Bob White, Co-Chair of the firm's Immigration practice, advises and works with companies from a variety of industries on all types of business nonimmigrant and immigrant visas (“green cards”) for their employees, managers and executives. He also represents and defends companies in U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) H-1B Labor Condition Application (LCA) audits, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Form I-9 audits, and advises on avoiding the penalties often incurred in these actions.
Bob was nominated as the 2022 Lawyer of the Year for Immigration – Chicago by Best Lawyers® national publication.
For the past 10 years, Bob has been re-appointed annually to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) National’s DOL Committee, and recently nominated as Chair of the Committee. As Chair, Bob will be focusing on issues encountered by other immigration attorneys and employers in the PERM program, the H-1B LCA program and the DOL Wage and Hour Division’s enforcement investigations in the H-1B program.
Bob was also Chair of the Chicago Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), a member of the AILA Board of Governors, a member of AILA National’s ICE Worksite Enforcement Committee, and Chair of AILA National’s Social Security Administration (SSA) Liaison Committee.
An immigration counselor for numerous colleges and universities, Bob has been a member of the leadership team of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA): Association of International Educators’ Region V for more than 15 years. He is currently Chair of NAFSA Region V which includes colleges and universities located in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. He was previously a Regulatory Liaison for NAFSA Region V and was responsible for responding to F-1, J-1, H-1B and PERM immigration policy and procedural questions from colleges and universities. He was also a member of NAFSA National’s Membership Engagement Committee (MEC).
Bob is a very active advocate for the reform of the U.S. immigration system and frequently travels to Washington, D.C. to meet with congressional representatives and their staff. Bob was also a member of the Immigration Reform Taskforce of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Bob routinely presents workshops at AILA and NAFSA conferences on how to successfully structure and process various immigration applications through the DOL, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Department of State (DOS). In addition, Bob has led seminars for the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses, Federal Bar Association, HR Source and the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association, and routinely conducts immigration seminars for human resource managers at manufacturing, technology and healthcare companies. He also regularly speaks on immigration topics at colleges, universities, trade and professional schools on how international students and faculty can properly maintain their status and obtain employment authorization.
Prior to joining the firm, Bob was an immigration assistant to the former U.S. Senator Alan J. Dixon, and established a business immigration practice in a suburban Chicago law firm.