Liz is in Greece for a well-deserved vacation. Here she is on Milos Island, a small, volcanic island located off the coast of the Greek mainland in the Aegean Sea. It is known as the “Island of Colors” for its colorful rock formations. It is also known as the “Island of Lovers” because it is where the world-renowned Venus de Milo statue depicting Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, was discovered. Visitors, like Liz, can explore its many diverse beaches, snorkel, sail, kayak, or windsurf before catching a breathtaking sunset near the Greco-Roman marble theater, one of the only ancient Greek theaters with an elevated view. Or, like Liz, you can just hang out on big rocks overlooking the sea! Ever since Liz was young, she has had a joke with her father about standing on the edge of a cliff and appearing rather precarious, but in reality being completely safe. This is her Greek version. Be careful, Liz!
Happy Birthday, Lizzie B!
In a heroic act that typifies Lizzie B as a person, she thoughtfully held up the candle to avoid spreading her bad chest cold to everyone when she blew it out. That's just the kind of person she is. She then retreated to her office with a bottle of wine. It's okay, she was done with work for the day.
Corporate Snacks
Lizzie B and Ashley enjoying the corporate snacks in between intense PERM discussions.
Lizzie B Climbed a Volcano
Now that Lizzie B is a partner at the firm, she can do pretty much anything, including climbing volcanoes. Here she is at the Villarrica Volcano, one of Chile's most active volcanoes.
My Best Summer Family Vacation
August is traditionally the time for summer vacations (I’m personally of the opinion that all American businesses should take a cue from Europe and shut down for the month—that’s cool with you, Protima, right?). And who doesn’t love a good family summer vacation--full of bonding, fun, love, and siblings fighting each other in the backseat during those excruciatingly long car rides. We therefore asked D&B staff to share their best summer family vacation stories. – Joseph McKeown
Matt Bray, Attorney
I went with the extended family on my mom’s side to Cape May, NJ--I was probably about ten or eleven. We all--five full families--stayed together in a big house (which itself was a step up from previous years’ vacations spent at campgrounds on the Jersey Shore). All the kids--the cousins--performed for the adults. We wrote original plays and lip-synced and did routines to some family favorites (including The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”). I also remember the dunes and grass and walking to the beach in beautiful weather. And getting a hermit crab (which I later killed by leaving in the house during an extermination).
Elizabeth Brettschneider, Attorney
My best family vacations growing up were when my parents, my brother, and I went to Maine. I remember lots of messy lobster eating with the plastic bib around my neck and my fingers covered in butter. On one particular summer trip to Maine when I was about eleven years old, the family drove up Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park and then went for a walk around the paths on top. There are many scenic overlooks and we posed for photos. My dad was getting nervous that my brother and I were too close to the edge so of course I took advantage and started posing on what looked like a dangerous precipice (but really wasn’t) while balancing on one leg. A photo of this shenanigan was snapped and now this practice has become a family tradition. Even into adulthood I continue to send my father photos of myself balancing on the edge of what looks like a cliff.
Exciting Improvements to I-94 Portal
On its one-year anniversary of the new electronic I-94 system, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) decided to make a few changes. Overall, we think these are great but have noted a few hiccups. (See Ashley's post for more information on the original I-94 portal).
CBP has eliminated several of the information fields that previously had to be completed in order to view and print the I-94 information. Foreign nationals no longer need to fill in their most recent date of entry to the US or their class of admission. The new electronic system automatically pulls up this information on its own. While this is great from a time-saving perspective, it does make us a bit nervous (sorry, CBP). When looking up and printing I-94s, we will be checking very carefully to ensure all the information is correct.
A second new feature of the electronic I-94 system includes the option to obtain a list of foreign nationals’ trips to and from the US. This is incredibly useful to foreign nationals who need to list their last five trips to the US when completing a DS-160 or who need to count their days spent in the US for tax purposes or to recapture time on an H-1B or L-1.
Undaunted, our own Lizzie B. tested the system. She reports: “I just tried finding an I-94 and got an I-94 record from 2013 instead of the most recent entry from April of 2014! I called CBP and they said that many people are having the same problem. They are having systems maintenance issues but it should be fixed ‘in a few days.’” We have also noted that the travel history may not include each and every trip a foreign national has taken to the US so again we will be checking all information very carefully. We imagine that in a few days when these hiccups have been fixed and the system is working well, we will find these new changes incredibly helpful.
The Joy of H-1B Cap Season
Lizzie B. takes a short break after a month of preparing H-1B cap cases. April 1st is the first day to file, folks, and it looks like the cap will be reached that day.
Elizabeth Brettschneider: The DLG-Proust-Actors Studio Questionnaire*
Born and raised in the tiny town of Columbia, Connecticut (next to where Ashley Emerson grew up. Their mothers also go to the same gym, they discovered at the holiday party two years ago), Elizabeth Brettschneider comes from a long line of Connecticutters. She knows they’re called Connecticutters because one summer she worked for the State of Connecticut’s Department of Travel and Tourism (“All day I asked for people’s addresses so they could be sent a travel brochure about Connecticut,” she says). She had a “happy and relatively uneventful” childhood, which might partly explain her bubbly and persistently optimistic personality (seriously, I’ve never seen her in a bad mood).
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