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What are the starting salaries for immigration law firms? Which immigration law firms recruit heavily at top law schools?

I think A LOT of this field is PI

abc12345675 wrote:I think A LOT of this field is PI

What does PI stand for?

Anonymous User wrote:What are the starting salaries for immigration law firms? Which immigration law firms recruit heavily at top law schools?

Fragomen is the only BigLaw firm focused on immigration. Experienced practitioners tend to have boutique niches at bigger firms with a good feeder from other practice areas (e.g., securities in NY, IP in Silicon Valley), or in-house at companies with a large number of H-1B workers. That is, of course, if you're talking about affirmative immigration practice, which is usually business.

Removal defense practitioners tend to be URMs working closely with their respective immigrant communities, and struggling to make a living. They often do some affirmative work too, usually family-based adjustment of status (heavy work with I-130s and I-485s and 212 waivers).

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Immigration practice is really two areas: removal defense (deportation), and affirmative immigration (proactive visas).

Removal defense is heavily public-interest, yes. You have to be a true believer to get into this practice area. It's tough and heartbreaking litigation, usually for very little money.

The money in immigration practice is in affirmative immigration, which is mostly business visas (e.g., H-1Bs, L-1s, E- and EB-class visas). If you are well-connected, it's a really cozy practice area, with good quality of life and the opportunity for lots of travel. I did well over a dozen H-1Bs this year before the quota filled, at $1500 apiece. They typically take no more than three or four hours of work. Clients are corporate, and it's rarely a problem collecting from them. They are usually repeat business too.

I don't know what Fragomen pays - low six figures for new associates, I think. Bigger corporations without in-house immigration usually resort to them, as they are the only big name in the market. Much of my job is convincing people to use me instead. I'm cheaper and more responsive than Fragomen, since they can rest on their laurels.