University of New Mexico

Vrapi Weeks has a contract to provide immigration law services for the University of New Mexico and its affiliates (such as UNM Health Sciences Center, UNM Hospitals, UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center, UNM Medical Group, etc.). The Vrapi Weeks professionals that primarily handle UNM matters are Amber Weeks, Olsi Vrapi, and Rebecca Cordova.

Questions and Advice

  • If you are an administrator or HR professional at UNM and have questions about hiring a foreign national and the immigration work that that would entail, email unm@vrapiweeks.com with your questions.
  • If you would like to schedule a call you can do so here. Vrapi Weeks provides pre-hiring advice free of charge to UNM.
  • UNM employees who have questions about their own immigration status or the status of a family member have to go through the firm’s normal consultation process which can be scheduled here.

Starting a Matter

These are the steps to initiate a matter:

  1. Email unm@vrapiweeks.com and include the following information (feel free to copy and paste the list below in the email):
    • Name of the foreign national employee/prospective employee:
    • Job title:
    • Department name:
    • Contact person:
    • Benefit sought (i.e. H-1B):
    • Banner index number:
  2. Attach the following documents to the email if you have them:
    • Copy of passport bio page for foreign national
    • Copy of visa
    • Copy of all DS-2019s or I-20s they may have (if in J-1 or F-1 status)
    • Copy of any Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) or prior approval notices from immigration
  3. Vrapi Weeks will draft an Employment Agreement (EA) for immigration services and send it to the Office of University Counsel (OUC).
  4. OUC will forward the EA to the department administrator with instructions on how to execute it.
  5. Once the EA is executed by a department head or other UNM official who can commit university funds the responsible attorney at OUC will sign the EA and forward it to Vrapi Weeks.
  6. Vrapi Weeks staff will be in touch with the person in charge of the matter at the department with a request for further information and next steps.
  7. At the conclusion of the case, Vrapi Weeks will submit an invoice to OUC which then routes to the department for approval.  Once the department approves, OUC pays the invoice.

If you have questions about any of the above, please email unm@vrapiweeks.com.