Professionals

Phone: ‭(646) 627-7157‬
Email: nhemrick@hemrick.law

Honors and Awards

New York Super Lawyers (2022-2023)

New York Super Lawyers Rising Stars (2015-2021)

Top Attorneys of North America 2015-16 edition of The Who’s Who Directories

AVVO 10 rating

Speaking Engagements

Continuing Legal Education, Walsh Pizzi O’Reilly Falanga LLP, 2022
Immigration Law: Humanitarian Immigration Options, Speaker

Continuing Legal Education, Law Library Association of Greater NY, 2022
Asylum: A Practical View, Speaker

Continuing Legal Education, Law Library Association of Greater NY, 2021
Immigration Law: Asylum, VAWA & T & U Visa, Speaker

AILA, New York Chapter Symposium, 2019
I-751 Issues Regarding Divorce, Discussion Leader

AILA Continuing Legal Education
Waivers: Fighting for Immigration Benefits After a Conviction, Fraud or a Prior Deportation Order and the Impact of the NTA Memo  //  Dec. 2018 (invited)

Continuing Legal Education
Immigration Options for Professionals  //  2018

AILA Continuing Legal Education
101 on Ethics is Practice Management   //  2016

Social Awareness Day
Immigration   //  2015

Brown Bag Lunch
Immigration Careers   //  2015

Continuing Legal Education
Immigration Remedies Available Now: Are You Prepared?  //
Waivers to allow for consular processing overseas  //  2013

Pre-law Event
Immigration Law  //  2012

The LGBT Center Immigration
Strategies for Winning Asylum by Overcoming Stereotypes in Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Based Claims  //  2011

Publications

Brooklyn Eagle   //  2012
Brooklyn attorneys eye immigration ‘surge docket’ to help unaccompanied minors

St. John’s Journal of Legal Commentary   //  2017
Voluntary Departure Post-IIRIRA: A Struggle Between Equitable Considerations Promoting Clemency Measures, and Statutory Considerations Tending Towards Oppression

Affiliations

American Immigration Lawyers Association  //  2014-Present

(AILA) CLE, Ethics, ICE & ERO and Practice Management Committees   // 2016–2018
Co-Chair for CLE Committee 2019-2023 // Co-Chair for Practice Management Committee // 2018 Co-Chair for NYC Symposium

New York State Bar Association   //  2011–2013

New York City Bar Association   //  2010–2012

Immigration and Nationality Committee   //  2012
Interim Secretary

Nicole Abruzzo Hemrick,
CEO and Managing Partner

Becoming an immigration attorney was a natural choice for Nicole. Having moved back and forth from the United States to Italy as a child, she relates intimately with the immigrant experience. As a result, she has always been drawn to helping others, fascinated by different languages and learning about different cultures around the world.

Nicole began her career in the role of Judicial Law Clerk in the New York, New Jersey, and Arizona Immigration Courts through the Attorney General’s Honor Program, helping immigration judges draft decisions. This role gave her great insight into the judicial process and has proven beneficial to her clients.

Subsequently, she worked in small and large boutique immigration firms, and volunteered at a nonprofit organization serving abused immigrant women.

Nicole provides professional and compassionate representation in all aspects of removal defense, family-based, and employment-based immigration matters. She has assisted businesses in obtaining H-1B (temporary worker), L-1A (intra-company transferee), and O-1 (extraordinary ability). She has also worked with religious organizations to obtain R-1 (religious worker) non-immigrant visas for their ministers, nuns and other occupations such as choir directors. She has also assisted individuals seeking to create their own companies in the United States to obtain E-2 (investor) nonimmigrant visa. As for Permanent Residence employment cases, she has won cases for businesses seeking to hire professional employees through the Labor Certification (PERM) process, for religious organizations requiring permanent Religious Workers, as well as foreign nationals who self-petitioned based on Extraordinary Ability and Exceptional Ability where their services benefit the United States through a National Interest Waiver.

In removal defense cases, Nicole has successfully represented clients in cancellation of removal, asylum, termination of proceedings and prosecutorial discretion. She is particularly passionate about asylum cases, as she believes in fighting for those who have been persecuted, whether for political or religious beliefs, race, nationality or sexual orientation. In addition to representing clients during their removal proceedings at the Immigration Court, Nicole has won numerous cases on appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Administrative Appeals Office, and U.S. Courts of Appeals.

In family-based cases, Nicole helps U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents through the process to petition on behalf of their foreign national relatives to either adjust status in the United States through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), or to obtain Immigrant Visas through U.S. Embassies and U.S. Consulates. She also represents abused men, women and children in self-petitions for green cards under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). For clients who have been found ineligible for green cards based on a fraud or misrepresentation, unlawful presence, or criminal history, Nicole provides representation in waivers of inadmissibility, demonstrating that their inability to obtain a green card would result in extreme hardship to their U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident spouses or parents. Where the USCIS has unreasonably delayed processing regarding immigration petitions and applications, Nicole has succeeded in obtaining final adjudication on such cases through litigation in U.S. District Courts.

In addition to tirelessly advocating for her clients, Nicole is a sought-after public speaker on immigration issues.

Education

  • St. John’s University School of  Law, Juris Doctor, 2007. Dean’s List, CALI Excellence Awards for Immigration Law, Immigrant Rights Clinic and National Security and the Law
  • Binghamton University Bachelor of Arts,  magna cum laude, 2003, Phi Beta Kappa

Admissions

  • State of New York
  • State of New Jersey
  • United States District Court for the Eastern District of New  York
  • United States District Court for the Southern District of New  York
  • United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
  • Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
  • Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit