Vard R Johnson

I have practiced immigration law since 1984. During the past 25 years, I have represented individuals from every continent (other than Antarctica) and more than one third of the countries in the world. My asylum cases alone have involved persons and families from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Cameroons, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo, Zimbabwe, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Syria, Afghanistan, P.R. China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Fiji, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

In terms of asylum, I have successfully assisted individuals who reasonably believed that would be persecuted in their home country because of their political views, or because they were identified as

practicing Christians or Jews in a country hostile to either tradition, or because they were terribly abused by their husbands and received no protection from domestic violence, or because their tribal group threatened them with female genital mutilation, or because they were subjected to retaliation when they complained to authorities about corrupt practices or because they suffered forced abortion in keeping with their country’s one child policy.

I have helped numerous persons get their green cards through marriage,  including those who came to the United States illegally and who later married United States citizens. Sometimes they need to return to their  home country for their papers. I help them apply for waivers so they may re-enter the United States without undue delay.

Every year thousands of foreigners get green cards through their

employment. Some of them are my clients. Their occupations are all  over the place—cooks, physicians, nurses, IT workers, managers, teachers, professors, and researchers. I prepare visa petitions for persons seeking employment based green cards as aliens of extraordinary ability, as intracompany transferees, as outstanding researchers and academics and as persons seeking national interest waivers. I also prepare labor certification applications for foreign workers whose occupations require such certifications.

I help clients apply for and become US citizens.

Part of my work involves helping people who have committed crimes navigate the immigration system. Even a minor crime can cause a person to be deported or denied U.S. citizenship. I carefully analyze the criminal record history of my clients and determine what must be done to allow that person to remain in the United States.

Frequently, I appear in Immigration Courts on behalf of persons who are faced with deportation. There, the client and I use every tool at our Immigration disposal to ward off removal. Relief may come in the form of Cancellation of Removal or Adjustment of Status or grant of Asylum or grant of an appropriate Waiver. There are times, of course, when my clients have no alternative but to return to their home country.

Our government frequently is very slow in the processing of applications for green cards or for US citizenship. Moreover, our government sometimes adopts practices or policies that do not conform to the law.  I have no reluctance in protecting my client’s interests in the United States District Courts and Courts of Appeal.