Jeff Joseph

Immigration litigation

Jeff is a Partner at BAL and is a part of BAL’s litigation and compliance team. In a legal practice that rarely litigates, Jeff steps out as a legal lion on behalf of clients and their employees. His courtroom efforts have resulted in numerous government immigration policies being changed, agency interpretations of regulations being overturned and, in turn, employees being allowed to travel and meet their work and family obligations.

Jeff has successfully litigated cases against multiple federal agencies. When the State Department halted visa processing across the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, he successfully argued that it was unlawful, resulting in the visa ban being overturned. When the Department of Labor attempted to raise wages for H-1B workers to levels that would have made it impossible for small businesses, nonprofits and universities to pay for foreign talent, he successfully filed a suit that resulted in the Department of Labor withdrawing the wage rule.

He also filed a successful suit to overturn the Department of Homeland Security’s narrow interpretation of “specialty occupation” jobs, the primary visa category for highly skilled foreign workers. This case resolved a decades-long argument over how the government interpreted the job role of “market research analyst” for purposes of visa eligibility. The win could broaden eligibility for many “analyst” roles, including the computer analysts whom most U.S. employers depend on to fill tech jobs.

Jeff is a well-known immigration advocate, serving on the executive committee and as the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He spent six years as director of the AILA National Board of Governors, as vice chair of the Immigration Law Section of the Federal Bar Association (FBA) and as president of the Colorado Chapter of the FBA.

As a thought leader in the field, Jeff has given more than 300 lectures to professional organizations on wide-ranging aspects of immigration law. He has been qualified as an expert witness in immigration law and also teaches and mentors the next generation of immigration attorneys, serving as an adjunct professor of immigration law at the University of Denver College of Law.

Learn more about Jeff: bal.com/people/jeffrey-joseph/

American Immigration Lawyers Association, president

University of Denver Sturm College of Law

J.D.

Wake Forest University

B.A.

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