Julie Aponte
As owner and Managing Director, Julie Aponte has successfully built and managed our business immigration firm for more than 20 years. Her successful practice includes representing employers of varying sizes, including a multinational employer with 145,000 employees. Julie provides strategic legal counsel for complex immigration matters for global multi-billion-dollar corporations and their professional and executive-level employees. Her extensive experience includes managing the high pace, high volume environment for business immigration services for multinational corporations with hundreds of immigration matters. Julie has had the honor of representing one multinational corporation with 70,000 employees for more than 26 years. Julie has mainly built her immigration law practice through networking and referrals.
Julie leads hundreds of clients in successfully securing nonimmigrant work visas, including H-1B, E-1/E-2, L-1, TN visa classifications and navigating the complexities of employment-sponsored permanent residence processes. Julie also directs clients in ensuring compliance with U.S. regulations pertaining to business immigration laws, including prevailing wage requirements, Public Access File compliance, Audit File compliance as well as assisting clients in establishing corporate-wide processes and policies. In addition, Julie’s experience includes creating a firm-wide process for conducting an unprecedented audit project for the firm thousands of Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification documents to ensure corporate compliance and mitigate possible government sanctions.
Her proactive strategies assist clients in achieving their goals of operational efficiencies and economic growth. Specifically, she prides herself in representing entrepreneurs in investing in U.S. start-ups through the E-2 Treaty Investor visa program. She has represented numerous business investors in obtaining E-2 Treaty Investor visas to develop their business ventures and start-ups in the U.S.
As business immigration law touches a variety of industries, Julie has experience representing clients involved in the engineering, financial services, retail, telecommunications, manufacturing, IT consulting, and health care industries.
Julie also represents hospitals with their employment-based sponsorship petitions for foreign graduate physicians and nurses. She assists them in achieving work authorization and permanent residence in the U.S. thereby directly benefiting industry shortage needs.
Early in her career, she gained experience with Fragomen Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP; Paul Hastings LLP (previously Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP); and Squire Patton Boggs (previously, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP).
Education
- Tulane University Law School, Juris Doctor, cum laude 1994
- Marquette University
- Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs and Economics with minor degree specializations in Mathematics and German, cum laude 1990
Bar Admission – Attorney License
- State of Illinois, November 1994 to present
Memberships
- American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), since 1995
- German American Chamber of Commerce
- Swiss American Business Council
- Marquis Who’s Who, Top Lawyers 2024: Recognized as Top Professional, an honor reserved for Marqauis listees who have achieved career longevity and demonstrated unwavering excellence in their chosen fields. https://marquistoplawyers.com/2025/01/13/julie-aponte/
- Marquis Who’s Who in America, 2024 – 2025
- Swedish American Chamber of Commerce
- Dutch American Chamber of Commerce
- French American Chamber of Commerce
Media
Certifications