Mahsa Aliaskari

Ms. Mahsa Aliaskari is a special counsel in the Labor & Employment Practice Group in the firm's Century City office.

Areas of Practice

Mahsa represents national and international employers before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. Department of Labor in connection with immigration-related employment matters. Providing practical and innovative strategies and immigration practices that account for business realities. She assists companies, professionals and skilled workers in obtaining immigrant and nonimmigrant visas. Mahsa focuses her practice on business professionals across a number of industries, including health care, finance, trade, retail, manufacturing, technology and entertainment. Her practice consists of managing business immigration matters and providing immigration counsel to address the visa and work authorization needs of U.S. and global personnel including professionals, managers and executives, treaty investors/ traders, essential workers and persons of extraordinary ability. In particular, Mahsa has experience in counseling foreign nationals and emerging companies that are establishing new U.S. ventures requiring the temporary or permanent transfer of employees to the U.S. Mahsa also provides counsel to high net worth foreign nationals on the EB-5 Entrepreneur Investment visa program, as well as individuals and organizations seeking to utilize the EB-5 Regional Center program to raise capital.

In addition, Mahsa represents companies facing U.S. government investigations or audits for immigration violations and prepares immigration and visa compliance programs. Mahsa works with small and large organizations in developing comprehensive immigration and compliance policies designed to minimize exposure and liability. This includes performing I-9 and H-1B compliance counseling during routine internal reviews, or while performing due diligence (in the context of a merger, acquisition or sale). She also conducts seminars and training sessions for clients on all aspects of immigration, including I-9 compliance matters.

Areas of Concentration

• Business immigration and compliance
• Nonimmigrant visas including E, H-1B, L-1, TN and O-1 petitions
• Permanent residency processing through employment and family sponsorship in all employment based categories, including EB-5
• Naturalization

Education

• J.D., American University Washington College of Law, 2000
• B.A., Government and Politics, George Mason University, 1997

Admissions

• Admitted in Virginia only; not admitted in California
• Practice Limited to Immigration and Nationality Matters

Languages

• Farsi

Memberships

• Member, American Bar Association
• Member, American Immigration Lawyers Association
• Co-Chair, Washington D.C. Chapter Young Lawyer's Division (2001)

Articles

• "Sheppard Mullin Adds 2 Greenberg Traurig Immigration Pros," Law360, September 14, 2012
• Co-Author, "Why Are Employers of H and L Professional Workers Paying a $600 Million Tab For Border Security and Now for 9/11 First Responders?" Immigration Daily, August 2010
• Author, "CBP joins ICE and USCIS in effort to reduce fraud and misuse of the H-1B and L-1 visa programs," Association of Corporate Counsel, March 2010
• Co-Author, "2008: The Year of Increased Worksite Enforcement, " ABA Administrative law and Regulatory Practice Section’s Homeland Security: Legal and Policy Issues, 2009
• Co-Author, “Congress Launches Assault on the Intracompany Transferee,” Immigration Law Today, November/December 2003
• Author, “What You Should Know About the IRS, SSN & ITIN,” ILW.COM, October 16, 2003
• Author, "U.S. Asylum Laws applied to Battered Women Escaping Islamic Countries," The American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, 2000

EB-5 Opportunities Law Blog Articles

• "USCIS EB-5 Team – Updates and Movement," May 19, 2013
• "California TEA Designations – Shift in Policy," May 10, 2013
• "SEC Freezes Assets and Brings Civil Charges against EB-5 Investor Visa Project," February 26, 2013

Labor & Employment Law Blog Articles

• "Fiscal Year 2014 H-1B Cap is Reached: Over 124,000 Petitions in Five Days," April 10, 2013
• "Spring Cleaning and the H-1B Visa Cap," February 14, 2013
• "Inside Immigration Reform," February 5, 2013
• "Ice Worksite Fines, no thaw in sight for 2013!" February 5, 2013
• "E-Verify on the fritz likely due to Florida going live on the RIDE Program," December 11, 2012

Speeches

• "Current EB-5 Climate & Trends," EB-5 Investment Visa Match-Making Forum, April 19, 2013
• "Orange County Capital Markets Program on EB-5," Urban Land Institute's Capital Markets Initiative Council Meeting, April 10, 2013
• Panelist, "Basics of EB-5: Preparing Individual Investor Petitions," EB-5 Conference with U.S. Congressman Lamar Smith, Newport Beach, CA, July 30, 2012
• Panelist, "Arizona Immigration Law Issues," Business Counsel, Inc. Member Conference, Scottsdale, AZ, April 30, 2011
• Speaker, "What's New in 2011? Discrimination, Including IRCA I-9 Provisions, Wage and Hour, Labor Law," Southern California Wine Country, Society for Human Resources Association (SHRM), February 2011
• Speaker, "Act Now or Put Your Business at Risk: Latest Topics of Current Employer Liability," Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, May 2010
• Speaker, "DHS Regulations," California Restaurant Association Board of Directors Meeting, August 2007
• Speaker, "The World of Immigration: From the Entertainment Perspective," ALI ABA Entertainment, Arts & Sport Law Conference, January 25, 2007

Events

• Immigration Perspectives, January 24, 2013, U.S. Immigration for Investors and Entrepreneurs