Charles H. Kuck, Managing PartnerKuck Baxter Immigration LLC is a specialist law firm focused in handling of immigration visas and labour certifications, and has a successful track record in assisting tens of thousands of individuals, employers, investors, and families, live the “American Dream.” In an interview with CIO Applications, CharlesKuck, managing partner of Kuck Baxter Immigration LLC, speaks about the recent trends in corporate immigration legal practice. Kuck was the national president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and former president of the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers.
Give us a brief overview about Kuck Baxter Immigration LLCs
As an immigration law firm focused directly on employment-based immigration, we help people, employers, investors, and families handle immigration related legalities. We take great pride in providing instant access to our lawyers and paralegals, and most importantly, the ability to communicate with the employees and their family members, to ensure that they're comfortable with the processes done on their behalf.
One thing that I've learned in my 30 years of practice is that a distracted employee is no employee at all. Immigration can be extraordinarily preoccupying and stressful for an employee, especially with changing administrative reforms. We make sure that the employee and the employer understand that they have an advocate on their behalf, to provide legal counsel, direction, and advice. Through our multifaceted immigration law practice, we assist employers in federal court to help the immigration service make correct decisions. We also help people with questions, cases, and concerns about family-based immigration.
What are some of the pain points your clients face?
The volatility of the law and the uncertainty with which the law is currently being implemented, adjudicated and changed is troublesome for most employers, employees, and investors. For that reason, remaining in constant contact with them through newsletters, Facebook, emails, blogs, YouTube, and our podcast is essential to make sure that the our clients are fully informed about the changes and how they impact them. The uncertainty in law is a reason for some employers to limit the hiring of foreign nationals, especially individuals who are educated in U.S, but grew up elsewhere. Without a consistency in the interpretation and implementation of the law, it becomes very difficult for employers to hire immigrants.
How do you identify your clients’ requirements?
Our client onboarding process starts with an in-depth assessment, which allows us to know their immediate and long-term needs.
One thing that we want to ensure is that we're doing the work for our clients, and that they're not becoming inundated with minutia
This enables us to understand their state of mind and goals. We then make sure that they're familiar with the technology that we use to make their job as easy as possible. Immigration is an intensively, paperwork driven job, but we have managed through technology to make most of the labor-intensive tasks easy and simple. We have systemized the adjudicatory process by using standardized lists, questionnaires, online database tools and documents generation to provide a level of online accessibility to files.
We also systemize the audit of prior immigration work to make sure that the company itself is compliant with current federal law and its interpretation. We then perform a yearly audit that allows us to assess whether all of those criteria are being met. This includes the adjudicatory process and the I-9compliance process. We then maintain consistent contact with our client online and via phone, to make sure that they are fully aware of any changes, processes, or issues that may arise on an immediate basis. One thing that we want to ensure is that we're doing the work for our clients, and they're not becoming inundated with minutia.
What are your core competencies?
We have been in our current form for the last 17 years, and I've been an immigration lawyer for the last 30 years. I served on various boards, both in Georgia and around the country in a variety of industries. I come from a background where I'm familiar with how America works on a day to day basis. I grew up in an immigrant household with my grandparents, and many of our lawyers are either first, second or third generation citizens, or are immigrants themselves to the U.S. For this reason, they are intimately familiar with how the process not only works, but how it affects people on a day to day basis.
Many large corporate law firms just serve to process paperwork, and they lack empathy.
Empathy is the core of our success and that shapes who we are. We stand out in the context of our national reputation and our global reputation on holding the government accountable for its mistakes. There are few law firms in the country that have litigated immigration issues as extensively and for as long as we have in the federal courts to hold the government responsible for their mistakes. Our lawyers, paralegals, and our support staff are readily accessible. And, we also set ourselves apart by being a law firm that is literally always accessible.
Could you share a customer success story?
An H1B employer that we have represented for years began to experience a high level of requests for evidence from the USCIS. Based upon our recommendation, the employer decided to initiate litigation against the immigration service for some denials that came down on cases that had been previously approved. Our expert attorneys concluded that there was no valid basis to deny these cases. By litigating against the immigration service, we obtained a successful judgment and forced the immigration service to undo the denial and grant a series of visas that was previously denied. Since that lawsuit, the company has not received any requests for evidence, and zero denials.
In another instance, an individual who was denied a petition for nonimmigrant extraordinary ability (O1 Visa) visa approached us. A U.S. employer wanted to hire him and he did not fit easily into any other visa category. After engaging with them, within two months, the employee was granted the O1 visa.
We have countless examples like this where we were hired to fix the work of other attorneys, or to provide a creative, aggressive solution to an intransigent immigration problem. Our reputation for excellence and creativity is well earned, and we make sure we live up to it every day.
How do you see the future in the light of the COVID 19 pandemic?
The Trump administration has stopped legal immigration from abroad in most major visa categories, both for immigrants and for non-immigrants. In the days to come, the country may witness substantial cuts in legal immigration to the U.S. These changes will directly impact immigration processes as well. As a practice group of immigration lawyers who are dedicated to sorting out complexities, we are prepared to meet these challenges head-on. More importantly, it is worth mentioning that our paralegals and lawyers have been working in this sector for more than three decades now. By having that level and depth of experience and historical knowledge, the bumps in the road that comes from administrative changes do not knock us off our path. They just help us concentrate more, to improve our services and to make sure that our clients have the knowledge and information they need to make wise and appropriate decisions.
