Arsen V. Baziyants

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There are many factors affecting the outcome of one’s immigration case. We have little to no control over some of them. 

Among such factors, for example, are possible biases or prejudices of government officials deciding your case. Their worldview – and the flexibility or inflexibility with which they are tied to it – will affect the way they will see the facts in your case, apply the law or assess your credibility.  

The government’s decisions to grant or deny an immigration benefit – be it a visa, ability to stay in the U.S. permanently or even U.S. citizenship – is sometimes made rashly (within minutes) and carelessly, based a distorted view of what is being presented in the record. This means merited cases can be denied (and, presumably, meritless cases can be approved).   

Many decisions on immigration petitions are made anonymously by bureaucrats at a USCIS office thousands of miles away from you. Those government employees will not see you or even talk to you on the phone, but they will be deciding a matter as important as your future in the United States. We definitely have no control over this anonymity factor simply because, for better or worse, the system is just so set up.  

There are various and many factors that can impede any lawyer’s ability to bring about a specific result and within a specific timeframe. Competent and caring professionals will certainly strive to do great work for their clients, but ethics require a sober view of what can and cannot be accomplished or promised without setting unreasonable expectations in a client’s mind. This is why legal ethics in general prohibit guaranteeing success or specific outcomes. Even that which can be accomplished is subject to inherit uncertainties, especially in such a complex and ever-changing area of law as immigration.

Originally from Armenia, I am an immigrant myself. I first came to America in 1996. I came alone, was only 17 years old at the time and, of course, I had to overcome my own share of immigration challenges.    

A Las Vegas resident since 1996, I have been working in the field of immigration law here in Las Vegas since 2001. In the early 2000s I worked as a paralegal for a number of law firms in Las Vegas. Even when I was a law student in New York I continued to work for some of those Nevada law firms remotely. 

From the first day of law school I knew what I wanted to do: return to Las Vegas and open my own immigration law office.

I became an immigration lawyer in 2008 - the year I was admitted to the Nevada State Bar and opened my law practice 

Today, more than 26 since my first arrival to the United States, my experience as an immigrant serves me as an immigration lawyer as it allows me to truly connect with immigrants and their families I help. My clients come from all corners of the world but when it comes to discussing their immigration related issues we really speak the same language and they do not need to explain to me the importance of succeeding in their immigration case. 

Once one of my customers mentioned in his online review how the work of an immigration lawyer is no less important than that of an airline pilot. Indeed, some of the immigration journeys on which I “travel” with my clients are long, exhausting and certainly not without occasional turbulence. Yet time and again, when my clients and I successfully arrive at our destination we find ourselves in that blissful moment filled with relief, joy and excitement. That moment is clearly a huge part of why I do what I do.