Attorneys

JAMES D.EISS
James D. Eiss is a native of Western New York. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree at Houghton College and received his Juris Doctorate cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Faculty of Law Jurisprudence.
Mr. Eiss’s interest in the field of immigration law began when he was hired as an officer with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He began his career as an Inspector with the INS in 1972, and also served as an Examiner, and as a Naturalization Examiner.		 James D. Eiss
Mr. Eiss left the INS to attend law school and received his degree in 1988. He began practicing as a lawyer in 1989 after admission to the New York State Bar. With his background in immigration he began working at a WNY law firm that limited its practice to customs and immigration law. He was made a partner at this firm in 1990.

Current Practice

In 1998, Mr. Eiss formed his own law firm located in Buffalo, New York. He continues to limit his practice to the Immigration field, with a particular concentration in business immigration. One of his main interests is dealing with problems relating to entries under the North American Free Trade Agreement. He has gained a national reputation as an immigration lawyer who can assist Canadians who have been denied TN visas, especially computer professionals who do not have a four-year degree. He also assists Canadian businesspersons to use NAFTA effectively to obtain the proper work visas. Mr. Eiss is practiced in obtaining H-1B visas for “Specialty Workers,” including but not limited to college professors. His office routinely processes Labor Certification applications for a wide variety of people, including Labor Certifications using “special handling” for university professors.

Mr. Eiss served a two year term as Chair of the Upstate New York Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association (AILA) and as a member of the AILA National Board of Governors. He is a co-author of Practice and Procedure under the North American Free Trade Agreement, published by AILA, and speaks regularly at national and international conferences on Immigration. Mr. Eiss served as the first Co-Chair of AILA’s Northern Border Issues Committee, which was set up to deal with problems unique to Canadians, and continued to serve on this committee for several years. He was also a member of AILA’s INS Enforcement Liaison Committee.

Mr. Eiss also speaks regularly at the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors Conferences and the State University of New York’s Personnel Conferences, updating the Human Resources Departments on changes in immigration.

Mr. Eiss has Martindale-Hubbell's highest rating of AV.

DANIELLE RIZZO
Danielle Rizzo received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature, summa cum laude, from Houghton College in 2001. She began working as a Paralegal for the Law Offices of James D. Eiss in June of 2001, shortly after graduation, and continued to work in that capacity while attending law school at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She then received her J.D. in May 2006 and joined the Law Offices of James D. Eiss as an Associate Attorney in February 2007, after admission to the New York State Bar. Danielle Rizzo
Ms. Rizzo also limits her practice to immigration law, and focuses primarily on employment-based nonimmigrant and immigrant visas. She has co-authored several articles on immigration law issues with James Eiss, including an article on R-1 admissions at the Canadian Border in Immigration Options for Religious Workers published by AILA in 2005; an introduction to Immigration Practice Under NAFTA and Other Free Trade Agreements published by AILA in 2006; and an article on documenting ability to pay for immigrant religious workers in AILA’s 2006-2007 Immigration and Nationality Law Handbook.