William J. Benos

Bill Benos practices business immigration law and represents clients in international and domestic corporate and commercial transactions. As chair of the firm’s Immigration Practice Group, Mr. Benos combines his business and immigration experience to advise international clients with matters involving inbound and outbound investments and the movement of personnel.

Bill Benos practices business immigration law and represents clients in international and domestic corporate and commercial transactions. As chair of the firm’s Immigration Practice Group, Mr. Benos combines his business and immigration experience to advise international clients with matters involving inbound and outbound investments and the movement of personnel.

Mr. Benos has a broad range of international and domestic corporate and commercial experience. He has represented clients in mergers and acquisitions and assisted with the establishment of joint ventures in foreign countries. His commercial experience includes assisting clients expand their businesses through distribution, representative and franchising relationships, and licensing transactions. In the context of assisting foreign companies and persons with their inbound investment and immigration activities into the United States, Mr. Benos provides advice on the formation and capitalization of business entities, the coordination of immigration strategy with investment plans, and related tax planning matters.

Mr. Benos’ extensive experience in the immigration field includes representing business professionals with non-immigrant visas, intra-company transfers, and investor visas. He also assists businesses and individuals with immigrant visa and permanent residency matters, including expedited labor certifications, national interest waivers, employment-based petitions, and investment-based petitions. Mr. Benos has assisted several multi-national companies with the implementation of immigration programs to expedite processing times and reduce costs. In addition to representing clients with consular matters, he assists businesses with immigration compliance matters such as I-9 programs, ICE inspections, and corporate immigration policies.

As an associate adjunct professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, Mr. Benos teaches an externship in international business law and a course in immigration law. He regularly speaks about immigration and international topics, has taught international business law sessions at Virginia Commonwealth University, and authored a law review article entitled The Movement of Professionals, Technicians, and Other Workers Across NAFTA Borders. He participates as a speaker for the Society for Human Resource Management at the SHRM Global Forum and other programs. Mr. Benos is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and a past chair of the International Practice Section of the Virginia State Bar. Currently, Mr. Benos serves as a member of the Multi-Jurisdictional Practice Task Force for the Virginia State Bar. He also is a member of the Richmond, Virginia, and American Bar Associations and is fluent in the Greek language. Mr. Benos is chair of the local Community in Schools Committee. He has been thrice named one of Virginia’s “Legal Elite” by Virginia Business magazine. In 2004, Mr. Benos was appointed honorary consul by the Canadian government. The mission of the role is to help strengthen affiliations and build awareness of the importance of two-way trade and investment between Canada and Virginia.  Mr. Benos also serves as a legal advisor to the Illegal Immigration Task Force for the Virginia State Crime Commission.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Benos practiced in London, Ontario, Canada. Mr. Benos received his LL.B. degree in 1982 from the University of Western Ontario School of Law in London, Ontario, Canada and his juris doctor degree in 1988 from the University of Richmond School of Law.