Dear Clients, Friends, Colleagues and Family,
Gerstein & Gerstein Immigration Attorneys would like to extend belated warm wishes for a happy and healthy 2022! There were many changes in 2021 in our firm, in the country’s administration and with U.S. immigration laws. COVID still exists and has continued impacts on the world. 2022 will hopefully bring forth positive immigration reform and getting back to our “new normal”.
Our office staff is critical to our success. You can reach out to our office if we can help you with any of your legal needs. Glenda Soto is our office receptionist and is happy to take calls and make appointments. Liyi De Dios is our office administrator. She assists with calls, contracts, payments and office administrative duties. Mariella Vargas is our client relations manager. Her primary job is to go over contracts with clients, take payments and to help clients with payment plans to make it easier to afford our excellent services. Sebastian Szczepanski is our lead paralegal and oversees and distributes cases to our other paralegals, Luciano Garcia and Ricardo Nunez, to make our processes timely and efficient. Gina Marin assists Glenda, Lily and our paralegals with whatever tasks they may need. Gina will be replacing Luciano in July when Luciano leaves us to pursue a law degree! Hannah Ali and Dakota Alvarez are our law school interns who help us with research and other tasks necessary to move cases along quickly. Our two associates, Macarena Santos and Edsel Machado-Guerrero are bright, professional, seasoned attorneys. Edsel concentrates on business and family immigration law while Macarena focuses on immigration removal and family cases. Gerstein & Gerstein Immigration Attorneys is fortunate to have a staff that is as knowledgeable and hard-working as ours.
Looking back at 2021, our country was plagued with COVID. Nevertheless, Biden was inaugurated and restrictions in U.S. immigration began to ease. USCIS released an article in December 2021 discussing the challenges and accomplishments in immigration in FY 2021. Despite the delays caused by COVID, vaccines were developed and USCIS continued to address processing delays and policies to keep US Immigration moving.
Looking ahead at 2022 and considering the extreme political divide, it does not seem likely that new immigration legislation will be passed. However, this does not mean immigration will not progress. The executive branch has the power to act on certain issues. It is likely that immigration laws will continue to be reformed. USCIS stated in the December article referenced above, “In the upcoming year, we will continue to serve the public with compassion and reflect on America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibilities for all. As we administer our nation’s immigration system as an engine of American strength, we will adjudicate requests with fairness, efficiency and integrity.”
As always, please contact us if we can assist you with any of your legal needs. While our firm specializes in immigration law, we have a network of attorneys that we trust that we can refer you to if we cannot help.
All our best in 2022,
Bill and Dori Gerstein