I met with Mr. Shusterman while my wife and myself were attending a medical society conference in San Francisco in May 2003. Mr. Shusterman was a speaker at one of the sessions relating to immigration for foreign medical graduates. After the session, my wife and myself “accosted” Mr. Shusterman and w...e spent the next half an hour chatting on immigration possibilities and challenges for foreign medical graduates. What impressed me the most at that time was that Mr. Shusterman was willing to spend time with us totally unaware that we were looking for an immigration lawyer. At that point, we were deliberating between Mr. Shusterman’s firm and another immigration law firm from Washington D.C. but our meeting with Mr. Shusterman that day clinched the deal in his favor.
I must say, I have never regretted that decision! Over these past 6 years, Mr. Shusterman’s immigration firm has helped us process my J-1 Waiver application followed by H-1B application (initial and thereafter renewal processing), green card application, and most recently helping me with traveling to India with H-1B Visa application at one of the US Consulates. Navigating through the myriad requirements of immigration paperwork can be a daunting and nerve racking task as any applicant going through all these will admit. What gave me peace of mind was that I knew that I had one of the premier immigration law firms in United States behind me!
Mr. Shusterman assigned to me their senior paralegal and office manager, Judith Lu, MBA. Ms. Lu has not only demonstrated competency in her knowledge of immigration matters but has won me over by her sensitivity to what an applicant goes through while trying to stay “legal” through this entire process. Sharing stories with my other physician friends (who have worked with other immigration law firms), I realize how lucky I am in not having to worry about reminding Ms. Lu about my H-1B status expiring or for that matter when to process paperwork relating to compliance with “employment in an underserved area” and so forth. She has been on top of things in terms of not only sending reminders well ahead of time but also reminding me time and again as to what documents we would need for us to move through the next process. I still remember the time when we were working with deadline looming for filing for changing to immigrant status. I was worried about a certain document and this was Friday evening. It was past 5pm PT and I called her office frantic and she picked up the phone and assured me that all the paperwork was proper and that the application was going out on time. I was so relieved! There have been other occasions over these years when I needed to speak with her and she has been nice enough to call me back/email me within the same/next day.
While, I understand that Ms. Lu has the other staffers from Shusterman’s Law Firm help her to make this entire experience as seamless and smooth as possible for us yet I cannot but appreciate some of her personal touches. She is extremely prompt in responding to emails and the reason why I appreciate that is that she would not only respond within the same day but that the emails would be detailed enough to help me understand what needs to be done. There have been so many occasions when I will ask for clarification and she will get back to me promptly without sounding condescending (and yes she does not charge for the emails either!). More recently, I travelled to India and was worried about applying for H-1B Visa at one of the US Consulates but she and one of the lawyers from Mr. Shusterman’s Law Firm, Mr. Rajkrishna Iyer helped me through this entire process including arranging all the required documents that I might need, preparing me for the interview at the US Consulate as well at the point of entry into United States after I return. Needless to say, the process went smooth!
I would strongly recommend Mr. Shusterman’s immigration law firm to anyone who is looking for a law firm that “knows its” immigration related laws and guidelines; “understands” what a individual i