Immigration and Nationality Law

Heather is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law.  She is an active member of the North Carolina State Bar, the North Carolina Bar Association,  the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association, and the International Medical Graduate Taskforce. Her practice focuses exclusively on employment and family based immigration, and she has a special interest in adoption.

Heather serves as an occasional guest lecturer on employment-based immigration law and adjustment of status at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central School of Law.  She was chosen by peer review to appear in The International Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers 2011 and The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers 2012. Heather also serves as incoming Chair of the North Carolina Bar Association Immigration Law Committee.

Prior to practicing immigration law, Heather served as an International Adoption Program Director at a multinational non-profit organization in Washington D.C., and as an Adoption Case Manager at an adoption agency in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she assisted families adopting children internationally from Kazakhstan and Russia. During law school, Heather was awarded a U.S. Department of State Foreign Language and Area Studies Scholarship to study Russian Language in St. Petersburg, Russia.  In addition to her Juris Doctorate (JD), Heather has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Florida and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Heather lives in Carrboro with her husband Vijay, son Arin, and dog Raja.

E-mail Heather at heather_sivaraman@dkelly.com