immigration law

[->Soon]

youd have to go to a country that sends us alot of imigrants...

or just a few, but there stinking rich...

[LittleRussianPrincess, Esq.]

i've been doing immigration law for two summers now. let me know if you have any questions.

[revelareveritas]

Illegal Immigration.... It's not the law...

[->Soon]

i've been doing immigration law for two summers now. let me know if you have any questions.

well, whats it like?
do you know any foreign languages?hows the moola?

[LittleRussianPrincess, Esq.]

i've been doing immigration law for two summers now. let me know if you have any questions.

well, whats it like?
do you know any foreign languages?hows the moola?

i enjoy it a lot. the cases are usually interesting and you necessarily get clinet exposure very early in your career -- something that isn't true of other practices. clients can be wonderful, but some can be demanding. either way, you when you win a case, you get a rush that's unlike any other because you actually have profoundly affected someone's life. the practice is very documentation-heavy and if you do in a large corporate firm, you will have an army of paralegals processing all that *&^% while attorneys deal with the real legal issues. a lot cases leave room for a great deal of creativity in terms of arguments to be made and evidence to be submitted to support a certain element (evidenciary standards in immigration law tend to be broader than in other ligitation).

it's not common to make lots of money if all you want to do is detention, asylum and adjustment of status work. the clientele is not of the sort that can afford to pay a lot for legal services, but you do get a greater sense of reward from doing than than doing H1-B's for software engineers all day. the other avenue is to do the corporate thing and do mostly visa work for foreign investors and employees. it's a little less sexy, and a lot more nuts and bolts. the pay is obviously better because you're making what all the other associates in the firm get. an equity partner in a strong immigration group at a large firm can break $.5M.

[->Soon]

i've been doing immigration law for two summers now. let me know if you have any questions.

well, whats it like?
do you know any foreign languages?hows the moola?

i enjoy it a lot. the cases are usually interesting and you necessarily get clinet exposure very early in your career -- something that isn't true of other practices. clients can be wonderful, but some can be demanding. either way, you when you win a case, you get a rush that's unlike any other because you actually have profoundly affected someone's life. the practice is very documentation-heavy and if you do in a large corporate firm, you will have an army of paralegals processing all that *&^% while attorneys deal with the real legal issues. a lot cases leave room for a great deal of creativity in terms of arguments to be made and evidence to be submitted to support a certain element (evidenciary standards in immigration law tend to be broader than in other ligitation).

it's not common to make lots of money if all you want to do is detention, asylum and adjustment of status work. the clientele is not of the sort that can afford to pay a lot for legal services, but you do get a greater sense of reward from doing than than doing H1-B's for software engineers all day. the other avenue is to do the corporate thing and do mostly visa work for foreign investors and employees. it's a little less sexy, and a lot more nuts and bolts. the pay is obviously better because you're making what all the other associates in the firm get. an equity partner in a strong immigration group at a large firm can break $.5M.

ever hear about people doing it from the other side?  in the foreign country?

[LittleRussianPrincess, Esq.]

i've been doing immigration law for two summers now. let me know if you have any questions.

well, whats it like?
do you know any foreign languages?hows the moola?

i enjoy it a lot. the cases are usually interesting and you necessarily get clinet exposure very early in your career -- something that isn't true of other practices. clients can be wonderful, but some can be demanding. either way, you when you win a case, you get a rush that's unlike any other because you actually have profoundly affected someone's life. the practice is very documentation-heavy and if you do in a large corporate firm, you will have an army of paralegals processing all that *&^% while attorneys deal with the real legal issues. a lot cases leave room for a great deal of creativity in terms of arguments to be made and evidence to be submitted to support a certain element (evidenciary standards in immigration law tend to be broader than in other ligitation).

it's not common to make lots of money if all you want to do is detention, asylum and adjustment of status work. the clientele is not of the sort that can afford to pay a lot for legal services, but you do get a greater sense of reward from doing than than doing H1-B's for software engineers all day. the other avenue is to do the corporate thing and do mostly visa work for foreign investors and employees. it's a little less sexy, and a lot more nuts and bolts. the pay is obviously better because you're making what all the other associates in the firm get. an equity partner in a strong immigration group at a large firm can break $.5M.

ever hear about people doing it from the other side?  in the foreign country?

nope

[->Soon]

dang.

[erox]

i've been doing immigration law for two summers now. let me know if you have any questions.

well, whats it like?
do you know any foreign languages?hows the moola?

i enjoy it a lot. the cases are usually interesting and you necessarily get clinet exposure very early in your career -- something that isn't true of other practices. clients can be wonderful, but some can be demanding. either way, you when you win a case, you get a rush that's unlike any other because you actually have profoundly affected someone's life. the practice is very documentation-heavy and if you do in a large corporate firm, you will have an army of paralegals processing all that sh*t while attorneys deal with the real legal issues. a lot cases leave room for a great deal of creativity in terms of arguments to be made and evidence to be submitted to support a certain element (evidenciary standards in immigration law tend to be broader than in other ligitation).

it's not common to make lots of money if all you want to do is detention, asylum and adjustment of status work. the clientele is not of the sort that can afford to pay a lot for legal services, but you do get a greater sense of reward from doing than than doing H1-B's for software engineers all day. the other avenue is to do the corporate thing and do mostly visa work for foreign investors and employees. it's a little less sexy, and a lot more nuts and bolts. the pay is obviously better because you're making what all the other associates in the firm get. an equity partner in a strong immigration group at a large firm can break $.5M.

ever hear about people doing it from the other side?  in the foreign country?

YES. I think I mentioned this earlier in the thread....check out www.aila.org for a list of immigration attys abroad and for more info. You can do refugee/asylee processing (I-730s, etc), Adjustment of Status, Religious worker visas, fiance visas, student visas, work visas, etc etc etc from abroad. It would probably be easier to get those skills here in the US, then transfer them abroad though. Dealing with the DOS is very difficult from here, and my firm deals with imm attys abroad in several countries.

I have been doing imm law for four years and am fluent in two other languages besides english. Not a requirement, esp if you are doing employment-based immigration, but definitely a plus. You can always get bi/trilingual paralegals to translate for you.

In terms of money....I have worked for a relatively low-cost firm (the lead partner still made bank) and for a VERY high cost firm. The high-cost firm did a lot of nat'l security and crim deportation defense. There was a ridiculous amount of money coming into that place, but I believe the bulk of the dough went to the partners. The associates always brought bag lunches and few own their own homes, so I am guessing they did not make very much. You can do well in the field if you know what you are doing, build a good client base, and open your own firm. You will probably have to work as an associate for a few years making around 60K before that happens though.

[->Soon]

heres a brilliant idea!  i could work in Rio, and do recruiting/immigration stuff for medical personell for the US!

decent $$, cheap cost of living, smoking hot brazillian babes!

hmmmmmmmmm