Regina Knoll

With more than 15 years of immigration law experience, Regina Knoll represents a diverse group of people and business entities.

Ms. Knoll’s experience includes representing U.S. and foreign companies spanning across all sizes and industries, foreign investors, professionals, people of extraordinary ability in the arts, sciences, business, and education, religious workers, medical professionals, performers and athletes, family members of U.S. citizens and residents, victims of violence (including domestic violence), and asylum seekers.

Taking a collaborative and responsive approach to her immigration practice, Ms. Knoll works closely with client companies’ HR professionals, talent partners, corporate legal counsels, managers, and employees. Further, she assists with immigration matters pertaining to visits to the United States for business and pleasure, temporary and permanent employment, and study, training, and exchange in the United States.

Before joining HFM, Ms. Knoll founded and served as the principal attorney at the Law and Effect Group. Previously, she practiced immigration law at a San Diego-based immigration law firm and worked as in-house counsel at DiscTech, where she handled a variety of transactional matters in such areas as intellectual property law, contract law, employment law, and immigration law. Originally from Austria and a native German-speaker, she is one of the preeminent immigration attorneys for German companies with subsidiaries in Southern California and beyond.

EMPLOYMENT-BASED IMMIGRATION

- Employer-sponsored immigrant petitions and adjustment of status (“green card”) applications, including Labor Certification Applications with the Department of Labor

- Petitions for foreign nationals with extraordinary abilities in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics (including employer-sponsored petitions and self-petitions)

- Petitions on behalf of outstanding professors and researchers, multinational managers and executives, and foreign nationals with advanced degrees

- National Interest Waiver petitions

- Employer-sponsored non-immigrant visa petition (temporary work visas), including visas for professionals, intra-company transferees, NAFTA professionals, performers, artists, athletes, and religious workers

- Visas and permanent solutions for foreign investors and treaty traders

- L-1 Blanket petitions

- Visas for trainees and interns, including H-3 and guidance with the J-1 visa process

- Alternative options to common visa solutions, including B-1 in lieu of H-1B and H-3

FAMILY & INDIVIDUAL IMMIGRATION

- Marriage- and family-based immigrant petitions and adjustment of status (“green card”)applications, including spousal visas, fiancé(e) visas, and visas for certain relatives of U.S. citizens and residents

- Petitions to Remove the Conditions on Residence

- Visa petitions processed through U.S. Consulates and Embassies abroad

- Visitor visa applications

LGBTQ IMMIGRATION

Ms. Knoll is affiliated with several LGBTQ-oriented organizations and enjoys a strong connection with the LGBTQ community. In June 2013, with the fall of the Defense of Marriage Act, the full array of immigration benefits and legal remedies finally opened up to gay and lesbian individuals and same-sex couples. She was among the few immigration attorneys to represent a same-sex couple on the first day that such marriage-based petitions were heard by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in San Diego. Since then, she has been tirelessly representing the immigration rights of gay and lesbian foreign nationals and same-sex couples.

Ms. Knoll also handles immigration cases involving Naturalization and Citizenship, Diversity Visas (“visa lottery”), petitions under the Violence Against Women Act, and Affirmative Asylum applications. In her work. she routinely interacts with officers and agents of U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, U.S. Customs & Border Protection, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, Department of Labor, Department of State, and State and local government agencies.

Ms. Knoll understands the importance of making the legal process as understandable and accessible as possible to her clients. She is well-versed in serving the complex needs of corporate clients of all sizes and backgrounds and in paying personalized attention to the immigration needs of individual clients.

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

- READ/San Diego Adult Literacy Tutor

- Sierra Club Chapter Outing Leader

- Rachel’s Women’s Center, Shelter and Services for Homeless Women

- San Diego Naturalization Collaborative, YouAreAmerica.org

- Mission Trails Regional Park, Cowles Mountain Trail Restoration Project