SERVICES
Our Legal Practice Areas
We provide our clients with assistance in all aspects of immigration, with a multilingual team of legal professionals who have a combined experience of more than 6 decades in the professional field of immigration and global mobility. We are fluent in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Hindi, and Urdu.
Employed-Based (EB) Immigration Including Investor & EB-5 Visas
Our corporate & employment-based team handles all manner of employment-based immigration matters. Nonimmigrant visas allow for specific temporary periods of valid employment, at least initially, and can be extended for additional periods up to the maximum allowed under that category. Each category has strict qualifying criteria. Examples of some nonimmigrant employment visa options are H-1B, H-2A, H-2B, TN-1, TN-2, O, P, R, L-1, E-3, J-1, Consular Processing, and I-9 Compliance. We also provide assistance with B-1 visas for Business purposes as well as B-1 or ESTA in lieu of an H-1B visa.
Our highly skilled team is experienced in all the different Investor Programs, such as EB-5, E-2 and E-1 visa categories. EB-5 is commonly referred to as the “million dollar visa” and does lead to permanent residence. The E-2 and E-1 categories are Nonimmigrant visas that help investors and entrepreneurs wishing to invest in a business or conduct a trade in the US and who are nationals of countries that have an existing treaty with the United States. These do not provide a direct path to permanent residence but the E-2 can continue to be extended as long as the business is viable and continues to meet the regulations. For more information about the Investor Programs, please contact our office and we’ll be happy to schedule a consultation with you.
In addition, we work closely with clients, HR professionals and management who wish to pursue permanent residence for their employees, through an offer of permanent employment in the United States. Our experienced team will guide you through the PERM (Permanent Employment Certification) application with the Department of Labor (DOL) and thereafter with the USCIS, as well as the other permanent EB categories.
We work closely with our clients to develop immigration plans to meet their short- and long-term employment goals. In addition, we assist our corporate clients with global and outbound immigration solutions, too.
Employers click here for the USCIS guides.
Family-Based (FB) Immigration
US citizens and Permanent Residents (aka LPR) may file a petition for qualifying family members so that they may obtain permanent resident status (green card) and therefore join them in the United States. Other than family members who are considered Immediate Relatives, there are four categories of FB preferences, each with an allotment of immigrant visas that are issued each year. The preference categories are designated by the qualifying relationship to the US citizen or LPR, many of which have long delays for visa issuance due to the per-country or per-category numerical limits.
US citizens may petition for the following family members: Spouse, Unmarried Children under the age of 21, Parents, Unmarried Children over the age of 21, Married Children of any age and Siblings (but the sponsoring US citizen family member must be 21 or over to do this).
Permanent Residents may petition for the following family members: Spouse, Unmarried Children under the age of 21, and Unmarried Children over the age of 21.
In addition to permanent resident sponsorship, we also offer our professional services for FB nonimmigrant categories, including Fiancé(e) petitions, including Consular processing for K-1, K-2 & K-3 visas.
Click here for more information about the visa categories and timeframes.
Tax & Other Services
- Tax Consulting and Planning.
- Assist with US tax reporting for US residents and non-US resident individuals, and US business entities.
- Providing tax controversy services including representing clients before the IRS in tax audits and appeals.
- Tax preparation, including the of filing delinquent tax returns.
- Penalty abatement services
- Adjustment of Status, Change of Status, Extension of Stay Applications.
- I-751 Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence (jointly filed or filing with a waiver).
- Employment Authorization Document (EAD) including OPT, CPT & STEM.
- Citizenship And Naturalization.
- Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
- DACA.
- B-1/B-2 Visa Consular Processing.
Immigration Consequences Of Criminal Charges
The nexus between criminal law and immigration law is ever-changing and requires immigration attorneys to be up-to-date on a large body of case law. Our office regularly works with criminal defense attorneys to ensure that an alien charged with a crime is able to avoid negative immigration consequences from pleas or convictions, whenever possible.
