Steven H. Garfinkel is a nationally recognized immigration law expert with over twenty-three (23) years of business immigration law experience.  He is one of 18 attorneys certified as a Specialist in Immigration Law by the North Carolina State Bar and currently serves as Chair of the Immigration Specialization Committee.  He has served as President of the Carolinas Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and has served on the National Board of Directors of AILA.  He has presented on Immigration Law topics at the past five (5) AILA Annual Conferences (including serving as a featured panelist on the Labor Certification panel at the 2006 Conference in San Antonio with over 1000 attendees) and has written and lectured extensively on Immigration and Nationality Law matters.  Mr. Garfinkel has been rated by his peers with an AV® Peer Review Rating and is listed in the International Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers.  

Garfinkel Immigration Law Firm (“Garfinkel Immigration”) has grown to become one of the largest business immigration practice groups in the Southeastern U.S.  The Firm’s partners, associate attorneys and professional staff possess 40+ years of business immigration law experience and the Firm employs thirteen paralegals.  The Firm’s corporate clients include major financial institutions, healthcare providers, manufacturers, information technology providers, and colleges and universities.  Approximately 90% of the Firm's’s work involves business immigration; the remainder involves assisting with family immigration matters.   The Firm uses the most up-to-date technology so clients can provide information electronically and access to case information 24/7.  The firm has attorneys and paralegals fluent in Spanish, French, German and Russian.

Although Garfinkel Immigration is one of the largest business immigration law firms in the southeast, we are still a relatively small firm.  Realizing that there are advantages of being a part of a larger organization, Mr. Garfinkel accepted an invitation to join the prestigious Affiliation of Business Immigration Lawyers (“ABIL”) (www.ABIL.com) in April, 2007.  ABIL is made up of 19 of the top U.S. business immigration law firms throughout the U.S., with 140 attorneys (460 total staff).  ABIL has offices in 21 major U.S. cities, as well as international offices in Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Germany, India, Hong Kong, China and Japan.  Through ABIL, Garfinkel Immigration has all of the resources of one of the world’s two largest immigration firms, with the advantages of boutique firms’ flexibility, client accessibility and customer focus.

Mr. Garfinkel received a Bachelor's degree (cum laude) from Wake Forest University in 1981 and a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Wake Forest School of Law in 1984.  He has practiced Immigration and Visa Law in Charlotte, North Carolina since that time. He worked in one of North Carolina's largest law firms from 1989 to 1997 and was the partner in charge of the immigration and visa practice of that firm's Charlotte office from 1992 until September 1, 1997, when Mr. Garfinkel established the Garfinkel Immigration Law Firm.