Sunwook “Sunny” and Jinhee Wilde, Founder and CEOEnter WA Law Group!
The Maryland-based boutique immigration attorneys specialize in legal employment and investment-based immigration law for companies and individuals in the US and overseas. Since its inception in 2009, the firm has provided hands-on legal services to clients.
In an interview with Manage HR, Jinhee Wilde, Founder and CEO of WA Law Group sheds light on the changing immigration landscape. She also shares her insights on the WA Law Group’s client engagement model and value proposition.
“Our office becomes a safe-harbor in the ever-changing and arduous immigration process by providing our clients the hand-holding they sometimes need and exceptional approval track record,” begins Ms. Wilde.
Could you give us a quick overview of WA Law Group?
Over three decades of experience as a government, corporate and immigration lawyer has enabled me to carve a niche for WA Law Group. With a team of experienced attorneys and professionals, we focus on every business and investment immigration case from temporary, non-immigrant work visas to permanent residency. More than being a highly professional law firm, we are trusted advisors for our clients. We support them in every way through the years of immigration process from acquiring work visas, green cards to citizenship. Our firm is also consistently recognized and ranked by multiple leading magazines and attorney associations for its award-winning client service and proficiency.
In light of your experience, how has the immigration space evolved, and how did you align yourselves accordingly?
Since the entire immigration process is dependent on the whims of the presidential administration and policies, what affected us the most were the unwelcomed anti-immigration policies enforced by the Trump administration. Processing even a simple work authorization application for employees, which used to take three months or less, is taking upwards of 12 months. We had to fight against unreasonable Request for Evidence (RFE) on many more cases during the Trump administration, but we were ultimately successful because we followed the rules and provided much more than preponderance of evidence standard to achieve approvals.
WA Law Group has been very consistent in helping clients achieve permanent residence/ Green Cards by pursuing employment-based immigrant visas, namely, EB-2, EB-3, and program electronic review management (PERM)/ Labor Certification process. Our core competency lies in imparting the most comprehensive effort to get 100% approval of applications and petitions, regardless of the policy change. Moreover, we are adept at handling investment immigration (EB-5) cases and non-immigrant temporary work-oriented visas such as H-1B, L-1, O-1 and TN.
Who are your typical clients? And how do you address their needs?
We work mostly with business people and serve both ends of the employment spectrum. We serve employers (sponsors) and the workers (immigrants). At times of this unprecedented labor shortage, corporations are inclined to hire foreign talent to supplement their local, US hire. They are willing to sponsor foreign workers by spending time and money because they have found these foreign workers are diligent, loyal and motivated to work hard for their sponsors. In many ways, we foster cooperation and a good working relationship between the two parties even before they start working together through our practice. And everyone wins—the employee gets sponsored, the employer gets a good worker, and the US government gets legal immigrants.
Could you elaborate on your client onboarding methodology?
Our attorneys spend a lot of time discussing our clients’ goals/ expectations before accepting them. We walk them through the multistep immigration process by being transparent about the duration, methodology, and probability of visa application and approval. We educate every new employer in gaining a clear understanding of multi-fold immigration process requirements. This extra time we spend and our patience with our clients gives WA Law Group an edge in the immigration law firm market. The exceptional customer service rating that we consistently get from our clients bears this out.
What differentiates WA Law Group from other players in the market?
Beyond the sound legal services, what sets us apart is our consistent effort to deliver the best possible service and outcome. We strive to meet clients’ expectations through our diligence and teamwork. Our attorneys prepare the near-perfect, approvable applications that exceed the minimally required evidence. As such, we still maintain the almost 100% approval track record with very few requests for evidence (RFE) from USCIS.
Further, our office staff has minimum 5 years of immigration experience with some more than 14 years. Even with such knowledge and know-how from our staff, our lawyers review and re-review the documents that our legal assistants prepare before filing to assure best chance of approval for our clients.
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Our Office Becomes A Safe-Harbor In The Ever-Changing And Arduous Immigration Process By Providing Our Clients The Hand-Holding They Sometimes Need And Exceptional Approval Track Record
We are always a call away for our clients and update them promptly with any information that we receive from the government, so our clients do not worry what is happening with their cases. We are not a law firm with assembly line type of practice trying to do as many cases as possible. Our excellent customer service rating becomes a linchpin of our success and referrals because we have become their therapists and their friends, not just competent legal representatives during several years that we worked together.
