Waller Lansden maintains a nationwide practice in all aspects of immigration law. A major emphasis of our practice involves securing visas for foreign executives, managers and other professionals - including physicians. We assist all types of companies in meeting their personnel needs while at the same time assuring compliance with the requirement that all employees be eligible for employment in the United States. Waller Lansden also represents parties in exclusion proceedings and similar immigration litigation actions when necessary.
Our firm regularly represents manufacturing companies, healthcare companies, the music industry and professional athletes in connection with visa applications, day-to-day operational questions and administrative proceedings before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Division of the Department of Homeland Security. The depth and breadth of experience of this practice allows our attorneys to advise and assist clients in very difficult situations. While we have systems in place to process routine matters, Waller Lansden has a special ability to handle difficult and marginal cases successfully.
Waller Lansden has worked with the USCIS as well as numerous state agencies to bring physicians and other healthcare professionals to the United States. These employees have been transferred not only to shortage areas in critical need of physicians but also to metropolitan areas around the country with well-established medical communities. Waller Lansden attorneys have also been called upon by governmental agencies to provide insight on immigration issues of concern to the business community.
Our immigration attorneys can also draw on the wide-ranging experience of our entire firm including tax, corporate and labor attorneys to assist our clients with the many legal issues that often arise when foreign companies establish U.S. affiliates and bring executives and professionals to the United States.
In order to provide high-quality immigration services that are both efficient and cost-effective, Waller Lansden teams its immigration attorneys with experienced non-lawyer Immigration Specialists. These individuals have extensive backgrounds in the fields of both immigration and human resources. The Waller Lansden Immigration Team utilizes industry-leading software to manage cases and visa applications. To further assist our clients, Waller Lansden offers ImmigrationTracker which provides secure and timely access 24 hours per day to detailed case information - including status reports - via the Internet.
Because the consequences of errors are so great in the immigration area, Waller Lansden believes it is vital to have an Immigration Team that is both creative and extremely careful.
Areas in which Waller Lansden routinely provides immigration services include:
- Problems with temporary business and tourist visas
- Treaty trader and treaty investor visas
- Intra-company transfers
- Entertainment and sports visas
- Family-sponsored visas
- Employment-based permanent resident visas
- Specialty occupation visas
- Healthcare-related immigration issues, such as J-1 waivers, immigrant and non-immigrant visas
- Naturalization
Examples of immigration services Waller Lansden has provided include:
- Handling all immigration matters for an international manufacturer of rubber products whose U.S. headquarters are located in Nashville
- Successfully represented auto suppliers, publishers and industrialists seeking to make investments in the United States
- Successfully represented a major healthcare company in obtaining visas and permanent resident status for doctors entering the United States to practice throughout the Southeast
- Successfully represented physician practices in bringing highly-specialized surgeons from Canada without necessity for labor certification
- Secured visas for artists, entertainers and support personnel for recording contracts and concert tours
- Worked with the State of Tennessee in developing the Conrad State 20 program for J-1 physician waivers Secured the first physician waiver in Tennessee under this new program
- Successfully represented restaurants in securing visas for chefs
- Represented individuals seeking to come to the United States as religious workers
