San Francisco is not a suburb of Silicon Valley; it is a second centre of it. Salesforce is headquartered downtown. Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Pinterest, Reddit, and Stripe built their companies here. OpenAI and a wave of artificial intelligence companies have made the city the centre of the current AI boom. UCSF, one of the country's leading medical research universities, sits across the city, and the biotech corridor of South San Francisco — Genentech's home — is minutes away. The immigration cases I handle for San Francisco clients reflect all of that: AI researchers, fintech engineers, founders, and medical scientists — and researchers and founders from UC Berkeley, across the Bay, come to me with the same questions. I had my law firm in San Francisco for more than 18 years.
For Employers in San Francisco
San Francisco employers hire at a scale and a speed that the immigration system was not designed for. A growing company can need twenty H-1B registrations in a single March window, transfers for engineers poached from other companies, and green card cases for people who have been with the company since its early days. The H-1B selection is now wage-weighted, not a straight draw, so the wage level of each registration matters in a way it did not before. PERM cases for San Francisco employers need the same care as anywhere else — the position must be genuine, the requirements must be minimums, and the recruiting must be real — but the market here makes the test harder, because the talent pool is deep and the job descriptions are specific. If you are an HR team in San Francisco, the sooner we plan the year's registrations and green cards, the fewer surprises there are.
For AI Researchers and Founders
The AI companies now hiring in San Francisco employ exactly the people the O-1A and EB-1A categories were written for: researchers with influential papers, engineers whose work is cited and built on, founders whose products are used at scale. The O-1 has no annual cap and no lottery, which is why it is often the right first step for a researcher or founder who cannot wait for March. The EB-1A is the green card version of the same test — three of ten criteria, then the final merits question — and the EB-2 NIW fits researchers whose work is in the national interest but whose record does not yet meet the EB-1A bar. What I look for in every one of these cases is the same: the actual evidence, measured against the criteria as written, not against how impressive the work sounds in a pitch.
For UCSF and Medical Researchers
UCSF researchers and physicians come to me with a different profile from the technology cases: clinical research, published trials, grants, and work that affects patient care. EB-1A and NIW cases for medical researchers turn on the same criteria — publications, citations, peer review, original contributions — but the evidence looks different, and the national interest argument is often stronger because the work touches public health directly. Physicians on J-1 visas face a separate problem, the two-year home residence requirement, and the waiver routes for it are narrow; that is a conversation to have before any green card planning starts, not after.
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 San Francisco cases the same way I handle cases anywhere in the United States. The city is an hour up the road from Menlo Park, and many of my San Francisco clients I have never met in person — the work is done in writing, carefully, and that is how my clients prefer it.
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 San Francisco, you are in the right place. I am an immigration lawyer and attorney serving San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area, 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.