Jennifer L. West is a member at Roth Jackson.  She has practiced exclusively in the field of U.S. immigration and nationality law since 2002, and she is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

She represents companies, individuals, and families before U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, the Department of Labor, the National Visa Center, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Administrative Appeals Office, and the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals.

She assists employers of various sizes in finding immigration solutions across a variety of industries and disciplines, including universities and other educational institutions, IT, software development, finance, restaurant and hospitality, faith communities, landscaping, laboratories, construction, and others. She handles H-1B visa petitions for specialty occupations as well as L-1A and L-1B petitions for employees coming from overseas as multinational executives, managers, and specialized knowledge employees. She also handles labor certification and I-140 petitions, along with applications for adjustment of status.

She has experience in I-9 and employer compliance issues and has given presentations on this topic.

Additionally, Ms. West has extensive experience with family-based adjustment of status and consular processing cases; E-2 investor visa cases; petitions for removal of conditions; naturalization applications; re-entry permits; changes of non-immigrant visa status; and waivers of inadmissibility, including I-601A provisional waivers.

She possesses experience in removal defense and has also enjoyed handling a variety of humanitarian cases, such as DACA, Temporary Protected Status, U and T visas, VAWA, and asylum, as well as R-1 and I-360 cases for religious workers.

Ms. West has presented at CLEs on immigration law and has presented on immigration topics to various academic, community, religious, and cultural groups, and she has served as a volunteer and co-coordinator for the Richmond location of AILA’s Citizenship Day.  She has served on the AILA DC chapter conference planning committee for AILA’s 2020 Annual Conference, as well as on the AILA/USCIS Norfolk liaison committee.

Education
University of North Carolina School of Law (J.D., 2002)
Meredith College (B.A., magna cum laude, Honors Scholar, 1999)

Bar Admissions
North Carolina State Bar

Court Admissions
North Carolina Supreme Court

Recent Speaking Engagements / Publications

• Not Your Typical NIV: Employment-Based Strategies for Employees with Unique Immigration Status, 25 Bender’s Immigration Bulletin 1387 (2020)
• “DACA and TPS Under Attack: Using Employment-Based Strategies to Obtain a More Secure Status” – AILA National Webinar – September 2020
• AILA DC Chapter Town Hall on Local USCIS Practices – August 2020
• Invited Speaker for 2020 National Annual Conference for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
• “When ICE Knocks: Employers’ Issues and Duties for Immigration and Compliance in Today’s Environment“ – Virginia State Bar’s Construction Law and Public Contracts Section Annual Conference, Charlottesville, VA – November 2019
• “PERM in 2019: Key Take-Aways” AILA Central Florida Chapter Annual Conference – St. Petersburg, FL – October 2019
• “Immigration Compliance: Issues, Trends, and Best Practices” national franchisee convention, Chicago, IL – July 2019
• “Immigration Law Basics for the Non-Immigration Attorney”, Fairfax Bar Association – Fairfax, VA – June 2019

Law Office
Richmond Attorney