In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month our Diversity Committee will be publishing a series of Spotlights on both clients and Garvish Immigration staff members who have so graciously offered to share their stories of heritage on our blog.

Meet Vivien Zhihui Li, one of our Associate Attorneys at Garvish Immigration Law Group, LLC. Vivien is from China and currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and 2 children.

Ever since Vivien was a teenager, she loved reading about history and geography. She was intrigued by books that told stories about the American Revolutionary war, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the American Civil war. Gone with the Wind was one of her favorite novels. She has always had a tremendous amount of curiosity and passion to explore the United States, the country built upon separation of powers while turning this theory from Montesquieu’s De l’esprit des lois to reality.

Vivien Li, Garvish Immigration Lawyer, Atlanta Attorney

Garvish Immigration Attorney, Vivien Li with her husband and 2 children

“I will always be grateful to my family for making sure I received my education. My parents always told me that girls should be brave so they would know what to pursue in the future. They always encouraged me to explore and discover my passion and goal for life and work. My parents were very happy and proud when I told them I decided to be a lawyer after high school. This came naturally for me as I enjoy reading and writing very much.”

After attending China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, China where she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Law, Vivien went to England to pursue her master’s degree at University of Bristol. In 2013, she obtained her LLM in Bristol, and with her passion of learning more about legal research and writing, she started her PhD study in company law at University of Leeds in England. She successfully defended her thesis and gained her degree in 2017, after four years of legal writing and research. Vivien attended Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia where she obtained her J.D.

Vivien’s interest in immigration law grew as she went through her own immigration process, from attending school in the U.S. as an F-1 student to preparing her own permanent residence application. She knew then that she wanted to help other immigrants navigate the complex U.S. immigration process so that they could also achieve the American dream. Vivien began practicing immigration law with our firm in early 2021, where she focuses on employment-based immigration and non-immigration petitions, as well as family-based immigration petitions. She is currently a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the State Bar of Georgia.

Vivien is proud to share her Asian culture with everyone at the firm. She is a native speaker of Mandarin and is currently providing her son with a learning opportunity to read and write in Mandarin. She is also a Zitherist, holding a 9th degree certificate, which is the highest degree of Professional Zither playing.

“Your Trusted Guide to the American Dream”

This monthly blog series on Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is produced by our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee led by our Senior Attorney, Nadia Deans Kalata.