US Immigration Attorney

SGM Law Group PLLC is an immigration law firm that strives to provide high-quality legal representation to each and every client. We provide professional service and legal expertise similar to large firms while ensuring personal attention, compassion and accessibility of a small law practice. Our firm is dedicated to the practice of US Immigration & Nationality Law exclusively. We believe that the law is so complex and constantly changing that a lawyer simply cannot keep up with multiple areas and be an expert at all of them.

Shilpa Malik, Esq. - the Lead Attorney of SGM Law Group PLLC – has extensive experience and great reputation for offering top-notch representation in business immigration and marriage green card cases. She has successfully handled complex H1B Visa, Employment Green Card and Family Immigration cases in South Florida, NYC and nationwide. Our immigration lawyers also have a great track record of success in complex family immigration, Investor visas, Citizenship, asylum and deportation cases among others.

At the SGM Law Group PLLC, we offer a very high level of personal service and attention to details. We realize that immigration is a deeply personal matter to our clients and it requires compassionate attitude coupled with extensive experience from an immigration lawyer to navigate this complex legal journey. We make it our focus to return every telephone call and e-mail promptly and with the most detailed answer. We work hard to deliver successful results to our clients by considering all appropriate and creative options while relying on our extensive knowledge of the U.S. immigration law. When you call or email the SGM Law Group PLLC, you are promptly connected to an immigration attorney.

Top qualities to look for in an immigration lawyer:

With thousands of immigration lawyers to choose from, finding the right attorney to represent you in an immigration matter can be very difficult. These are some of the qualities that we believe set us apart from other immigration attorneys:

Dedicated Immigration Law Practice: Our law firm’s practice is limited to U.S. Immigration & Nationality, allowing us to build expertise in one area of law and stay on top of latest changes instead of trying to master several fields.
Approval rate in complex cases: We have a great record of success in complex business immigration cases including investor visa, H-1B visa and EB-1, EB-2 green cards. Often times clients with final order of removal have retained us after wasting valuable time and money with other firms and we have successfully obtained deferred action for them.
Competitive fees: We charge a flat fee for a majority of cases which includes miscellaneous items such as mailing fee, copies etc. We pride ourselves on offering the best possible legal representation at a more affordable cost than several large immigration firms in Miami and South Florida.
Accessible Attorney: As our client, you will receive regular updates on the progress of your case. You will be in direct contact with Shilpa Malik, the managing attorney of SGM Law Group.
Personal Attention: We believe that every client deserves special attention to details that are unique to his/her case. Our immigration lawyers go to extreme lengths to deliver the best outcome for every client of our firm

We offer free case evaluation to individuals and businesses who are looking to retain a law firm to apply for Employment and Investment Based Immigration petitions. Once we receive your Free Evaluation Form, you’ll get a response from our office by phone or e-mail promptly. All personal information you provide will be kept strictly confidential.

Because U.S. Immigration & Nationality laws are federal in nature, our Immigration Lawyers are able to represent clients in immigration cases in all 50 states from our offices in South Florida and New York City. We serve clients throughout the United States and the World.

BREAKING NEWS: New Deferred Action policy of the Obama Administration offers a golden opportunity for thousands of DREAMers!

***CLICK HERE to determine if you qualify***

Our Practice Areas

Staying abreast of the ever-changing U.S. immigration laws, we assist individuals and businesses with immigrant and non-immigrant visas, including, green card petitions, family and marriage visas, business visas such as L and H1-B visas as well as labor certifications and EB-1, EB-2, EB-3 green card petitions. We practice in all areas of immigration law, including:

Deportation defense and Asylum
Family and Employment based Green Cards
Work Visas (H-1B, L-1)
Investor Visas (E-1, E-2)
Family Visas (K-1, K-2, K-3)
Citizenship & Naturalization

Recent News & Articles

H1B Cap 2014 reached, Lottery next!

Posted on April 5, 2013

H1B Cap/Quota for 2013-2014 season has been reached on April 5 2013. USCIS announced today that it has received more petitions than allowed under statutory quota for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. It was also announced that more than 20,000 petitions have been received by USCIS from those holding US Masters degree in qualifying fields (advanced degree exemption).

USCIS will reject any H-1B petitions filed under regular cap or advanced degree exemption cap starting April 6, 2013. A computer lottery will be conducted by the USCIS at a future date (to be announced) to randomly select both advanced degree exempt and regular petitions for FY 2014. Here are the outlines of the lottery process:

The lottery will be conducted to select 20,000 advanced degree exempt petitions first.
The lottery for 65,000 regular cap petitions will be conducted next. Any advanced degree exempt petitions NOT selected by the first lottery (read # 1 above) will be included in this lottery.
ALL petitions received between April 1, 2013 and April 5, 2013 will be included in the lottery and have equal chances of selection, which means that the petitions received on April 1 will have SAME chances of selection in the lottery as those received on April 5.
USCIS will continue to accept any cap-exempt petitions (Such as those from Non-profit organizations, universities etc).

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H1B 2014 Lottery

Posted on April 3, 2013

The USCIS has started accepting H1B visa applications for 2013-2014 cap season on April 1, 2013. Due to stronger economy, the demand for H1B visas is much higher this year compared to the last 2-3 H1B cap seasons. USCIS will monitor the number of petitions received and post the latest cap count on its official website. The date on which the the H-1B cap is met is known as the final receipt date. While USCIS has not released an official count yet, there is a possibility that it may receive more petitions than what 2014 H1B cap allows within first week. If that happens, USCIS will use a lottery system to randomly select the number of petitions sufficient to fill up the 2014 H1B cap. It will reject any cap-subject petitions that are not selected in the lottery.

SGM Law Group would like to inform our reader that in case of a lottery, ALL petitions received between April 1 and April 5, 2013 must be included in the lottery. According to USCIS regulation: 8 CFR §214.2(h)(8)(ii)(B):

“If the final receipt date is any of the first five business days on which petitions subject to the applicable numerical limit may be received (i.e., if the numerical limit is reached on any one of the first five business days that filings can be made), USCIS will randomly apply all of the numbers among the petitions received on any of those five business days, conducting the random selection among the petitions subject to the exemption under section 214(g)(5)(C) of the Act first.”

So an H1B petition received on April 1 2013 has the same chance of getting selected in the lottery as the one received on April 5, 2013.

If no lottery is required then USCIS will continue accepting petitions until the final receipt date but will reject any petitions received after that date.

The last time a lottery was used for H-1B cap-subject cases was in April 2008. Because of the recession and slow recovery, USCIS has not needed to use the lottery system to select petitions in recent H1B cap seasons.

More information on H-1B quota news was posted earlier in our article on H1B 2013-2014 cap count.

CONTACT US FOR A FREE CONSULTATION WITH A SOUTH FLORIDA IMMIGRATION LAWYER

Miami Immigration Law Office
801 Brickell Avenue # 900 | Miami, FL 33131
Phone: (305) 433-8403

West Palm Beach Immigration Law Office
301 Clematis St #3000 | West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Phone: (877) 811-3541

NYC Immigration Law Office
951 Bruckner Blvd | Bronx, NY 10459
Phone: (877) 811-3541