Silas Ruiz-Steele chairs Barley Snyder’s Immigration group. She has focused her practice exclusively on immigration and nationality law for more than twelve years, regularly counseling and assisting employers and their employees as well as private individuals in their immigration needs, including those skilled and highly trained in:

• The Sciences 
• Engineering
• Education
• Health Care
• Business
• The Arts

As a corporate immigration law counselor, Silas assists employers in a variety of industries including agri-business, manufacturing, and gaming and hospitality, among others, in devising successful immigration programs to meet their needs. She represents employers in securing non-immigrant work visas for new hires and permanent residence for permanent personnel; multi-national companies in transferring their executives, managers or individuals with specialized knowledge; universities with foreign-born faculty, researchers, and graduates; and entrepreneurs forming start-up companies or re-locating to the U.S. in securing treaty-based visas.

A frequent speaker and author on business immigration topics, Silas regularly hosts seminars on visa-related topics, immigration compliance and strategic planning. She provides guidance and training to corporate clients of all sizes, human resources professionals, supervisors and managers on worksite enforcement issues, IRCA compliance, I-9 employment verification matters, Social Security mismatch issues, and developing and implementing system-wide immigration policies and protocols.

In addition to her employment-based immigration work, Silas provides assistance in naturalization and family-based immigration matters including both immigrant visas (green cards) and non-immigrant visas (K1 fiancé(e)).

Silas is able to represent immigration clients in every jurisdiction of the U.S., handling matters before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Department of Labor and consulates worldwide.

Prior to joining the firm, Silas maintained her own immigration law practice, where she represented clients in matters involving Immigrant Visas through Adjustment of Status or Consular Processing, Temporary Work Visas such as those involving Treaty Traders and Investors, business visas such as B’s, F’s, H’s, L’s, O’s, and P’s, and naturalization. In addition, she provided guidance and training on employment verification procedures and immigration-related discrimination practices.

Having immigrated to the United States herself, Silas has personal experience with the complexities of the immigration process. With this experience in mind, she obtained her Juris Doctorate degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. She frequently presents at seminars and has served as an invited guest speaker for professional associations and organizations on topics such as I-9 compliance and employer sanctions, immigration risk management for employers, and nonimmigrant and immigrant visa options and strategies for businesses and individuals. Silas is a member of the Florida State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the Society for Human Resources Management. Silas is fluent in Spanish and French.