Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP

BAL is the partner firm with my company, so we have to use their service. They lied about the requirement of our case and kept us waiting for a few month now, and till would’t process the case. Stay away!

This firm is focused on high volume, and there’s less emphasis on quality. They treat their employees like sweatshop workers, and their customer service is crap. Go to a smaller firm for your business. They might be a little more expensive, but the quality will be worth the cost.

Completely terrible firm. In short — I started my work-​based EB2 green card petition with them because my large tech employer works with them. They were so slow and ineffectual that after I got married (to an American) I retained my own lawyer and filed everything myself.
I’ve worked with them through the initial stages of a work-​based EB2 green card application. They got me through the PERM phase — it took over a year, including much back and forth with their paralegal sorting out endless mistakes in the form preparation. I don’t even understand how this happens given all the endless forms I had to fill in myself.
By the time they were ready to file my work-​based petition (14 months after I started the process), I had returned from my honeymoon and decided to give up and file a family-​based petition. The family-​based petition with my own lawyer took less than 4 months from filing to green card in hand.
If you have the opportunity and the money to go somewhere else, I highly recommend it.

Pros:
1. They have a good website where you can upload all the documents and they dont ask you for the same document later
2. Status of the process can be viewed on the website
Cons:
1. Company itself. They went through 3 set of re org in past 4 months and my case got moved to three different teams
2. Very slow at responding to emails or questions. I waited for 3 months and 8 follow up emails to get them to answer my very simple question about my case
3. very slow with the process. It look them 4 months to draft a job description. We submitted all the documents in december and the job description was submitted for prevailing wages determination in may.
4. They are very sweet and optmistic on the phone but never responds to email or phone calls
5. There are others who are cheap and does great job in the market
use these to convince your HR or boss to not select them

I enjoyed working at this firm the equity partners are topnotch. They work hard (assumed a lot of risk) to build this business and international expansion has been good. With all organizations you have office politics, favoritism, unbalanced rewards, and high turnover.
Good hard working people have been let go, or left because they do not respect current C-​level management and moral is low. Operations and shared services needs to be overhauled, especially the international and domestic accounting teams, start with the leaders. In the last 18 months 50% of the US finance team have left BAL, and contractors do not want full-​time opportunities.
I would hope the equity partners revisit their executive staff — the chiefs are heavily compensated/​rewarded while the rest of the company does all the day to day work — lucky to earn a tiny bonus. Good luck BAL I’m still a fan and would consider using you for our Int’l immigration needs.

The intension of this review is not just an outlet for the bad experience I had working with Balglobal but to make others aware include balglobal that there is an issue with their quality of service. I won’t say everyone is a poor performer at the firm but some of para legal are not qualified. NOTE: If you a time sensitive situation/​issue, please be proactive search the web and just be aware of all the goof up’s that could happen as they will be happening to you… as you work with balglobal. They have big corporate accounts so eventually you will be dealing with them via your companies lawyer. Discuss internal with your companies lawyer about any unforseen issue that had happened with similar cases in the past and have a contingent plan ready. Hope other people read this and ask the right question to balglobal.

omg! don’t ever use this company! they are slow and can’t do anything right! i used them only because of my company. they should be out of business.

Well, if your employer chooses to hire them, you have no choice really.
This is the worst immigration law firm that I’ve dealt with. Super slow, impersonal and they couldn’t care less about my case or my immigration status. Its impossible to get a response from the lawyer handling the case. The para legal may choose to respond in a week or so. They took more than 8 months to file my PERM application and when it was audited they responded a date too late. They refused to share any of the rejection documentation with me. The appeal was denied and we wound up in BALCA. BALCA sent all details of the PERM application along with its history. That’s how I found out that these guys dropped the ball on my green card application. I switched employers and started my green card application all over again and lost nearly 4 years.

BAL is assigned to service my PR case by my employer (large IT company), I think they are professional in response to my questions and concerns, and following up the case closely. It helps to get my case done smoothly, including the trick part of porting of my PD from previous I-​140.
jia

I’d give 0 star if I can. The lawyers are sooooooooooo slow. I’ve sent them all documents required and after a month I don’t hear back a word. When I followed up with them, then they told me they need another letter. I sent the letter within 20 min. Then i was told to wait for another month for only a job description. How hard can it be??? A 150 words job description took 2 months to finish??? You got to be kidding me.
Unfortunately, that’s the law firm my company use. I got no other choice. If you have other choices, don’t use this one!

I must admit that I’m surprised at the terrible ratings, but I suppose it’s largely because most people don’t think to review (or look for) an immigration law firm on Unilocal.If you had a bad experience, you’re more likely to seek an outlet to voice your complaints.
That being said, I have experience working with several BAL attorneys and have always been impressed by their knowledge and expertise. There are a couple people who can be slow to respond to emails (and this IS a problem), but overall the service given is exemplary. If you have a problem with the strategy for a case, it’s important to discuss it with the attorney, but it’s important to remember that they have been doing this for decades and 99% they are suggesting the best course of action for your case.

the worst service ever!!! so slow !!! their lawyers are unknowledgeable, don’t know anything about the immigration process.
Be careful if you work with them. You should take care of yourself, and don’t believe in them; check documents carefully. Remember that you can fail, but they never fail and lose anything.

Most unprofessional job application process ever. Went in for a 3 hour interview, which I had to jump through hoops to make work for my schedule, and was told I’d hear back in a matter of days. After several weeks and multiple attempts to get in touch with my recruiting contact, I received a one sentence, stock response stating that I had not been hired. I understand not responding or being slow to respond to a general pool of applicants, but after taking up almost half of my day? Come on.

Try working there… Ugh. Surly it doesn’t get much better. Have to say though that some of the attorneys and LA’s /​Paralegals are wonderful. Can’t say that for the partnership (with one exception).

My employer works with them and I worked with BAL for my H1B and my greencard. I worked with two different BAL lawyers. Overall, my experience is just horrible.
For my H1B process, I worked with Jeff Appleman. He was not knowledgeable and advised me that an adjustment of status cannot be filed with a pending J1 waiver (so my wife and I should leave US until my H1B is approved). I hired an independent legal consultant who said my lawyer doesn’t know anything at all, and sent him a few things to read before making such false comments. Eventually, my H1B was filed without a problem, but I had to hire someone to teach my BAL lawyer to do the right thing. I am glad that I eventually suspected that Jeff was not knowledgeable enough and hired somebody else for double checking his legal advice, but in the meantime, I postponed our wedding ceremony based on Jeff’s advice, which has cost me a lot of money. So please tell me, what is worse than a lawyer that doesn’t know the right thing to do?
A year later I worked with another BAL lawyer, Petra Tang. She was irresponsible and unprofessional at best. She never responded my emails earlier than 3 – 5 days, even for simple questions that don’t require more than one sentence or only yes/​no type short answers. After bouncing around mails with her taking 3 – 5 days to respond on each round, we missed a deadline (which would cause significant delay in my green card process). I asked immigration team in my company what BAL’s service agreement is with us, the response is «24 hours, or 48 hours if the next day is holiday». I confronted my lawyer saying all our correspondence is via email and I have evidence that she violated the service agreement at least ten times. She said she is sorry, and she will respond timely in the future. Still, she failed to answer one very simple question: «If you are able to comply with your service agreement with my company, why didn’t you do that so far?» As I said, she is unprofessional at best.
If your company works with them, you might have to end up with BAL and you don’t have a choice, but if you have the choice, avoid them at all costs.

This company is still on the market only because works with corporations. Poor service and slow results.
They keep forgetting things and loose months over months.
Avoid this company if you are a private or small business.