Gary Chodorow is a China-based immigration lawyer. He has helped clients with U.S. visas, permanent residence, and citizenship matters for more than 20 years. Gary also is a founding member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Asia-Pacific chapter, co-chair of the American Chamber of Commerce-China’s visa committee, and adjunct professor at Chicago-Kent School of Law. He writes the Law and Border blog.
Gary has represented startups and Fortune 500 companies, Nobel Prize winners, high-tech companies, investors, EB-5 regional centers, symphonies, musicians, artists, athletes, hospitals and health care professionals, governments entities, diplomats, and many others facing complex immigration matters.
Gary often represents clients before the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the U.S. Consulates in Greater China (Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Taipei) as well as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices in the region. He also has extensive experience representing clients in Immigration Court, federal courts, and before the U.S. Department of Labor. And he is knowledgeable about the security and export control issues that arise in immigration cases.
Gary has authored a number of articles and book chapters on immigration law. His publications have been cited in testimony before the U.S. Congress and by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. He is also frequently called on to provide expert commentary on immigration issues for the media. Gary has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, CNN, USA Today, The Atlantic, National Review, Rolling Stone, Chicago Tribune, Southern California Public Radio (KPCC), The Telegraph, The Guardian, South China Morning Post, Voice of America, Vice Media, China Central Television (CCTV) News, China Radio International, BBC, and ARD (Germany).
Gary earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt Hall in 1993, after graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University in 1989. Subsequently, he was a partner in a Chicago law firm, where he practiced immigration law for 10 years. He has practiced law in China since 2004.
An adjunct professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Gary has also taught courses for Peking University, China University of Politics and Law, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Liaoning University, the Beijing Lawyers Association, and the Shanghai Lawyers Association.
Gary speaks Mandarin, Spanish, and English.
He is admitted to the State Bar of California. And he is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and currently Co-Chair of the American Chamber of Commerce-China’s Visa Committee.