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Kate Kalmykov

Kate Kalmykov Co-Chairs the Immigration & Compliance Practice. She focuses her practice on business immigration and compliance. She represents clients in a wide-range of employment based immigrant and non-immigrant visa matters including students, trainees, professionals, managers and executives, artists and entertainers, treaty investors and traders, persons of extraordinary ability and immigrant investors.

Kate has deep experience working on EB-5 immigrant investor matters. She regularly works with developers across a variety of industries, as well as private equity funds on developing new projects that qualify for EB-5 investments. This includes creation of new Regional Centers, having projects adopted by existing Regional Centers or through pooled individual EB-5 petitions. For existing Regional Centers, Kate regularly helps to prepare amendment filings, file exemplar petitions, address removal of conditions issues and ensure that they develop an internal program for ongoing compliance with applicable immigration regulations and guidance. She also counsels foreign nationals on obtaining greencards through either individual or Regional Center EB-5 investments, as well as issues related to I-829 Removal of Conditions.

Kate also works with various human resources departments on I-9 employment verification matters as well as H-1B and LCA compliance. She regularly counsels employers on due diligence issues including internal audits and reviews, as well as minimization of exposure and liabilities in government investigations.

Contact:Read more about Kate Kalmykov

Effective today, April 22, 2015, the National Visa Center (NVC) in concert with the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou has begun issuing cancellation notices to individuals with scheduled immigrant visa interviews due to retrogression. This is a departure from the prior practice whereby individuals with scheduled immigrant visa interviews would have already been allocated an immigrant visa number, thus not subjecting them to retrogression. Individuals with recently scheduled immigrant visa interviews should check with their attorneys or legal representatives to ascertain whether a cancellation has occurred.

Individuals who receive a cancellation notice will be affected by retrogression. Accordingly, those individuals will have to review the monthly visa bulletin on this website to ascertain when their priority date is current. Once their priority date is current, they will be able to re-apply for an EB-5 immigrant visa. You can learn all about how to check your priority date here. Additionally the DOS maintains a “Priority Date Checker” which is an interactive form that will automatically populate the cut-off date applicable for you. Further information can be found here in English and here in Mandarin.
Continue Reading BREAKING NEWS – EB-5 Visa Retrogression Update: Guangzhou Consulate Cancelling Scheduled Immigrant Visa Interviews

众所周知，自2015年5月1日起，中国的EB-5移民签证申请将面临排期。在下文中我们将对排期宣布以来我们收到的问题进行回答。

1. 如果我的I-526 已经批准了，可是我的子女年龄可能会超龄该如何处理？出于移民的目的，我怎样做可以保持孩子的年龄不变？

国务院已经公布了指导意见，根据《儿童状态保护法案》，下列方式可以“冷冻”住孩子的年龄：

  • 递交DS-260申请；
  • 支付签证费；或
  • 向国家签证中心递交DS-230 申请。

请注意上述“冷冻”子女年龄的做法只是在《儿童状态保护法案》的范畴内有效。因此，最省时有效的办法就是收到I-526通知后立即用银行本票来支付签证费。所有在2015年5月1日前收到I-526批准通知的人都会收到签证费通知单，因此他们都有机会“冷冻”住子女的年龄。

2. 如果我的I-526申请在2015年4月30日或之前获得批准，但是我还没有收到签证费通知单，该如何处理？

美国国务院签证控制和披露处负责人Charles Oppenheim在“赴美投资”会议上指出2015年4月所有获得批准的I-526申请的签证通知单都会被寄出。因此，如果您的子女可能会超龄，请立即联系我们。出于申请移民的目的，我们会采取一些措施尽量保持孩子年龄不变。
Continue Reading 针对中国EB-5绿卡申请人排期的常见问题及解答

This post was updated April 22, 2015

As you may know, the EB-5 immigrant visa category will retrogress beginning May 2015. Below is a guide to the frequently asked questions we have been receiving since the announcement of retrogression.

1.      What if I have a child who may age-out but my I-526 Petition has been approved? How can I preserve my child’s age for purposes of immigration?

The DOS has issued guidance that the following can freeze a child’s age for the purposes of the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA):

  •  Submission of the DS-260;
  • Payment of the visa fee; OR
  • Submission of a DS-230 to the NVC;

It is important to remember each of those activities listed above will freeze a child’s age for CSPA purposes. Thus, the most cost effective and less timely method is payment of the visa fee bill by cashier’s check as soon as an I-526 Petition approval notice is received. As noted immediately below, all applicants who have received approval of their I-526 Petitions before May 1, 2015, will be issued a fee bill (even past the May 1 cut-off date), thereby enabling those applicants with age-out children to freeze their children’s age for purposes of immigration.
Continue Reading Retrogression FAQs for Chinese EB-5 Based Green Card Applicants

