Graham Adair, Inc.

San Jose

Business Immigration

Chad Graham and Sam Adair left the immigration practice of a large labor and employment law firm in early 2010 to create a firm that would allow them to focus on what their corporate clients and the clients' employees really needed in a more direct way. They wanted a practice "that would allow us to be nimble and responsive to those needs without having to be quite so preoccupied with meeting billable hour expectations or larger firm expectations," Adair said.

What they created is "a people-focused practice," he said. "Even though we're representing companies that are moving people all around the world, at the heart of every case, there's a person or a family."

The firm's 14 lawyers and 36 staff in three states assist high-tech and other companies to bring foreign engineers, specialists and executives into the U.S. legally as employees. The work frequently involves guiding the would-be immigrants on how to demonstrate to U.S. immigration personnel that they meet the very specific technical requirements for various visas and other special status categories.

The firm focuses on those individuals "to make sure that they understand the process and that when they present at the consulate, they're able to answer the questions in a way that's going to be beneficial for their case," Adair said.

One aspect of the firm's practice that makes that individual attention easier is it charges flat fees. "That allows us to really spend considerable time with clients as we work through their cases with them without having to worry about tracking every six minutes," he said.

As an example, recently, the firm represented a woman who had twice before been rejected for an E3 visa, which is exclusively for "specialty occupation workers" from Australia. Graham and others worked with the woman a great deal over Zoom to prepare her for another interview with the U.S. consular office in Sydney so that she could thoroughly explain how her education, experience and job duties -- contrary to appearances -- actually did fit within the federal job category, Graham said.

The firm handled a similar case for a high-level employee seeking a TN visa, which is for people from Mexico or Canada to work as professionals. Even though already an employee of the company, this person applied to work as a consultant. "We had to argue that that [consultant] category should encompass this [employee] position," Graham said.

In another matter, the firm assisted a man from India who is a major owner of a company who wanted to come here on an H-1B visa, which is normally for someone performing specialty work for an employer. However, it is difficult for a company owner to show an employer-employee relationship.

Immigration authorities responded to the H-1B application with a 10-page "Request for Information." Those are usually about two pages. "The cards were really stacked against us, but we were able to respond adequately to that RFE and get the person authorized to work within this company that he owns," Graham said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to get him a green card in the near future."

That is a common step for the firm, said partner Patricia Limaco. "We work with these individuals from when they start with a company all the way through them getting green cards, and sometimes that could be a 10-year process," she said. Rather than just filling out forms for them, "we really build relationships with these clients. ... We actually work to make sure that these individuals reach their goals ... [and] remain in the U.S. and grow their families."

Former clients even come back again when they apply for citizenship, partner

Sonal Kinger said. "Even though the employer, their company, is not sponsoring or supporting that [process], they still individually come to us," she said

-- Don DeBenedictis