“Ignorance of the law is no excuse and immigration law is no exception” is the theme of the two- day event organized at the Aahar Indian restaurant, Irving, TX as a part of a series of legal seminars hosted by the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) on Wednesday May 12 and 13th, 2010. TANA, founded in 1977, is one of the oldest and largest Indo-American national-level organizations with its charter to perpetuate, integrate, and assimilate the cultural heritage of the Telugu-speaking people of the North American continent into the mainstream of the cultural heritage of North America.

This program was co-hosted by the eknazar.com, the most comprehensive South Asian community portal serving local communities in over 51 US cities and IT Service Alliance, a collaborative organization with a mission to serve as a single voice and to safe guard interests of the IT Consulting and product development organizations.

Mr. Prasad Thotakura, Executive Vice President of TANA reiterated TANA’s continued focus on serving the Telugu community with result oriented programs and empowering a new breed of ambassadors to bring the community together. Mr. Satish Manduva, CEO of Intellisoft Technologies, Mr. Vinod Uppu, CEO of Alberg and Mr. Sudhakar Peram, CEO of Adept Computer Consultants administered the entire event both from an employer and employee perspective.

Mr. Satish Manduva in his introduction of the chief guest quoted “Attorney Ms. Kimberly Harrison is a partner and co-founder of Harrison Alo, Attorneys at Law. Kimberly holds both a Juris Doctorate degree from The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and a Master of Business Administration degree from OSU’s Fisher College of Business with a major in Finance and a minor in Real Estate Finance. As an undergraduate at Valparaiso University, Kimberly earned her Bachelor of Science degree, cum laude, majoring in Business Management with minors in International Business and Global Studies, as well as Theology.

Ms. Harrison has represented clients before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Board of Immigration Appeals. Through her expertise with a diverse range of clients and cases, Kimberly has developed astrong reputation in the legal community as an attorney who is extremely competent, highly-specialized, professional, and personable. In 2007, she was named a Rising Star in the field of immigration by Ohio Super Lawyers Magazine. The Daily Reporter newspaper and other publications have quoted Kimberly as an authority on immigration law issues, and she has been a speaker at several immigration law seminars, roundtables, and question and answer sessions”.

The first day agenda was designed for Employers where over 30 of them and their representatives attended the event in spite of the busy working day. Several topics of common importance, such as, Department of Labor audits, American Immigration Lawyers Association policy changes, wage related risks and changes associated with the new immigration reform bill were covered at length. Ms. Harrison entertained a wide variety of questions from the employers.

The agenda of the second day was focused mainly for the employees and the aspiring immigrants where over 50 of them were in attendance. A variety of current topics of great interest to the current Information Technologists, such as, H-1B consulate interview process, H1-B transfers, H4 additions, complexities of employee-employer relationships, consular visits, and employment based visa category conversions from EB-3 to EB-2 were elucidated by Ms. Harrison.

The two day seminar came to an end with the vote of thanks by Sudhakar Peram to the sponsors, Intellisoft Technologies, Alberg, Adept Computer Consultants, Aahar Indian restaurant, and the media partner TV-9, the audience for their attendance, volunteers who spent countless hours of valuable time, Aahar Indian restaurant for providing tasty food and excellent facilities and great meeting ambiance.