Florian Damaso Purganan

Florian Purganan has practiced exclusively in immigration and citizenship law since 2005. His practice encompasses all areas of immigration law, including adjustment of status, K-1 visas, family-based petitions, naturalization, U Visas, VAWA, asylum, and extreme hardship waiver applications. Florian also regularly handles employment-based immigration matters such as labor certifications, petitions for alien workers, and nonimmigrant visas (i.e., E-2s, H-1Bs, L-1As, R-1s, etc.) for foreign professionals. Furthermore, he regularly represents clients in removal proceedings and litigates cases before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Since the beginning of his legal career, Florian has been committed to community service. He is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and currently serves on the Executive Committee for the Washington State Chapter as Treasurer. His past roles in AILA include Chair of the USCIS Liaison and New Members Division committees. He has previously served as a board member for Neighborhood House, WAPI Family Services, and the Matt Griffin YMCA. Florian also regularly volunteers at legal clinics for the Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS), Eastside Legal Assistance Program (ELAP), and Centro Rendu.

In addition, Florian is fluent in Tagalog and is active in the Filipino community. He is currently serving as Treasurer for the Filipino Lawyers of Washington (FLOW), a nonprofit organization committed to uniting the voices of the Filipino-American community through advocacy and counsel to foster growth and diversity while celebrating Filipino heritage and culture. He volunteers regularly for the Filipino Community of Seattle (FCS), and is the past Youth Chair of the regional chapter of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA). He has also served as the Assistant Secretary of the Filipino American Association of Shoreline. Florian has been an invited speaker/panelist on immigration topics at past AILA regional conferences, the 2006 NaFFAA National Conference in Hawaii, Filipino-American youth and student conferences, and various forums at the FCS.

Florian graduated from Seattle University in 2001 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Psychology. He then attended law school at Seattle University where he earned his J.D. degree in 2004.