Asylum & Withholding Of Removal Applications
Our Asylum and Withholding of Removal team assists individuals who have experienced past persecution or who have a well-founded fear of future persecution in their home country. We handle both affirmative applications with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and defensive cases in the Immigration Court.
Removal Defense & Immigration Bond Requests
Our office regularly represents individuals in the Immigration Court to request relief from removal, including requests for cancellation of removal, prosecutorial discretion, and administrative closure. For individuals who have been detained by immigration, our office is available to meet with detainees and their family members to discuss the possibility of obtaining an immigration bond, and to assist in the filing and arguing of a Bond Motion before the Immigration Court.
SERVICES
Our Legal Practice Areas
We provide our clients with assistance in all aspects of immigration, with a multilingual team of legal professionals who have a combined experience of more than 6 decades in the professional field of immigration and global mobility. We are fluent in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Hindi, and Urdu.
Employment-Based (EB) Immigrant Petitions and Non-Immigrant Visa Applications
Our corporate & employment-based team handles all manner of employment-based petitions, including nonimmigrant worker petitions, such as TN, O, P, R, L-1, E-3. H-1B, H-2B, H-2A and J-1 matters.
We also assist our clients with employer-sponsored green card petitions, including the “million-dollar” EB-5 visa, Labor Certification (aka PERM), EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 employment-based immigrant visas. We represent companies large and small, in a varied number of industries.
Investor Visa Petitions
Our office regularly files and assists clients in E-2 investor visas. This visa is available to citizens of many anglophone countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Cameroon, Grenada, Liberia, and Trinidad and Tobago. This office has already assisted investors from a number of anglophone countries to obtain E-2 visas.
Family-Based Immigrant Petitions
Our family-based immigrant petition team regularly handles I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative) cases for family members of U.S. Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents. We assist in these cases from start-to-finish, including aiding the family member(s) to obtain their visa abroad at a U.S. consulate.
We also handle other forms of family-based nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions for our clients, including petitions for Alien Fiancé(e)s, Family-Based Categories (F1, F2A. B-2B, F3 and F4), Refugee/Asylee Relative Petitions, and waivers for family members of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who may be inadmissible to the United States for reasons such as unlawful presence in the U.S. or criminal history.
Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
For those from TPS-designated countries, our office can assist in registration for TPS benefits and the renewal of said registration during the renewal periods designated by the USCIS.
Citizenship And Adjustment Of Status
Our office assists with applications related to obtaining and renewing green cards, and obtaining citizenship and proof of citizenship, including Form I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, also known as a Green Card Application), Form N-400 (Application for Naturalization), as well as Form N-600 (Application for Certificate of Citizenship).
We also assist with Form I-751 (Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence) for spouses of U.S. Citizens with Conditional Resident Green Cards.
Asylum And Withholding Of Removal Applications
Our Asylum and Withholding of Removal team assists individuals who have experienced past persecution or who have a well-founded fear of future persecution in their home country. We handle both affirmative applications with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and defensive cases in the Immigration Court.
Immigration Consequences Of Criminal Charges
The nexus between criminal law and immigration law is ever-changing and requires immigration attorneys to be up-to-date on a large body of case law. Our office regularly works with criminal defense attorneys to ensure that an alien charged with a crime is able to avoid negative immigration consequences from pleas or convictions, whenever possible.
Removal Defense And Immigration Bond Requests
Our office regularly represents individuals in the Immigration Court to request relief from removal, including requests for cancellation of removal, prosecutorial discretion, and administrative closure. For individuals who have been detained by immigration, our office is available to meet with detainees and their family members to discuss the possibility of obtaining an immigration bond, and to assist in the filing and arguing of a Bond Motion before the Immigration Court.
Employment Authorization Document (Work Permit) Applications
Our office assists in the obtaining and renewing of work permits for those who are eligible to apply for employment authorization in the United States.
CONTACT
Get In Touch
Contact us to set up a consultation. Any information you provide will be kept confidential.
- (207) 871-8005
- (207) 553-0779
- (207) 887-0500
- reception@georgehepner.com
- 850 Main St. Westbrook, ME 04092