Vanessa S. Barcelona

Healthcare immigration takes up a large and vital component of Ms. Barcelona's practice. She works directly with hospital HR Departments, recruitment companies, and long-term care facilities across the United States in the hiring and sponsorship of registered nurses, medical laboratory technologists, and allied healthcare workers from all over the world. Nurses especially provide essential care to patients and communities, and immigration law plays an important role in alleviating the shortage and allowing foreign-trained nurses to live and work in the United States, where they are needed the most. Similarly, medical technologists play a vital role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and hospitals especially need to meet staffing challenges because current staffing shortages can mean delays in the diagnosis of patients' illnesses and the treatment of their diseases. There is a critical demand for both professions in the United States, and while the shortage of nurses has posed a serious challenge to the healthcare industry for longer than she has been in practice, increasingly, the shortage of medical technologists has become a “silent crisis”, with the shortfall appearing to increase with each passing year.

A good part of her work involves working with individuals of exceptional ability and those whose work is considered to be in the national interest of the country. These professionals, researchers, educators and innovators in fields such as technology, the sciences, engineering and business come to the United States to advance important fields because their work contributes to important national priorities.

Reuniting families is one of the central purposes of U.S. immigration law. Helping husbands and wives, parents and children to be reunited; or representing people who are starting new families following a marriage is some of the most meaningful work that she is proud to be part of.

“Immigration can be complicated and these days, it can be a contentious topic; and the laws and policies are changing frequently. In the middle of all of this, our goal is to be a calm and reasonable voice for our clients; to provide clear guidance and practical advice. I believe that the practice of law is a service. My clients place their trust in me, and I try to treat every case as if it were important to my own family. I take a personal interest in every case I accept; and understand that it represents an important step in my client's life. As attorneys, our role is to provide good and honest advice that will help our clients make informed choices and move forward confidently. It is an honor to do this work. I have met some of the most interesting, most hardworking people in more than 30 years of practice. I have been exposed to different cultures, languages, religions and life experiences. And I consider that one of the greatest privileges of my career, one of the biggest blessings of my life.”

An immigrant herself, she moved to the United States with her parents and siblings when she was 14 years old. She remembers what it was like to be in the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa, to apply for visas at U.S. embassies abroad, and to experience first-hand the sacrifices and compromises that were made in making important decisions that has the immense power of changing the trajectory of an immigrant's life, and the lives of their families.