The Law Offices of Ann L. Lipson, pc, focus exclusively on providing the highest standard of U.S. immigration services to our employer clients and their foreign personnel, as well as to individuals and families. With offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, we offer personalized services in English, French, and Spanish.
Our over twenty five years of experience as seasoned professionals make us particularly well suited to address the needs of small and medium sized businesses. We also advise on inbound immigration to the U.K. in selected visa categories, working with our liaison offices in London.
Our Mission
Having immigrated to two different countries as a teenager, I know first-hand what it is like to be a stranger in a strange land. As if the challenges of a new language, new culture and new life were not enough, the language of law adds another layer of bewildering confusion.
Our aim is to put a human face on the bureaucratic process while we guide you through the maze of paper and rules to reach your immigration goals.
Our Team
Ann L. Lipson
Ann L. Lipson, J.D., M.A., M.S.(2), is a dual U.K./U.S. citizen who has over 25 years experience practicing U.S. immigration and nationality law in an international context. She received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1980, and opened her own immigration practice in 1988 after 6 years of immigration, commercial, and international tax experience in law firms in Phoenix.
Since 1993, she has divided her time between England, France, and the U.S. Ann, who is fluent in French and Spanish, has lectured on U.S. immigration law in Paris, has published overseas, and guest lectured on immigration law at Golden Gate University Law school in San Francisco. In addition to her Law Degree, Ann holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin; 2 Master’s Degrees in French from the University of London, England, and Syracuse University; and a Bachelor’s Degree with Highest Distinction in French and Spanish from the University of Michigan.
Member: State Bar of California; admitted to practice before the United States District Court, Northern District of California and United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth and Tenth Circuits; American Immigration Lawyers Association (U.S.); Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (U.K.).
Robert P. Gaffney—Of Counsel
Robert P. Gaffney received his Juris Doctor Degree from University of California, Hastings College of the Law and was admitted to the bar in 1980. Mr. Gaffney is a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law. Through his private law practice in San Francisco, Mr. Gaffney has over 25 years of experience counseling a wide range of corporate and individual clients in areas of employment-related, investment, and family based visa and immigration matters.
Mr. Gaffney, who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese attended the University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies as a National Defense Foreign Language Fellow between 1973 and 1976. He is widely recognized as a leading practitioner in the highly specialized area of EB-5, or alien entrepreneur visas, representing individual investors in obtaining permanent residence, and counseling U.S. business in the development of investment opportunities designed to qualify foreign direct investors for immigrant status under the EB5 provisions. Mr. Gaffney also has extensive experience representing professional employees, as well as managers and executives of multinational firms, and skilled workers in obtaining U.S. temporary employment visas and permanent residence status.
You can read more about Robert at his website for U.S. Immigration Law – usvisanet.com
Rhonda Perriman—Science Advisor
Rhonda Perriman has a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Australian National University, and has more than 15 years postgraduate research experience. She has a wealth of broad scientific experiences in both academic and biotechnology settings.
Rhonda has been advising immigration lawyers on science and research issues and drafting documents for highly skilled worker petitions since 2006.
Edward H. Lipson—Senior Paralegal and Business Manager
Edward Lipson has served as our paralegal and business manager since 2006. He is also a practicing physician and serves as our advisor for healthcare and physician immigration issues. Edward has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, an MS degree from the University of Wisconsin and an MD degree from the Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY. He is board certified in Pediatrics.
Alison Dunleavy—Case Manager
Alison is a certified paralegal and has been working in immigration law for the past three years, with a recent emphasis on employment-based immigration. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a Bachelor’s Degree in American Studies. She studied at the University of Essex, in England and has spent time traveling through Europe and Southeast Asia. She grew up in the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe and enjoys skiing, hiking, scuba diving, reading, and walking her dog when she isn’t in the office.
Our Fees
Initial Contact with Our Office
We welcome interested individuals to contact us by phone or email for a free no-charge short initial assessment of your immigration questions. If and when a decision is made that it is worthwhile to proceed, we set up a half hour or one hour Initial Conference either in-person, by telephone or SKYPE at our normal charge.
Initial Conference
The initial conference fee is $225 for one hour, payable in advance by check or electronic funds transfer.
The foundation of any good case strategy depends upon a thorough in-depth initial conference. It is during the initial interview that we are able to collect the relevant facts, help our potential clients articulate short-term and long-term immigration goals, establish priorities and timelines in view of the various immigration options, and, where possible, decide upon a feasible strategy. At the end of the initial interview, if the potential client wishes to retain our office, we provide a professional services agreement tailored to each individual case. No attorney-client relationship exists unless and until both our office and the potential client have entered into a signed and dated professional services agreement, as mandated by the State Bar of California.
Because we consider this phase of the case to be so important, we prefer to devote at least one hour to the initial intake session to make sure that we leave no stone unturned.
We provide three types of initial conference options:
- In-person conference: This is where we meet the employer representative wishing to hire a foreign national, or the foreign national, in-person. For such meetings we ask our potential clients to provide us with copies of all immigration related documents ahead of time so that we can be maximally prepared for the meeting, which usually lasts at least an hour. We can arrange evening and weekend appointments where appropriate, and can arrange meeting locations at sites other than our own offices, such as a client’s place of business.
- Telephonic/SKYPE conference: For our out-of-area and internationally-based potential clients, we can arrange a telephonic/SKYPE interview at a mutually convenient time. Just as for an in-person conference, we ask that immigration related documents be provided to us ahead of time, so that we can perform preliminary research prior to the conference to make our time maximally efficient.
- E-mail conference: We are also pleased to be able to provide an e-mail conference, where requested. Using e-mail, we ask potential clients to provide us a brief synopsis of their situation and immigration issues. Based upon the individual’s narrative, we may send out relevant questionnaires to gather additional information. The answers to the questionnaires and the narrative may provide sufficient generalized information to resolve certain issues or to agree upon an immigration strategy. In most cases, we prefer to follow up on an e-mail conference via telephone. Video Conferencing capabilities are available via SKYPE.
