The Law Office of Nancy A. Berté is located in Evanston, Illinois and serves the greater Chicago Metropolitan area as well as clients throughout the United States. This office was founded in 1997 at which time principal counsel, Nancy Berté, changed her practice from one handling many different kinds of legal matters to one dedicated to immigration law. Attorney Berté is a long-standing member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and its local Chicago Chapter. The office is committed to providing personal service and individual attention to our clients.
Our office is dedicated to helping clients with their legal matters principally related to:
1. Temporary Visas
2. Immigrant Visas (i.e., Permanent Residency)
3. Naturalization to U.S. Citizenship
There are two principal avenues for immigration, one based on work in the United States, and the other based on family ties to U.S. citizens and/or legal permanent residents of the United States.
The principal focus of The Law Office of Nancy A. Berté's employment-based immigration practice is on academics, research scientists and professionals in other areas of endeavor. Specifically, we file numerous petitions in the following categories:
EB-1 Extraordinary Ability petitions
EB-1 Outstanding Researcher or Professor Petitions
EB-2 National Interest Waivers
EB-2 Optional Special Recruitment Labor Certification
designed for college and university teaching faculty
EB-2 Regular PERM labor certification
Over the years our clients have come from universities, government research institutions and private industry from coast to coast -- to name just a few: Harvard University, Columbia University, Georgia Tech, University of Southern Florida, Purdue University, The University of Michigan, The University of Missouri at Columbia, Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, The University of California at San Diego, Berkeley, and Los Angeles, and many more large and small universities and colleges. We also serve clients from research institutions such as The Jackson Laboratory, Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory.
Additionally, the temporary work-related visa needs of professionals and their families also handled by this office include: H-1B, J-1, O-1, L-1, TN and other temporary visas. Issues related to such visas, such as waivers of the two-year home residency requirement often attached to J-1 visas under INA §212(e), are also handled by this office. Work authorization cards for eligible spouses of professional workers are also handled. We additionally obtain other temporary visas which are not work related such as B-1/B-2 visas and advise on issues related to visa waivers.
For our family-based immigration practice, we routinely file petitions for:
immediate relatives of US citizens
immediate relatives of legal permanent residents
removal of conditions on permanent residency
Our family-based temporary visa practice serves the needs of fiancé(e)s and spouses living abroad who need visas such as K-1 and K-3 visas to enter the United States.
Please contact our Evanston law office by email with questions about your legal needs and issues. Provide as much information as possible regarding your inquiry. While this contact does not serve to establish an attorney/client relationship, it will allow our office to begin a preliminary assessment of your case. Your communication will be kept confidential.
We strongly encourage foreign-born nationals to seek at least initial advice on any plans they may have regarding intended stays and/or work in the United States. This initial advice may help prevent them from inadvertently creating unintended problems for themselves and their families. Too often people wait to ask about the consequences of work in the United States and travel in and out of the United States until after the fact sometimes creating bars to certain benefits of the immigration laws that they had not anticipated.
History
The Law Office of Nancy A. Berté is located in Evanston, Illinois and serves the greater Chicago Metropolitan area as well as clients throughout the United States. Over the years our clients have come from universities, government research institutions and private industry from coast to coast -- to name just a few: Harvard University, Columbia University, Georgia Tech, University of Southern Florida, Purdue University, The University of Michigan, The University of Missouri at Columbia, Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, The University of California at San Diego, Berkeley, and Los Angeles, and many more large and small universities and colleges. We also serve clients from research institutions such as Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory.
In addition to filing the various employment-based petitions in the EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 categories for research scientists and other professionals, we routinely advise on issues commonly confronting academics and research scientists, such as:
sabbaticals abroad
reentry permits
job portability under AC 21
waivers of J-1 two-year home residency requirements
work authorization for spouses
"intent" issues relating to immigration and naturalization
travel in and out of the United States
consular processing of visas
removal of conditions
a host of other issues that typically arise in these situations
Clients
The Law Office of Nancy A. Berté is located in Evanston, Illinois and serves the greater Chicago Metropolitan area as well as clients throughout the United States. Over the years our clients have come from universities, government research institutions and private industry from coast to coast -- to name just a few: Harvard University, Columbia University, Georgia Tech, University of Southern Florida, Purdue University, The University of Michigan, The University of Missouri at Columbia, Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, The University of California at San Diego, Berkeley, and Los Angeles, and many more large and small universities and colleges. We also serve clients from research institutions such as Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory.
Reported Cases
Because a large part of our practice involves employment-based cases for individual professionals, we have had great success. For example, since 1997 we have received approvals of hundreds of first and second preference employment-based petitions (EB-1 and EB-2), including National Interest Waiver, Extraordinary Ability, Outstanding Researcher and Professor, and Labor Certification based petitions. We have had similar success with family-based petitions and naturalization applications.
