Carrie M. Ziegler Thomas

Carrie is an experienced employment-based immigration attorney. She assists clients from a range of industries in meeting their U.S. immigration needs, and provides sound, actionable counsel to help companies navigate any challenges that arise. Carrie drafts nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions, including H-1B, L-1A, L-1B, Blanket L Certification, TN, O-1, E-1, E-2, E-3, and J-1 waiver documents, PERM applications, and U.S. permanent residence petitions such as EB-1, EB-2, EB-3 and EB-5. She also works with companies on worksite compliance issues such as immigration site visits, internal I-9 audits and best practices, E-Verify use, and responding to Social Security no-match letters.

Before joining the firm, Carrie was a partner in the business immigration practice of another Milwaukee-area firm. Earlier in her legal career, Carrie was an associate with two local law firms.

Solutions in action

• Worked with foreign investors to file EB-5 green card petitions for direct investments in new businesses, helping to solve complex source of funds issues.
• Successfully filed O-1 extraordinary ability petitions for innovative engineers and talented artists, such as coach builders.
• Partnered with companies to find creative hiring solutions, including temporary need and long term planning, to fill staffing needs.
• Worked with several companies during a business merger or acquisition to analyze the immigration effect of the corporate change and prepare the necessary documents to minimize the impact on employees.
• Counseled companies in an increasingly strict immigration adjudication climate to strengthen petitions and strategize ways reduce Requests for Evidence.
• Successfully litigated federal cases of delayed or incorrectly denied USCIS petitions.