Maria Celebi’s Profile:

California State Bar 1992
Juris Doctor Santa Clara University Law School, 1992

Head of Labor and Immigration law group at Bener Law Office.

Vice Chair of Rome District Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers’Association and Co-Chair of Immigration International Practice Group for Ius Laboris.

Member of American Business Forum Turkey and author of a white paper for ABFT regarding Turkish work permit issues for corporate members.

Guest lecturer on Refugee law for the Refugee Legal Assistance Program of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey.

Current non U.S case-work includes managing team of attorneys servicing corporations with their Turkish labor laws needs. The team particularly assists multinational companies in Turkey with their labor law and corporate immigration needs.

Current US immigration related case-work includes: processing of immigrant and non immigrant visas through the Istanbul consulate and Ankara Embassy; filing of waivers with the Athens Citizenship and Immigration Services office; processing of Iranian and Iraqi cases through local posts; filing of Advisory Opinions with the U.S. Department of State, Reconsideration Requests of Expedited Removal Orders.

Prior to practicing in Istanbul, Ms. Celebi practiced for ten years with Van Der Hout, Brigagliano and Nightingale in San Francisco, a boutique firm specializing in U.S. immigration law. Ms. Celebi was lead attorney representing companies and a labor union with their immigration needs and worked on many cases at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, as well as all aspects of U.S. immigration law.

Additionally, Ms. Celebi has lived and worked in Hong Kong, China where she also had accounts of life in China and Hong Kong published. Ms. Celebi is a longtime expatriate in several countries herself, while raising two sons.