Five Immigration Lawyers Who Specialize In Startups
Published in Forbes on May 16, 2017
New York City is a hotbed of immigrant entrepreneurial activity. Approximately 48% of the city’s businesses are immigrant-owned, from mom and pop shops to visionary tech startups.
Launching a business as a new immigrant is beyond challenging, however, it might seem like child’s play compared to slogging through the labyrinthine, near harrowing, world of obtaining a U.S. work visa. It’s a tedious, maddening process—especially for tech entrepreneurs who are racing against the clock—due in part to the U.S.’s outdated immigration system. But there is help for the immigrant entrepreneur. A new wave of immigration attorneys has emerged, experts in both immigration and startup law.
Five New York City immigration lawyers talk about their professional visa experiences, from A to Z, or H1-B to O-1A, as the case may be. They highlight some of the creative solutions they found for their clients, at a time when obtaining a U.S. work visa seemed like an insurmountable wall.
Immigration lawyer Nadia Zaidi of Nadia Zaidi Esq PLLC in New York City. Photo: Nina Roberts
Nadia Zaidi, Nadia Zaidi Esq PLLC
Zaidi is an immigration attorney working out of an office near Lincoln Center who speaks Hindi, Urdu, and basic Arabic. She’s practiced immigration law for seven years with a background in human rights. Clients pay a flat fee for immigration cases.
You are an immigration lawyer and choose to work with business lawyers on special cases?
Zaidi: Having represented many startups, I am familiar with the nuances and types of documentation required of startups. I work alongside business lawyers as specialists working together.
What is a recent case that highlights your capabilities?
Zaidi: I was able to secure O-1A for two cofounders of an innovative and groundbreaking technology, a tablet for the blind and visually impaired. They had already received grants in the U.S. to further develop their product, so we had to come up with a strategy that allowed them to come to the U.S. as soon as possible.
Sarah Corstange, Corstange Law
Corstange Law, a four-person team, is located a couple blocks east of the Flatiron Building. It specializes in immigration law for startup founders and employees. Principal attorney Sarah Corstange has been practicing immigration law for four and a half years. Spanish is spoken; clients are charged a flat fee per project.
Why are both immigration law and startup law important?
Corstange: The structure of an entity can be very important for certain types of visas. People who set up their company and funding structures first—and worry about immigration later—sometimes have to go back and dismantle parts of what they originally created. This is very disruptive, sometimes impossible; a waste of time and resources. An immigration plan should be in place before forming a legal entity, even if it's too early to actually file the immigration application.
Is there a recent case that you are particularly proud of the outcome?
Corstange: Two immigrants founded a U.S.-based business with very informal operations abroad. While they were able to secure visas for themselves, they were desperate to bring over a key employee who didn’t qualify for the O-1A [known as the “Extraordinary Ability” visa] and was unlucky in the H-1B [known as the “Specialty Worker” visa] lottery.
Multiple attorneys told them that an L-1 [known as the “Intracompany” visa for global companies] was impossible to get for this employee, as they worked out of a bare bones home office and didn’t have a formal legal entity outside the U.S., but I believed it could be done. We submitted an excruciating amount of documentation to establish the legitimacy of the operations abroad, the key role the L-1 applicant played and it was approved.
Immigration lawyer Steven Buchwald of Buchwald & Associates. Photo: Nina Roberts
Steven Buchwald, Buchwald & Associates
Buchwald, originally from France, works with a small team of assistants, paralegals and additional attorneys when need be, out of a Wall Street office. He’s been practicing immigration law for five years and charges a flat fee on immigration matters.
Why shouldn’t a foreign-born entrepreneur hire two expert legal teams, one immigration, the other business?
Buchwald: Two set of lawyers each focusing on a distinct legal aspect of an entrepreneur's business means that there is no one, except for the entrepreneur himself/herself, that truly gets the full picture. In addition, two set of lawyers means spending twice the amount of time communicating with respective teams.
Is there a recent case that you are particularly proud of the outcome?
Buchwald: We recently were able to obtain an E-2 visa [known as the “Investor” visa] for a Canadian entrepreneur. She had been living in the U.S. under different, short visas, making it impossible to launch a business; this is a five-year visa.
Ekaterina Mouratova, The Law Firm of Ekaterina Mouratova, PLLC
The principal attorney Ekaterina Mouratova has created a firm that’s equal parts business and immigration law. Located downtown near City Hall, her firm has three people on staff; Russian is also spoken. Mouratova has been practicing immigration law for six years, prior she worked as a paralegal on immigration and corporate cases. Clients are charged a flat fee on immigration cases; business matters are both flat feel and hourly.
Why have a one-stop shop for both immigration and startup law?
Mouratova: When applying for a visa, there are certain legal requirements to a business structure and role of the potential immigrant. Those requirements differ greatly depending on the chosen immigration program. An immigration attorney must understand all the ins and outs of each structure in order to properly position the company and the foreign professional. For example, it’s very popular nowadays for startups to offer equity compensation in addition to—or instead of—the salary. Some immigration lawyers tell clients outright that they do not qualify for particular professional visas because they don’t have market-rate salaries. It is not necessarily the case.
Is there an example of an entrepreneur who didn’t have a typical salary but got a work visa?
Mouratova: I received an O-1A visa approval for a client, one of three cofounders. We had to prove high compensation in spite of the absence of salary; the business hadn’t started to generate profits. Since the company had received significant investments from venture capitalists, we demonstrated how much our client’s share cost, should he sell it at that moment. This amount was much greater than the average compensation of a startup employee.
Madhuri Kumar, L&K Law Group
Between the firm’s two partners Madhuri Kumar and Michele Lampach, and an assistant, Spanish, French, Hindi, Telugu and Urdu are spoken. For all immigration matters clients are charged a flat fee, often sliding scale. Part of the fee goes towards the non-profit UnLocal that provides immigration representation and education for undocumented immigrants.
What is the benefit of hiring an immigration firm with startup knowledge?
Kumar: Our practice and approach is as fellow entrepreneurs. We understand startup or new business concerns about timing, scale and funding rounds.
Is there a recent case that had a particularly creative solution?
Kumar: A client had been through five lawyers before she was referred to us. We reviewed her history carefully and figured out that she was eligible for a green card through an obscure immigration law concept termed cross-chargeability.
This story has been edited and condensed for clarity.