Transcript:

Kleine Powell 

Hi everyone and welcome to this episode of Immigration Nation. This is actually our first ever zoom recording. We’re very excited to have Miss Connie Kaplan. She’s with the Law Offices of Connie Kaplan located in Fort Lauderdale, FL. And today we’re going to be talking about some employment. Based immigration options for business professionals and we are so excited to jump into it today. But first I just want to recognize that Miss Connie and her law firm are one of the fastest growing law firms in the United States. By law firm 500, they also have two best selling immigration. Books, but most importantly, they have helped change so many lives and we are very grateful to have them on the Immigration Nation podcast today. Connie, do you have anything? You’d like to say. 

Connie Kaplan 

Well, it’s my pleasure to be here. 

Kleine Powell 

Perfect. So we are just going to jump right into it. So like I said, we’re talking about the different options business professionals can take to achieve employment based immigration. So you obviously specialize in this area. So how do these professionals find you online specifically? Or is it by word of mouth? How would you say that these and employees and professionals find you? 

Connie Kaplan 

I wish I could say that I have just one way of getting these individuals to find me, but it’s not over time it has been. It has become a mix of how I get these clients. Most of them are referrals actually from past clients whom for whom I achieved success and positive outcomes. And of course we do take advantage of all the avenues on which we can get referrals and. Google, obviously, so we do target certain markets for these clients and we take advantage of that and they do find us online. 

Kleine Powell 

So the first time you’re meeting with a professional and you’re in a consultation and you’re in in a meeting. With them, what are some of the questions that they’ll ask or that you tend to hear from them when they are talking about this new form of immigration? 

Connie Kaplan 

So it’s interesting because not everyone gets to have a consultation with us, so there is a process that they explain takes place before they have a consultation with us. We need to make sure that they are the right client for us and that we are the right form for them and. It comes with an intake process and then once we are at the consultation phase again we need to make sure that we are the right firm for them. So there is 2 steps involved before we get to work together, so it makes no sense and it doesn’t serve anyone if we can’t work together. And if we cannot help them achieve their goals, then we are not the right firm for them and I am of the belief that. I will tell them I am very straightforward and not everybody likes that, so obviously I am not everybody’s cup of tea. If you like to have somebody sugar coat things and tell you yes, we can do it. Meanwhile, I know 80% in my head, 30% in my head. I cannot do it for you. I will tell you straight up I’m not. That kind of person. So I’d rather tell you before you even book a consultation with me if that is possible. So for professionals, since you asked about the profession. Even before our consultation, we asked them to send us their LinkedIn profile and their very, very detailed curriculum detail or resume so we can determine are they even remotely qualified? Are they even remotely eligible? And we do ask for certain documents to see before they even get to have a consultation with us. In some cases it is so obvious that they do qualify. Sometimes we even don’t need to have the consult. And at that point, we quote them the fee and if they are ready to proceed, we proceed. That is rare most of the time there are plenty of questions that they want answered and they are better served by meeting with the attorney, obviously. And we would meet. We answered all of their questions as many as they have. And we decide whether we are the right. For them, they are the right client for us and we establish a strategy to determine the timelines, pros and cons for whatever that strategy may be. And we proceed from there. Is that the case for every single one? Of them, no. It’s not, and some of them have just one option. Some of them have zero options, in which case we usually don’t even do the consultation, and some of them have multiple options available, and for some those options don’t come to fruition until a year or two years. Five years. Later. 

Kleine Powell 

Right. Well, I’m sure most of your clients or respective clients do appreciate that you don’t waste their time and their money. So we kind of touched on it a little bit, but. I think in a previous one of our episodes we had said that there were over like 185 visas available in US immigration. It’s kind of crazy. So how many choices do these people have when looking to have this in employment based immigration? Like what types of avenues can we expect to see? 

Connie Kaplan 

Ohh boy, so let’s come from 186 options, OK? So yes, well, 180 seats options includes immigrant and non immigrant options and obviously not everyone is not all of those are available to everyone. OK, out of those there are options that are available to people certainly just from certain countries. OK. But in general, what I tend tend to tell individuals who come to the United States is they need to determine do they want. Temporary options or permanent options? That’s first, and they don’t even know what that means in some in some cases. OK, so I need to narrow it down. OK, so temporary and what’s permanent and when we are talking permanent, we are looking at two years, 10 years because it’s not really permanent because permanent it’s citizenship. So there is a long path. 

Kleine Powell 

Right. 

Connie Kaplan 

Permanency to citizenship, there is a long path, and how do we get there? And then we need to determine what are your goals? What exactly are you trying to achieve? Because someone telling me. 

Speaker 

Right. 

Connie Kaplan 

I want to come to the United States and I want to live there for the next 20 years. Doesn’t mean permanent. Why do you want to be here for the next 20 years? Because you wanting to be here for 20 years because you want your kids to come to school for for the next 20 years in the United States. It’s not the same thing as I want to be here for the next 20 years because I want to be a citizen. You could be here for 20 years on an E2 visa on an investor visa and not ever have to obtain permanent residency and citizenship because your tax treatment could be different because you’re so. There are so many considerations at play. So when we are looking at options, we really need to know. What their goals are. 

Kleine Powell 

So many different ways to come about through employment based immigration. So what’s the kind of success rate that you see with these people in any sort of situation? And how long does it take for these options to come into fruition, just like a just a range? 

