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Labor certification, compliance and citizenship - handled with precision.
01 / Profile

A business immigration and citizenship practice

PERM labor certification - Compliance - Citizenship planning
Sarah M. M. Duckham is a senior attorney with BIRG Law. She has been practicing immigration law since 2000, with an emphasis on business immigration, naturalization, and citizenship law.

Relating to her business immigration practice, Sarah is a leading labor certification EB-2 / EB-3 PERM attorney with over twenty years of experience handling many cases in this area of the law. She is a leader within the firm on matters concerning labor certification and manages the firm's compliance practice.

Her extensive experience includes many other aspects of business-based and employment-based immigration law, including L-1, H-1B, EB-1, and E-2 visas.Where immigration planning meets tax planning. Relating to her citizenship practice, she works with high net worth clients and their professional advisers in integrating immigration planning with tax planning, and surrendering U.S. green cards and citizenship where appropriate and desired.
25+
Years Practicing Immigration Law
20+
Years of PERM Labor Certification Work
3
Bar and Court Admissions
DOJ
Former Tax Division Prosecutor
02 / Practice

Where Sarah focuses

Her work spans employment-based sponsorship, employer compliance and the citizenship questions that follow.

Labor Certification & PERM

EB-2 and EB-3 PERM cases handled from recruitment strategy through to the green card, backed by more than twenty years in this area of the law.

Business Immigration & Compliance

L-1, H-1B, EB-1 and E-2 matters, and the firm's compliance practice, including employment eligibility verification.

Citizenship & Expatriation

Naturalization, and immigration planning integrated with tax planning for high net worth clients and their professional advisers.
03 / Recognition

Honors, memberships and speaking

Sarah's expertise is recognized by peer rankings, by bar association service, and by invitations to speak at conferences and seminars.
  • Best Lawyers
  • Lawyers of Distinction
  • The International Who's Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers
  • Order of the Coif, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
  • American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
  • AILA Annual Naturalization Day, site coordinator and volunteer
  • Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA), Immigration Section Council
  • Women's Bar Association of Maryland (WBA), Montgomery County Chapter
  • STEP Mid-Atlantic Webinar
  • Maryland State Bar Association Speaker Series: Immigration Consequences in Mergers & Acquisitions
  • ALI-CLE International Trust and Estate Planning Conference
  • Maryland State Bar Association Yearly Legal Summit
  • Knowledge Congress: Compliance Issues in the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9
  • Stafford Hiring International Workers Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Program
  • Knowledge Congress: Immigration and Compliance: What You Need to Know
  • ILW Seminar concerning I-9 compliance issues in an immigration setting
  • American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA): How BALCA Impacted PERM
Immigration planning that holds up next to the tax plan, the audit and the I-9 file.
04 / Credentials

Education and admissions

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law - Order of the Coif
Sarah graduated from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1991 with honors and was awarded the Order of the Coif. She earned a BBA degree from the University of Iowa in 1985.

She is a member of the District of Columbia and Maryland bars, as well as the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Prior to her immigration work, she was a prosecutor at the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1992 until 1996.

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