Sonia Oliveri is an immigration partner at Kelley Kronenberg in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

In diverse South Florida, it's common to find bilingual people, but attorney Sonia Oliveri speaks six:  Spanish, French, Portuguese, Farsi, English and her native Italian.

The native of Rome grew up traveling Europe and meeting her mother's relatives, who had roots in Iran. Oliveri cultivated a love for connecting and understanding new cultures, prompting her to doggedly learn languages and pursue a career with an international flavor.

It's no surprise that Oliveri, a partner at Kelley Kronenberg in Miami and Davie, is an immigration attorney.

"Definitely traveling brought me very close to different cultures. Even as a child I remember growing up with friends and family friends who were not Italian. I was just driven to somehow relate to different cultures," she said. "That really fascinated me to be able to speak with someone from Spain or France and 10 minutes or 30 minutes after with someone from Brazil. It just fascinated me. It drove me to the point that I wanted to go to law school."

Oliveri is able to speak with many clients in their native languages, and she has the international background to address their cases with cultural understanding and sensitivity.

Business Immigration

Her work includes the EB-5 and E-2 investment immigration programs and the H1-B employment visa program. She represents U.S. entrepreneurs and companies seeking investments, employees in the programs and foreigners seeking U.S. visas.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers these programs, last summer rolled out more stringent EB-5 regulations, upping the ante for foreign investors to obtain a green card for themselves and their families. Foreigners now must invest $900,000 in a job-creating U.S. commercial venture, up from the previous $500,000. In more economically vibrant areas, the threshold is $1.8 million, up from $1 million.

"I really think EB-5 is a win-win," said Oliveri, who is at the helm of Kelley Kronenberg EB-5 practice group. "When I first learned about the program, I thought to myself, 'Wow, I had no idea that something like this existed.' So you invest, and you get your residency through your investment, and someone else is able to use those funds to create a viable project.' "

When she started working in immigration law in 2015 at Behar Law Group, which recruited her from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law, the workload was overwhelming as the pace of the EB-5 program sped up.

The visa program became increasingly popular to finance real estate projects after the Great Recession and strict lending regulations were imposed on banks.

As a novice, Oliveri admired the attorneys recognized by EB5 Investors Magazine, an online publication and resource center, and was recognized as a rising star by the magazine in 2018 and again last year as a top 25 immigration attorneys in the U.S.

But Oliveri also successfully represents immigrants who aren't as well-heeled as EB-5 investors.

"What makes me proud and really motivates me and I am passionate about is to be able to help anyone. The biggest victories are definitely the small investors," Oliveri said.

For example, she represented a Venezuelan man who wanted to obtain legal status in the U.S. through the E-2 treaty program. It allows citizens of countries that have a treaty with the U.S. to move here as long as they establish or invest in a successful enterprise.

Oliveri's client invested in a Miami wine import-export business but was denied E-2 status at least three times by the time she took his case.

"For consulates, when they deny you three times and you keep on going at the consular level, it's not good," Oliveri said. "It was a very difficult case, but I remember deciding to take this one because I couldn't see why he was denied this visa."

Oliveri got him approved late last year and credits her work ethic.

"I do research a lot. I don't know how many E-2 and EB-5s I've done. Still, every time I take a case I do heavy research," she said. "It's just intense. Sometimes it's 2 a.m. and I am working, thinking how to make sure we present the best case possible for the client. Sometimes you have to make sure everything is perfect. It's not a cookie-cutter type of product. You have to make sure you are putting in the time to make sure the presentation of the case, all the documents, are well presented to the consulate."

Path to South Florida

Oliveri's language proficiency makes her an anomaly as some estimates say less than 1% of the world's population is fluent in five languages.

She studied Spanish and French in school in Italy and the Farsi came from her mother.

"The language is very melodic. It's interesting," she said, adding she can't write it.

It was Portuguese that was a bit of a challenge. She started by taking a course at the Brazilian embassy in Rome.

"I realized it's all about phonetics so when I was able to learn that, I basically was able to understand and crack the language," Oliveri said. "When I came to the States and especially after law school when I started working, there's so many Brazilian clients that almost I had to become fluent to be able to service them."

Oliveri hadn't planned on moving to the U.S. but coincidence led her here.

She graduated from Rome's Roma Tre University, earning a general law degree in 2009 and completing her specialization degree in 2013. While there, she stumbled on a flyer for a dual-degree program at Nova Southeastern. She applied, got in, and moved, but still had no plans to stay. She wasn't even sure exactly what type of law she wanted to practice.

After her 2015 graduation, Behar Law recruited her to its growing EB-5 practice.

"As soon as I got into that field — that's almost five years — I just fell in love," Oliveri said. "It was the right place. Immigration and EB-5, it's really home for me."

Born: Rome, Italy

Education: Nova Southeastern University, J.D., 2015; Roma Tre University, J.D., 2013

Experience: Partner, Kelley Kronenberg, 2017-present; Associate, Behar Law Group, 2015-2017; Attorney, Florida Immigration Law Counsel, 2015-2016