Connie Kaplan 

The success rate varies depending on the visa type and the country. 

Speaker 

Hmm. 

Connie Kaplan 

The processing times right now are extremely, extremely long, so the employers are really staying away from sponsoring people who are not already in the United States. That’s what I. 

Speaker 

Right. 

Connie Kaplan 

But then again, I mean Fort Lauderdale, the majority of the employers that I work with are either in the airline or yacht in business, OK, that are where I am, employers who are sponsoring their employees are sponsoring their employees who are already here on either. 

Kleine Powell 

Very cool. 

Connie Kaplan 

For all programs who are here already working with employment authorizations for two year programs, they united for Ukraine, those are highly tech workers, you know, you know, they’re here for two years. They might fit into that program. We are expecting some of those programs to extend so. They are willing to invest into that. There is a huge investment in terms of time, process money for the employer. So once they tested that employee and they see that the employee will work, they want to invest so they can have a long term employee who’s willing you. Know. There is a. Capital investment, right, so they know that it’s going. To serve the. Employers need in a couple of years, right? Now when we are looking at those. Give you an. Example I had a consultation the other day and employer wants. To bring here an employee OK happens to be an employee from Canada, OK, and these are usually the easiest way to get the employee here from Canada. But like I mentioned, a diploma is not the same thing as a degree. They do not necessarily qualify for the TN. We do the consultation. We realize they don’t have a degree. We looked at the spouse. The spouse has a pH. D The spouse we can do an EB2 NIW with premium processing. OK, it was approved in less than 30 days with premium processing. Now, yes, they need to wait for the green card application to be processed. But that employer can now. Get the spouse to work for them in less than a year. OK, so they are willing to work and the whole family comes here and they are coming with permanent residency versus temporary work. Something, right? So it’s a totally different process that you need to look at. You can’t just look at employer or employee. Ask those extra questions and see. What’s available? 

Kleine Powell 

Right. It’s so crazy to me how how immigration law especially is just like about fitting the right puzzle pieces together because there’s so many different avenues, but it’s like. No, this would be better for this particular person. If we get this for the spouse and go that Ave. versus directly to the person who maybe has a direct interest in coming, it’s so it’s kind of mind boggling to someone like me who obviously never went to law school, but I learned a lot through you guys who like to teach me things. 

Connie Kaplan 

And sometimes you have to jump through certain hoops to make it happen, and it’s not always a direct ohh, we’re just going to file for this and it’s the outcome is going to be there. 

Kleine Powell 

So. Well, I just want to open up for one last question. Your law firm has obviously seen lots of success over the years and it’s, you know gradually increasing over even weeks and days. So what is your vision for the firm and its ability to continue to help these types of clients going forward? And are you excited about where you’re at and where you’re? 

Connie Kaplan 

Oh, absolutely, absolutely we are. We have been fortunate. OK, I I have been fortunate. So as an immigrant, I can say that I have been fortunate that I can see where my clients are coming from and I have a unique perspective on that. So I have a background. In engineering, so I did also disaster recovery for it. So I can relate to my clients who are coming from an engineering and technical background. So I can see also as an immigrant, I can see where their pain not pains are. And what they are trying to achieve also I have been through this immigration process. It took me 16 years to get my papers. I know what it’s like. I also know what it’s like for immigration to lose your case, your file, your file, the entire file. They just lost it anyway. So sit being there having done that. I am excited about what the future holds. We are actually opening an office in Chicago in September and we are opening thank you and we are opening an office in Austin, so we’ll be joining you guys in Texas, but we are open in Austin. 

Kleine Powell 

Well, congratulations. Yeah. 

Connie Kaplan 

In October, so one at a time. 

Kleine Powell 

Yes, absolutely. And you guys are highly qualified obviously and in the perfect locations, future locations and current location. And I love that you’re using your past experience to help others who are in the same position as you once were and you were like, hey, don’t be like me, but I I love that and I love that you’re so open and honest about it. Is there anything else you’d like to share with us before we get out of here? 

Connie Kaplan 

Ohh yeah, not only that, I’m not every single one of the people on my team because I couldn’t do this all on my own. I just couldn’t. Every single person on my team is an immigrant or is coming from a family of immigrants, but really at this point we are all immigrants and we we really do because I feel that. 

Kleine Powell 

Of course. 

Connie Kaplan 

You cannot relate to our clients unless you have been in their shoes. So we hire based on that. Besides the skill and the knowledge that they need to have to be part of this winning. Team and we believe we. Are part of a winning team. They they need. To have that. And otherwise, we can’t empathize, and we cannot be in their shoes. So we do that. 

Kleine Powell 

Well, thank you so much for sharing that with us. And we are so happy to have you on immigration Nation Today. We look forward to hearing from you again hopefully sometime soon and if anyone has any questions out there, please please, please reach out to Connie or another immigration, Laurie that you know that’s close to you and make sure to get in. Your questions and your consultations, because that truly is the most important part of entering this whole immigration world, and it is a long process. As Connie said, so we really do encourage you to ask those questions and to reach out to Connie, she has a website, social medias and you can also reach out to us here at Immigration Nation Podcast with any other questions. Thank you. 

Connie Kaplan 

Thanks for having me. 

Speaker 

This podcast has been prepared for general information purposes only and. Is not legal. Advice. This information is not intended to create any, does not an attorney. Earning client relationship.