Biography: Corporate Immigration

With 30 years in the practice of immigration law, David Hirson is a partner and co-manages the Irvine, California office of the world's leading corporate immigration law firm of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy. Additionally, Mr Hirson is the partner in charge of Fragomen's consular practice, which facilitates the processing of US non-immigrant and immigrant visa applications filed at US consulates and embassies worldwide. He has been certified as a specialist in immigration and nationality law, from the State Bar of California board of legal specialisation, for 20 years.

He manages immigration accounts for Fortune 500 companies; assists companies with start-up expansion, merger and acquisition relating to immigration law, compliance and case processing; retained by many high net worth individuals in their immigration related investments; files regional centre applications and individual green card applications for investors under the EB-5 Investor Visa category, and is considered an expert in this particular field. He has been involved with EB-5 cases since passage of the law in 1990; was present in the Senate in Washington DC when the EB-5 bill was marked up and Senator Biden, now Vice President Biden, was debating the proposed new law. In 1991, he personally prepared and filed one of the very first EB-5 cases with the INS (now USCIS). The case was approved. The same case was the first case to be consular interviewed and approved at the AIT in Taiwan.

He is a member of the Orange County Bar Association's immigration law section; the Los Angeles County Bar Association, immigration law section; the American Immigration Lawyers Association; co-chair of the committee on consular processing southern California chapter of AILA; chair of the committee on congressional liaison southern California chapter of AILA; member of the legislative committee of the IIUSA (Invest in USA), an EB-5 Regional Center trade and professional organisation.

David has published numerous articles on general immigration law and on corporate and investment immigration law, and is the author of the immigration chapter section of Corporate Compliance Practice Guide: The Next Generation of Compliance, LexisNexis 2009. He is recommended in The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers (corporate immigration); Southern California Super Lawyers, America's Best Lawyers, and Best Immigration Lawyers in United States by Best of the US, annually from 2006-2010; and Martindale Hubbell AV Rated for 15 consecutive years (1995-2010). He is recognised as one of the Top 50 Lawyers in Orange County (2007-2008); Orange Coast Top Attorney 2006, 2007 & 2010; Strathmore's Who's Who, professional of the year 2007; Strathmore's Who's Who, lifetime member; America's Registry, outstanding professional 2008-2009; and Madison Who's Who Registry of Executives & Professionals 2009 – 2010.

He is admitted to practice in California, the District of Columbia (inactive), the Law Society of Hong Kong, and South Africa (inactive). His court admissions include: the US Supreme Court; US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; US District Court, eastern District of California; US District Court, Central District of California, and US District Court, northern District of California. He was educated at the University of Witwatersrand, 1967.