With two decades of immigration law experience, Regina Knoll represents a diverse group of people and business entities.

Ms. Knoll’s experience includes representing U.S. and foreign companies spanning across all sizes and industries, start-up entrepreneurs, foreign investors, professionals, people of extraordinary ability in the arts, sciences, business, and education, religious workers, medical professionals, performers and athletes, and family members of U.S. citizens and residents.

Taking a collaborative and responsive approach to her immigration practice, Ms. Knoll works closely with client companies’ HR professionals, talent partners, corporate legal counsels, managers, and employees. Further, she assists with immigration matters pertaining to visits to the United States for business and pleasure, temporary and permanent employment, and study, training, and exchange in the United States.

Before joining HFM, Ms. Knoll founded and served as the principal attorney at the Law and Effect Group. Previously, she practiced immigration law at a San Diego-based immigration law firm and worked as in-house counsel at DiscTech, where she handled a variety of transactional matters in such areas as intellectual property law, contract law, employment law, and immigration law. Originally from Austria and a native German-speaker, she is one of the preeminent immigration attorneys for German companies with subsidiaries in Southern California and beyond.

Employment-Based Immigration

• Employer-sponsored immigrant petitions and adjustment of status (“green card”) applications, including Labor Certification Applications with the Department of Labor
• Petitions for foreign nationals with extraordinary abilities in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics (including employer-sponsored petitions and self-petitions)
• Petitions on behalf of outstanding professors and researchers, multinational managers and executives, and foreign nationals with advanced degrees
• National Interest Waiver petitions
• Employer-sponsored non-immigrant visa petition (temporary work visas), including visas for professionals, intra-company transferees, USMCA professionals, performers, artists, athletes, and religious workers
• O-1 extraordinary ability petitions, both employer- and agent-sponsored
• Visas and permanent solutions for foreign investors and treaty traders
• L-1 Blanket petitions
• Visas for trainees and interns, including H-3 and guidance with the J-1 visa process
• Alternative options to common visa solutions, including B-1 in lieu of H-1B and H-3

Family & Individual Immigration

• Marriage- and family-based immigrant petitions and adjustment of status (“green card”) applications, including spousal visas, fiancé(e) visas, and visas for certain relatives of U.S. citizens and residents
• Specialized attention in LGBTQ Immigration cases
• Petitions to Remove the Conditions on Residence
• Naturalization & Citizenship applications
• Diversity Visa (“visa lottery”)
• Visa petitions processed through U.S. Consulates and Embassies abroad
• Visitor visa applications

Immigration Support for start-ups & founders

Ms. Knoll enjoys working with innovators in science and technology and has extensive experience with strategic immigration solutions for start-up founders, entrepreneurs, and professionals in cutting-edge industries such as artificial intelligence, robotics, engineering, biotechnology, and other scientific and technological fields. She has a strong track record of success with complex visa categories, including O-1 visas for founders of extraordinary ability, self-petitioned EB-1 green cards, EB-2 National Interest Waivers (NIW), and investor visa options. Her practice is focused on helping innovative companies and talented individuals navigate the U.S. immigration system efficiently and effectively, offering tailored legal guidance that aligns with their business goals, investment strategies, and long-term immigration plans.

In her work, Ms. Knoll routinely interacts with officers and agents of U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, U.S. Customs & Border Protection, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, Department of Labor, Department of State, and State and local government agencies.

Ms. Knoll understands the importance of making the legal process as understandable and accessible as possible to her clients. She is well-versed in serving the complex needs of corporate clients of all sizes and backgrounds and in paying personalized attention to the immigration needs of individual clients.

Community Activities

• READ/San Diego Adult Literacy Tutor
• Jewish Family Services of San Diego Volunteer
• Sierra Club Chapter Outing Leader
• Rachel’s Women’s Center, Shelter and Services for Homeless Women
• San Diego Naturalization Collaborative, YouAreAmerica.org
• Mission Trails Regional Park, Cowles Mountain Trail Restoration Project