Ohio Immigration Laws

Hi, I’m Scott Bratton, I’m a partner at Margaret Wong & Associates. I’ve practiced immigration law for the past 13 years representing immigrants throughout the United States. I specialize in federal litigation, removal defense, and other complex issues involving immigration law. I’m the head of the Removal Defense and Litigation departments at Margaret Wong & Associates. I also teach immigration law at Cleveland State University.

I handle complicated immigration matters ranging from removal defense to federal litigation and adjustment of status and naturalization cases. Our firm represents immigrants throughout the United States in all aspects of other immigration cases. We passionately represent individuals in trying to help them obtain their dream of citizenship, non-immigrant status or lawful permanent resident status. If you have any questions, please contact me, and I’ll be happy to talk to you about your case.

By: Scott Bratton

By: Margaret Wong

Permanent Residency in Ohio

My name is Francis Fungsang, and I’m a partner at Margaret Wong & Associates. We work with companies of all sizes, from startups, to small businesses, to multinational corporations. We have assisted workers in a variety of industries, from healthcare, to information technology, to finance, to electronics. A U.S. employer can sponsor a worker for permanent residency.

Labor Certification

The first step is called labor certification, also known as PERM. The sponsored job must be advertised in a variety of media, if no qualified US worker is found, the employer can sponsor the worker. There are a limited number of green cards issued each year, for each country, for each job category.

So depending on your job and the country you’re from, the process can take anywhere from one and a half years to more than ten years. Also, work visas often have a limited time period, so its important that workers and employers start the process as early as possible.

By: Francis Fungsang

Hey, My name is Margaret Wong and I’m an immigration lawyer and I came to America in ’69. I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I went to an all girls, religious school since kindergarten. I came in ’69 with– right at the height of the Vietnam era with the kids in America against the Vietnam War, but never in my wildest dreams that I see what I’m doing now because in ’77 immigration work is not very hot. It’s very much like criminal work, very much like– it’s nothing compared to estate, tax, corporate where all lawyers want to work.

I turned out to be a great lawyer. That’s my passion. That’s my love.  But things really have changed. Years ago the same people don’t use the same lawyers like Middle East people they don’t like to go to Australian lawyer or Arabic lawyer because they their own people are not that people are not that powerful in America. But now things have changed. Because I speak fluent Chinese, we have a lot of Chinese clients coming to us because they just felt I’m one of them.

Also, because I speak the language of a foreign-born because I’m one. I came. I struggled. I was a chambermaid. I was a waitress. I was– you name it, I’ve done it. I cleaned toilets. I’ve done– I’m also the first one– normally the first one who comes into this office, turn on the light. I’m normally the last one to leave the office, turn off the light. It’s really a lot of fun.  Some highlights of this job. When we first started out– because in those day, there’s no 245-I. There’s no three or ten year bar. So people have no papers, they could still get the green card in America. But now they can’t. They have to go back to home country if they were not admitted or inspected or paroled.

To be a great lawyer you really have to know today’s world. You can’t always say, “yeah, but 30 years ago has happened.” Immigration law changes by the day, by the minute, by the hour. The Morton Memo who came out in November of year 2011, 2012. Now he retired and resigned. Homeland Security had mister– Miss Janet Napolitano also resigned. Now we’re working with a new head. These are things that we have to keep up, keep up, keep up.

By: Margaret Wong