Mercedes Badia-Tavas

Practice Areas

M. Mercedes Badia-Tavas is a Partner at Barnes & Thornburg within the Labor & Employment department and U.S. Immigration & Global Mobility practice group. She has more than 30 years of experience exclusively in this area of law, including nine years managing her own firm. Currently, Mercedes provides legal and business guidance to clients on a broad range of U.S. immigration and global mobility issues, with a focus on Fortune 500 companies, smaller companies, and investors. Her knowledge, dedication and industry-proven resourcefulness stand as a testament to her dedication to her clients and their employees.

Career

Mercedes supports her firm’s offices and clients across various states on immigration employment visas, permanent residency and related up-to-date compliance with government requirements. Clients solicit her guidance for their corporate global mobility issues and requirements to sponsor foreign nationals for employment-based visas. Specifically, she advises on I-9 compliance, audits, investigations, training and policies for various entities, as well as due diligence for mergers and acquisitions and internal immigration program administration for practical implementation with business operations.

Mercedes’ clients have included executives, managers and critical employees for large and small companies with global operations, as well as physicians, professors and scientists at universities and research institutions. In the arts, she has successfully secured O-1 and P-1 visas and permanent residency for artists – including an Oscar-winning producer, champion racecar drivers and other athletes. She also has extensive experience with entrepreneurs in securing E1/E2 treaty visas of tech and manufacturing start-ups, and investors from Australia, China, India, Japan, Germany, other EU countries, Mexico and South America.

With a team of experienced paralegal and attorneys, she prepares employment-based immigration petitions (B, H, L, O, P, TN, E), PERM labor certification applications, EB-1 Extraordinary Ability, EB-1 Outstanding Researcher/Professor, EB-2 National Interest Waiver, EB-5 Investor and, the subsequent adjustment of status and consular processing cases and naturalization cases. She represented clients during the COVID-19 pandemic to navigate the complex and changing issues from the national interest exceptions (NIE) to the healthcare travel bans over the Schengen Area, UK and Ireland under the DHS/CISA guidance memo on critical infrastructure. She uses her legal skills with technical accuracy to represent, advocate, lobby and litigate when necessary. In addition, she has successfully managed global immigration matters for clients transferring personnel to overseas assignments through a network of local counsel.

Personal

As a child, Mercedes’ family left Cuba for Mexico and later settled in the southern U.S. Her background, upbringing and internships in Latin America and Europe engendered a tenacity, global education, commitment and cultural sensibility that she credits to deciphering complex issues with immigration and managing client needs.

Mercedes likes to give back by offering her services to the arts and community organizations. For arts organizations funded by the MacArthur Foundation and the Joyce Foundation, Mercedes offered her experience in receiving visa approvals and entry to bring culturally unique artists to the U.S.

Work Highlights

Mercedes has appeared on National Public Radio and Spanish-language broadcasts on immigration topics, many of which included audience call-ins. She served six years on the Executive Board of the America Immigration Lawyers Association - AILA, Chicago Chapter, and on several AILA National Government Liaison committees including the AILA/DOS liaison committee from 2020 to present day. She previously served as chair of the Chicago Chapter in 2017 when the first travel ban occurred, where she met with additional members at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago to assist travelers. National media sources have sought her commentary on immigration issues, including COVID-19-related policy changes, travel bans and legislation.