Ian Benouis, Attorney at Law

Ian graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986 and was a Blackhawk helicopter pilot in the Army and combat veteran. He attended the University of Houston Law Center, graduating in 1997.

Since that time Ian has held numerous positions in various industries, including the position of General Counsel, Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Vice President of Operations. He is a business owner and entrepreneur, having built a number of companies and worked at a number of startups.

In addition to experience in Immigration law, Ian has expertise in the area of Intellectual Property.

Maureen Olshan, Senior Paralegal

Maureen's professional life has been dedicated to direct and

provide personal service to the public. Maureen's career started with the Social Security Administration (SSA) as a Social Insurance Specialist.

She received numerous awards of recognition for outstanding performance during her tenure at the SSA.

Eventually, Maureen became the Quality Reviewer of all retirement, disability and survivor benefits for the SSA office that she worked.

She performed District-wide training within SSA, training on benefit entitlements and new legislation. This career allowed Maureen to develop skills that prepared her for positions as a technical expert on Social Security programs.

After a successful career with the Social Security Administration, Maureen has been working the past four years with the H-2A and H-2B programs and has been deeply involved in the legislative and regulatory issues affecting these programs.

Jim Foley, Senior Paralegal

Jim has been a business owner and entrepeneur for over 36 years and has created a number of successful businesses currently in operation. He is a true pioneer in the guestworker industry having started Foley Enterprises over a decade ago which was one of the very first companies offering assistance to business owners trying to take advantage of the H-2A and H-2B programs.

When Jim started very few people knew about the guestworker programs and even less knew how to correctly and effectively utilize them.  He learned the process inside and out and successfully utilized the program in his landscape business. Eventually, Jim shared his experience openly and ended up teaching the process to many of the attorneys and companies that are presently offering these services.

After providing over 2,000 companies with the placement and recruitment of over 50,000 quality guestworkers Jim came to the realization that the most effective way to provide guestworker services was by offering his services under the supervision of attorneys who could provide the legal component, which was becoming increasingly expected by clients in the industry.  The Benouis Law Office is the result of that vision.

Vinay Shah, Senior Paralegal

Vinay is originally from the Gujurat District of India.  An engineer by training, he received his Bachelors degree and Masters degree from the University of Baroda in India in 1986 and received his MBA from Rutgers University in 1996.

Vinay has had his own immigration and recruiting business for over 12 years.  He has also been providing employers with back office HR services for their companies - in some cases acting as an entire virtual HR department for smaller companies.

He has experience with the following visas: B1, C1/D, E-1, E-2, H-1, H-2, H-3, I, J-1, L-1, O-1, P-1, P-2, P-3, Q-1, R-1, TN-1.

His main focus has been connecting high technology workers from the Gujurat District of India with employers in the US and he also specializes in recruitment from the rest of India, Nepal and other South Asian countries.

Vinay recently decided to also offer his services  under the supervision of an attorney who could provide the legal component, which was becoming increasingly expected by clients in the industry.