Practice Areas: PERM; EB-1; NIW; EB-5 immigrant visas; H, L, E business visas; and, Chinese Law.

Attorney Jian Joe Zhou is a co-managing attorney of the firm and the manager of the firm’s New York City offices.  With more than 20 years of experience in employment and business immigrant visa petitions, as well as non-immigrant worker visa practice, Joe emphasizes offering a total legal solution designed for each client based on his or her particular situation. 

Since joining the firm in 2000, Joe has gained expertise in employment-based immigration issues at both the individual and corporate level. He has handled more than one thousand cases in EB-1, NIW, and PERM based EB-2/EB-3 immigrant visa petitions, as well as H-1B, L and E non-immigrant worker visas petitions. Joe also offers legal solutions to clients with immigration problems related to merger and acquisition (successor in interest), job transfers, layoffs, and USCIS Requests for Additional Evidence (RFE).  He also provides advisory services in J waiver cases.

With successful experience in several hundred Labor Certification (PERM and RIR) cases, Joe is one of the nation’s foremost experts in the new area of PERM cases. He was among the first immigration attorneys nationwide to successfully manage to get PERM petitions certified, and has won several challenging appeals of DOL-denied PERM cases.  As leader of the firm's PERM legal team, he has developed a set of PERM petition protocols that help employer petitioners navigate through the complex PERM compliance process.

Joe also offers sophisticated legal solutions to Chinese clients in EB-5 investor visa cases.  In the recent years, Joe successfully assisted many clients in complicated EB-5 initial filing and in I-829 removal of condition cases after they encountered challenges from the USCIS.  With a profound understanding of both local business practices and the legal system in China, Joe offers clients valuable advice in avoiding legal defects in the processing of documentation for legitimate assets, as well as streamlining the path of investment capital.  He has assisted in both EB-5 Regional Center cases as well as direct investment cases. 

Finally, Joe offers clients comprehensive legal solutions in cross-border transactions, with a particular focus on transactions related to China. He has assisted clients in corporate reconstruction, merger and acquisition, licensing and franchising, administrative registrations, trademark and copyright application, intellectual property licensing, business strategies, and commercial arbitration and litigation.

Prior to his legal profession, Joe was a professional sports sailor, and received medals at the China National Sailing Championship. He has also received several best player awards from various soccer leagues.  In the recent years, Joe becomes an active player in United States Tennis Association (USTA) Leagues.

Education: 

   Doctor of Juris Science (SJD), University of Wisconsin Law School
   Master of Law (LLM), University of Wisconsin Law School
   Master of Legal Institution (MLI), University of Wisconsin Law School
   Master of Law (LLM) study (1995-1997), East China University of Politics & Law 
   LLB in International Economic Law, East China University of Politics & Law 

Affiliations and Activities: 

   Member, American Immigration Lawyers Association 
   Volunteer Legal Counsel for Community Legal Service of Chinese Christian Herald Mission Group 

Language: 

   Fluent in English and Chinese

Selected Publications: 

   - “Judicial Intervention on International Arbitration: A Comparative Study on the Application Scope of the New York Convention in the United States and China,”The Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal, Volume 15, Number 2, 403-456 (June 2006) 

   -“Arbitration Agreements in China: Battles on Designation of Arbitral Institution and Ad Hoc Arbitration,”    Journal of International Arbitration, 23(2) 145-170, 2006 (Kluwer International, Hague, the Netherlands) 

   -“National Treatment in Foreign Investment Law: A Comparative Study from a Chinese Perspective,”10 Touro International Law Review 39-153 (Spring 2000) (available in Westlaw and LexisNexis)

   -“China's Accession to the World Trade Organization,” Occasional Papers Series of The East Asian Legal Studies Center 98-4(University of Wisconsin, 1998)

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