Kellie E. MacDonald
Kellie practices employment-based immigration law, working with employers and employees to develop and implement solutions for short and long-term immigration needs. Her work focuses on temporary employment-based processes, including petitions for H-1B, L-1, E-3, and TN nonimmigrant workers, waivers for J-1 nonimmigrants, including Conrad 30 and Interested Government Agency applications and J-1 recipients of government funding, and employment-based permanent residence processes.
Kellie has particular expertise developing immigration solutions for individuals with extraordinary and exceptional ability in the sciences and business, including O-1 nonimmigrant petitions, EB-1 petitions for outstanding researchers and individuals with extraordinary ability, and EB-2 National Interest Waivers. She provides counsel and support for companies of all sizes on compliance issues relating to Labor Condition Applications, Forms I-9, and immigration issues and considerations arising out of corporate mergers and acquisitions.
Kellie is a frequent speaker on immigration law for the Maine bar and is active in pro bono work, including individual pro bono representation and the firm’s strategic pro bono partnerships.
Prior to joining Pierce Atwood, Kellie worked in immigration legal services at Catholic Charities’ Refugee and Immigration Services in Boston, Massachusetts, and at the American Friends Service Committee’s Immigrant Rights’ Program in Newark, New Jersey. In these roles, she gained extensive experience in removal defense, asylum, “crimmigration” issues, immigrant detention, and immigration appeals.
After graduating law school, she was awarded an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellowship, a competitive immigration law fellowship for new attorneys practicing deportation defense. During law school, Kellie was a student attorney with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, the oldest student-run legal services office in the country.
- Recognized for pro bono service through the Katahdin Counsel Recognition Program (2024)
- Recipient, Pierce Atwood Scribner Firm Impact Award, for working to keep pro bono and community service top-of-mind in the firm (2023)
- Included in The Best Lawyers in America® “Ones to Watch” for Immigration Law (2021-present)
- Member, American Immigration Lawyers Association
- Frequent speaker on immigration-related topics, including regular speaking engagements for the Maine State Bar Association and Pierce Atwood client webinars
Practice Areas
- Partners with clients of all sizes and in industries ranging from biomedical research to healthcare, engineering, and information technology to obtain approvals for nonimmigrant visa petitions filed with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (H-1B, L-1A, L-1B, O-1, TN, E-3, R-1) for foreign workers with qualifying US employment offers.
- Provides guidance on the best available immigration options and strategies, assisting throughout all stages of the employment-based permanent residence process for extraordinary individuals, intra-company managers and executives, as well as advanced degree and skilled workers.
- Provides eligibility assessments and obtain approvals for "extraordinary ability" foreign workers, including O-1 petitions and EB-1 extraordinary ability permanent residence processes, as well as “outstanding research” EB-1 permanent residence processes.
- Provides eligibility assessments and obtain approvals for National Interest Waiver green card processes.
- Advises and supports employers and employee with port of entry nonimmigrant processes, including TN and L-1 processes.
- Assists employers with Fiscal Year H-1B lottery petition consultations, petition processing and identifying and advising on "fall back" options if petitions are rejected in the FY H-1B lottery.
- Counsels employers around F-1 compliance issues relating to CPT, OPT, and STEM OPT work authorization and maintenance of status issues related to F-1 employment.
- Provides eligibility assessments and obtain approvals for J-1 waiver applications, including “no objection” waivers and Conrad 30 waivers for physicians.
- Provides comprehensive support to healthcare clients in recruiting and sponsoring professionals in healthcare-related fields. Advises on and manages immigration processes for physicians, including J-1 Conrad 30 waivers, cap-exempt H-1B petitions, National Interest Waivers, EB-1 extraordinary ability petitions, and PERM labor certification for permanent residence. Also assists with immigration strategies for registered nurses (TN, Schedule A, and other pathways) and other healthcare professionals.
- Partners with clients in creating and customizing immigration policies and internal templates to facilitate consistent and efficient support and sponsorship of employment-based immigration processes.
- Supports employers on employment verification developments and best practices (Form I-9 and E-Verify) and other issued relating to the hiring process.
- Provides up-to-date guidance to employers relating to impact of recent immigration developments, including new employment-immigration related statutes, regulations, and Executive Orders.
- Supports family-based permanent residence processes at the request of corporate clients for employees for whom the family-based permanent residence option is available.
- Supports naturalization processes at the request of corporate clients for employees eligible for naturalization.
- Advises and supports employers and employees navigating the implications of criminal arrests and convictions on immigration processes (“criminal-immigration”).
- Has extensive prior experience in removal defense and immigrant detention issues before the U.S. immigration courts, including successfully representing clients applying for release from detention and relief from removal, including defensive applications for asylum, withholding of removal, protection under the Convention Against Torture, cancellation of removal, and termination of removal proceedings.
- Successfully represented noncitizen clients in appeals before the USCIS Office of Administrative Appeals and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).