Los Angeles is not one city with one industry. It is a spread-out city of many centers: Silicon Beach on the Westside, aerospace in the South Bay, film and television in Hollywood, and two great research universities, USC and UCLA. Los Angeles is home to engineers at Google and YouTube in Playa Vista, designers at Snap in Santa Monica, rocket engineers in Hawthorne, actors and musicians in film and television, and researchers at USC and UCLA. I am based in Menlo Park, and I handle Los Angeles cases the same way I handle cases anywhere in the United States — immigration is federal, so the rules, the forms, and the care are the same.
For Employers and Startups in Los Angeles
People come to me from all over the city — from the tech campuses of Playa Vista and Venice, the studios of Culver City, and the aerospace companies of El Segundo and Hawthorne. The companies are the city's story, not mine: Google and YouTube in Playa Vista, Snap in Santa Monica, TikTok and Hulu and the studios in Culver City, SpaceX still building and testing rockets in Hawthorne, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon, and The Aerospace Corporation with major facilities in the South Bay. The immigration questions are different at each size, but the pattern is the same: a hire who needs to start, a founder who needs to work for the company they built, or a researcher whose visa depends on a project continuing.
For larger teams, that usually means H-1B registrations in the March window, transfers for engineers moving between companies, and PERM cases for people ready to start the green card process. For startups, the work is more often O-1 for a founder or a key engineer, or an L-1A for a founder expanding a company from abroad into a Los Angeles office. One thing I tell every Los Angeles employer the same way: plan the case before the hire is urgent. The sooner we map it out, the better it goes.
For Aerospace Engineers in the South Bay
Los Angeles is an aerospace city, not just an entertainment city. SpaceX still builds and tests rockets in Hawthorne, and Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon, and The Aerospace Corporation have long had major facilities in El Segundo and across the South Bay. Engineers here move between those companies — H-1B transfers where the timing matters because a project cannot wait; PERM cases for engineers who have been with a company long enough to start the green card process; and O-1A and EB-1A cases for engineers whose patents and publications put them at the top of the field. If you are leaving one aerospace employer for another, or you are an engineer whose record is ready for a green card you can file yourself, tell me what you are working on and I will reply in writing, focusing on the issues involved.
For Founders in Los Angeles
If you are a founder in Los Angeles, your immigration status and your company are the same problem. Owning shares in a U.S. company, or investing in one, is not permission to work for it. Coding, hiring, selling, and running the company day to day is work — even unpaid — and doing it without work authorization can damage future visas and green cards. Los Angeles founders come in more kinds than most cities see: tech founders on the Westside, aerospace founders in the South Bay, and producers and directors starting production companies. The path that fits depends on the founder: O-1A for a founder with a strong record of achievement, E-2 for a founder from a treaty country investing in the company, L-1A for a founder expanding an existing foreign company, or EB-5 for investment plus job creation toward a green card. Which one fits is decided on the facts, not on which one sounds fastest.
For Actors, Musicians, Producers, and Directors
Los Angeles is where the entertainment industry lives, and I am happy to take entertainment cases of any kind. Actors, musicians, producers, directors, and others coming to Los Angeles for film, television, music, and live performance usually come on an O-1B — the visa for extraordinary ability in the arts — or an O-1A for a producer or director with a record of extraordinary achievement. The test is the record: awards, leading roles, critical recognition, commercial success, and the judgment of others in the field. A single engagement can be the basis for a case, and so can a career. If you are coming for a season of work, a tour, a production, or a longer stay, the category and the evidence are decided on the facts of your career, not on the size of the project.
For Researchers and Scientists Near Los Angeles
USC and UCLA produce exactly the kind of record that EB-1A and EB-2 NIW cases are built on: published work, citations, peer review, and contributions other people in the field rely on. UCLA's medical school sponsors EB-1B and EB-2 NIW cases for its faculty and researchers, and a researcher at either university who has been carried by an H-1B for a few years often reaches the point of looking at a green card they can file themselves — or a self-petition when university sponsorship does not fit. Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena produce the same kind of record. The test is whether the evidence meets the specific criteria, and whether the record as a whole shows the person is among the small percentage at the top of the field, or that their work is in the national interest under Dhanasar. I look at the actual record before saying either is the right case.
How a Case Proceeds
Every case starts the same way: you tell me what you are working on, through the contact form, and I reply in writing, focusing on the issues involved. If it looks like a case I can take on, we map out the path — which category, what evidence is needed, and what the timing looks like — before anything is filed. Immigration is a federal practice, so I handle Los Angeles cases the same way I handle cases anywhere in the United States: the same rules, the same forms, the same care. Los Angeles is a long way from Menlo Park, but the work is the same work: I know the employers, the studios, and the research institutions my clients work for, and I know what their cases usually turn on.
Why a Named Principal Matters
When a company hires an immigration lawyer, it is usually buying a name it cannot see and a team it will never meet. Here you deal with me directly — Paul M. Heller, principal and founder, 30+ years in practice. I have advised designated school officials at Stanford and UC Berkeley, and I have represented companies and the individuals they hire, from first registration through green card. The advice is mine, and so is the responsibility for it.
This firm is not an H-1B mill, and it never has been. I don't crunch out cookie-cutter cases for large companies — the same petition, copied a hundred times. I work with large companies too, but every case is built around the person in it: their record, their history, their timing. Each matter is given individual attention. These days, USCIS scrutinizes every single matter to the utmost degree — and that is exactly where this way of working pays off: a case built around the person, with the record to support it, holds up under that scrutiny.
If you came here looking for an immigration attorney in Los Angeles, you are in the right place. I am an immigration lawyer and attorney serving Los Angeles and Southern California, and every case below is the work I actually do here.
Your Attorney
I am Paul M. Heller, Esq. — Principal Attorney & Founder, Heller Immigration Law Group, with 30+ years practicing U.S. immigration law in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, and throughout the United States. Immigration is a federal practice. Designated School Officials at Stanford & UC Berkeley have turned to me for advice, as stated on the firm homepage.
Service Area and Replies
I am based in Menlo Park, CA — I reply in writing, and I handle cases throughout the U.S. because immigration is federal.
Other cities served: Menlo Park, Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Jose, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Redwood City, Fremont, San Mateo, Milpitas, Los Angeles.
Tell me what you are working on and I will reply in writing, focusing on the issues involved. No phone number and no street address are published on this site.
General information, not legal advice. Requirements and processing change; we confirm current rules for your case.