Matt GalatiGreenberg Traurig attorney, Matthew Galati, recently presented at the AILA Philadelphia Chapter’s 2015 CLE Conference.  Galati provided an overview of pending legislation, discussing AILA’s platform, and outlining the benefits…
Continue Reading Greenberg Traurig Presents at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Philadelphia Chapter

Each month, the Department of State (DOS) issues a visa bulletin which contains information regarding the availability of immigrant visas. The availability of immigrant visas is subject to numerical caps imposed by Congress, which limit how many foreign nationals may obtain immigrant visas each year. In the employment based green card category Congress allots 140,000 immigrant visas (green cards) to be issued annually. The employment-based categories are subdivided into five preference categories:

  • EB-1: Priority Workers (Extraordinary Ability, Outstanding Professors and Researchers, and Multinational Managers or Executives)
  • EB-2:  Professionals Holding Advanced Degrees and Persons of Exceptional Ability
  • EB-3:  Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Unskilled Workers
  • EB-4:  Certain Special Immigrants including Religious Workers
  • EB-5:  Immigrant Investors

No one country in each of the five categories is allowed to exceed more than 7 percent of the category per the requirement of 8 U.S. Code § 1153.Continue Reading What Every Chinese EB-5 Applicant and Agent Need to Know About Retrogression

美国国务院每个月都会公布包含移民签证发放名额信息的签证公告。移民签证名额取决于国会制定的限额，即每年外国人可以获得移民签证的名额上限。在基于雇佣关系的绿卡申请领域，国会每年会发放140，000个移民签证（绿卡）。基于雇佣关系的绿卡申请又分为五个优先领域：

  •  EB-1: 优先工作者（特别杰出的能力，优秀的教授和研究人员，跨国公
  •       司经理或高 管）
  •  EB-2:  拥有高等学历的专业人员和有特殊能力的人才
  •  EB-3:  技术工人，专业人员，以及非技术工人
  •  EB-4:  一些特殊移民包括宗教工作者
  •  EB-5:  投资移民

根据美国法典第8章第1153节的规定，任何一个国家的移民申请人不得超过任何一个领域的总名额的7%。Continue Reading 中国EB-5投资人面临排期过程中美国国务院签证公告的运作方式解读

Greenberg Traurig’s EB-5 team attended the 2015 Invest in America Summit events in Shanghai from March 14-16 to kick off the largest U.S.-themed investment conference and exhibition in China. In celebration of the event’s fifth anniversary, the Summit will travel to three Chinese cities: Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing.

Invest in America welcomed U.S. investment projects, regional centers, real estate brokerage firms, franchises, private equity and venture capital companies, financial services, attorneys, CPAs, international trade agencies, government officials, and colleges to participate in exhibitions and presentations. The Summit provided information to investors and business executives who were eager to learn more about investment and business opportunities in the United States.

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Greenberg Traurig Attorney Kate Kalmykov welcomes the 2015 Invest in America guests at the opening ceremony on March 14, 2015, in Shanghai.

Continue Reading Greenberg Traurig Welcomes Guests at the 2015 Invest in America Summit

On March 7-8, 2015 Greenberg Traurig, LLP served as co-hosts of the third annual U.S. Investment Immigration Forum (USIIF) in Shenzhen, China.  The event brought together over 70 migration agents, regional centers and attorneys to discuss the latest updates in EB-5 including the issues in source of funds processing for Chinese nationals, status of the Regional Center Pilot Program reauthorization on Capitol Hill, as well as a report from migration agents regarding the Chinese investment climate.  Kate Kalmykov delivered a keynote address on the topic of EB-5 visa retrogression which discussed the impending backlog, the process for pending cases when retrogression is imposed, and alternative solutions for eligible Chinese applicants to process for their immigrant visa.  Immigration attorneys Laura Reiff, Jennifer Hermansky and Kate Kalmykov also served as panelists over the course of the two days on various panels related to hot topics in EB-5.  Securities attorney Batya Goodman participated on the securities law panels and discussed the importance of proper disclosure in the drafting of EB-5 project-related private placement memorandums, broker/ dealer issues, and due diligence concerns.  The event was co-hosted by the Shenzhen Cable TV company and was televised to millions of viewers across China.

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Greenberg Traurig attorneys Jennifer Hermansky, Batya Goodman and Kate Kalmykov at the USIIF 2015 Conference in Shenzhen. Hermansky, Goodman and Kalmykov presented on various EB-5 topics throughout the day.

Continue Reading Greenberg Traurig Co-Hosts U.S. Investment Immigration Forum 2015 Conference in Shenzhen, China

Greenberg Traurig attorneys, Kate Kalmykov and Laura Reiff, were honored to receive the award for “Best Contribution to EB-5” by the U.S. Investment Immigration Forum during its conference…
Continue Reading Greenberg Traurig’s Kate Kalmykov and Laura Reiff Receive ‘Best Contribution to EB-5’ Award at US Investment Immigration Forum Conference