As a shareholder in the Firm's Global Immigration Group, Ms. Walker provides strategic guidance and immigration counseling services to companies and their employees. These services include business immigration through investment and trade (E-1/E-2); labor certifications/PERM (including Special Handling and Supervised Recruitment cases); non-immigrant and permanent resident petitions for religious workers (R-1/I-360); Blanket L and individual international transferee programs (L-1), including new office L-1 petitions; specialty occupations (H-1B, TN, E-3) and multinational manager petitions (EB-1); naturalization applications; immigrant and non-immigrant visa processing; and other consular representations, including expedited processing through consular posts and USCIS. She has successfully challenged specialty occupation denials in federal court. Ms. Walker's work with individual clients includes not only employment-related filings, but numerous petitions for family-based immigration benefits through marriage or adoption, including experience in obtaining permanent residency for qualified individuals under provisions of VAWA and as victims of criminal activity through the U-visa classification. She has advocated on behalf of her clients to achieve resolution on unduly lengthy filings, including interacting with governmental liaisons and, in some cases, pursuing mandamus actions.
Ms. Walker is a skilled EB-5 immigration lawyer who has dedicated a significant portion of her practice to representing investors, working in collaboration with client representatives domestically and overseas to prepare clear and comprehensive funding documentation to overcome complex USCIS requests for evidence challenging both project-related and individual source of funds aspects of filings originated by others. She has a wide foundation of diverse I-526 and I-829 filing experience.
Prior to joining Baker Donelson, Ms. Walker was a law clerk to Chief Judge Curtis L. Collier in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. During her clerkship, she provided extensive research and drafting support on decisions resolving various federal and state employment claims under FMLA, FLSA, ERISA, Title VII, Title VI, and THRA. Ms. Walker worked as an immigration paralegal before attending law school and cultivated considerable experience in serving clients with their employment and family immigration issues during her years in this position.