Employment-Based Immigration Law

This course focuses on the basic concepts, nonimmigrant and immigrant visa categories that make up the day-to-day practice of many immigration attorneys. The visa categories covered would be considered the core of any employment based immigration practice.

This area of immigration law is often left to new practitioners to discover on their own, or to learn only after they have joined an established immigration practice. This course is designed for students who have a demonstrated interest in the practice of immigration law.

The goal of this course will be to introduce students to the most common types of employment authorized visas and to provide them with a basic understanding of the substantive and procedural issues that may need to be addressed by counsel as they work with their clients.

The course begins with an introduction and overview of several basic nonimmigrant visa classifications and the procedural requirements and/or restrictions that may need to be addressed that would be encountered in day-to-day practice.

Subsequent class sessions review individual nonimmigrant classifications (e.g., H-1B, L1) and provide an introduction to the permanent resident process. Classes focus on the application of law and procedure to hypothetical case studies.

Documents commonly encountered during case preparation are included among the materials provided to students. Examples of the materials and resources used by practitioners on a day-to-day basis will also be used during class, in the hopes that students may develop their own resource materials that can be used for reference as they enter the practice.