-1B visas and the challenge of proving Remote Workers are not from Staffing Agencies

 

Layli EskandariLayli Eskandari is a founding partner of the Atlanta law firm Levine & Eskandar. Layli's practice concentrates on business immigration, including temporary employment visas and permanent residence for professionals, international transfers, investors, researchers, and nurses.  She has served on the Executive Committee of the Georgia-Alabama Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and has been a Super Lawyers since 2012

 

In this episode you will hear:

  • The requirements of the H-1B visa
  • Family impact of the H-1B process
  • The challenges with proving a nurse needs a degree (and therefore an H-1B)
  • Why Staffing Agencies can not apply for H-1B worker Visas
  • The challenges with proving a remote worker is not a form of ‘Staffed Agent'

 

Layli also shares with us:

  • Her 13 year Journey in Immigration law and her experiences at a large firm differ from opening her own law.
  • Business Advice: Treat clients well, the repeat business and referrals will follow
  • His personal habits that she attributes to his success: Her proficient use of an Immigration database and case management system
  • Parting Thoughts: Immigration is about people

Phillip Yadidian: Immigration Case Management with eImmigration (Ep. 5)

by Leave a Comment

In this episode we talk to Phillip Yadidian on Immigration Case Management with eImmigration

 

Phillip YadidianAfter graduating from UCLA in 1984, Phillip started his career with Teradyne where he was responsible for the design and implementation of the operating environment for VLSI test systems. His software engineering career continued at Locus Corporation, where he participated in the development of AIX operating system. In 1992, Phillip partnered with Behdad Payami and launched Cerenade. Currently, Mr. Yadidian is serving as President and CTO for Cerenade.

 

In this episode you will hear:

  • His personal immigration story
  • A description of Immigration Case and Practice Management (forms, reporting modules, cloud integration, etc)
  • What Cerenade's solution to this space provides through eImmigration
  • How they pivoted about 8 years ago and redesigned their solution from the ground up
  • His excitement about upcoming features and function about to be released

Phillip shares with us:

  • Business Advice: Don't give up
  • His personal habits that he attributes to his success: Be persistent, work hard, have good people and empower them
  • Parting Thoughts: If you are considering an investment in an immigration case management system or are considering switching, checkout Cerenade's eImmigration