Our Legal Services

Physician Immigration
Physician Immigration is one of our specialty areas of practice. We have been handling Conrad State 30 (previously State 20) J-1 Waiver cases since Congress first enacted the state J-1 waiver program in 1994. Our firm handles State 30 waivers in several states across the country. In addition, we have obtained J-1 waivers through the federal government’s Appalachian Regional Commission. We also prepare and file National Interest Waiver (NIW) and PERM Labor Certification cases for Permanent Residency for physicians. Our physician immigration employer clients include several large hospitalist companies and a number of hospitals and medical centers throughout the United States.

Employment Visas

Law Office of Brelje and Associates, P.C. specializes in obtaining employment visas of all types. These include H-1B status for professionals under the “specialty occupation” category; L-1 intracompany transferee status for companies with parent, subsidiary or affiliate organizations abroad; TN status for nationals of Canada and Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); PERM labor certification for permanent residency for employees; H-2B visas for temporary, non-agricultural workers; O-1 visas for foreign nationals with “outstanding ability”; and P-1 visas for professional athletes. The firm also counsels employers and employees with regard to B-1 business visitor visas and entry on the Visa Waiver Program.

Typical professional occupational classifications include managers and executives, physicians, software engineers, programmer analysts, aerospace engineers, system analysts, electrical and structural engineers, accountants, lawyers, teachers and architects. Various construction and other trades, technical, service and hospitality positions can be included in either H-2B status, or in some cases, TN status. Some may also qualify for PERM labor certification for permanent residency.

EB-5 Alien Entrepreneur Employment Creation Visas

Our attorneys have experience with the EB-5 Alien Entrepreneur visa process dating back to the early 1990’s, soon after Congress passed legislation enacting the EB-5 program. Permanent residency is available to a foreign national who invests at least $500,000 in a U.S. business and thereby creates at least 10 jobs for U.S. workers. The required amount of investment is $1,000,000 if the location of the investment is not a “targeted employment area.”

We offer EB-5 representation to investors who wish to start their own businesses, who wish to take over a troubled U.S. business, or to limited partners who invest in a project within a “Regional Center” that is pre-approved for “targeted employment area” status. We work closely with one such Regional Center that has obtained targeted employment area approval, and whose projects incorporate conservative investor/employment ratios and realistic exit strategies.

I-9 Compliance

Law Offices of Brelje and Associates, P.C. provides employers with I-9 employment verification compliance counseling. The firm provides training tailored to our employer clients’ corporate structure and needs. I-9 trainings are often presented to a client’s HR staff and include protocols for proper I-9 form completion, tips for handling difficult or unusual work authorization documentation, recommended procedures for storing I-9 documentation, systems for alerting employees of status expiration and “tickling” I-9 forms that require reverification.

The firm also offers informal audits of an employer’s I-9 forms, with the option of reviewing a representative sample of I-9s to detect patterns of non-compliance and training issues. Law Offices of Brelje and Associates, P.C. represents employers who have been served with DHS subpoenas and are being audited by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents. The firm also represents employers in the administrative court process in the event an ICE audit evolves into litigation.