Cookie Policy and Data Protection

COOKIE POLICY

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer’s hard drive when you visit certain websites that help collect data. We may use cookies to tell us, for example, whether you have visited us before or if you are a new visitor and to help us identify site features in which you may have the greatest interest. Cookies may enhance your online experience by saving your preferences while you are visiting a particular site.

Most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to be notified when you receive a new cookie, and how to disable existing cookies. Please note, however, that without cookies, you may not be able to take advantage of all our website features.

LOG FILES, USAGE DATA AND IP ADDRESSES

Log files are web server files (containing information such as domain name or IP address, URL, http response code, or the date and duration of your visit) that are automatically created when an Internet user visits a website. An IP address is an identifier that certain electronic devices use to identify and communicate with each other on the Internet. When you visit our website, our servers log your IP address. In combination with other data, this information helps us understand which features are of interest to our visitors and the regions of the world where these visitors are located. In addition, log files help detect disruptions that may interfere with the provision of our website.

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

The Victoria Law Group collects certain personal information about you and, if required, your family members and employer for the purposes of providing immigration consulting and legal services. We will not be able to provide the services requested if we are not provided with all relevant personal information. Below are set forth the purposes for which personal information is used and examples of the types of information that may be required. If, through the course of our representation, you and/or your employer request additional services, such as visa extensions, permanent residency applications and changes in employment, we may be required to collect additional types of personal information to provide the requested services.

CLIENT SERVICES

For purposes of providing client services, including the applicable legal services, and/or immigration consulting services you and/or your employer request, The Victoria Law Group collects and processes personal information such as name, address, telephone number, date of birth, marital status, passport number, employment history, educational background, tax status, employee number, job title and function, and expatriate status. Where required for the service, The Victoria Law Group collects certain personal documents such as passport copies, educational documents, CVs, visa copies, birth certificates, and other documents.

We obtain the personal information from a number of sources, such as through our online portals, our mobile website or applications, online questionnaires and forms you complete, and other information you provide directly to us, including by email or in conversation with our lawyers, consultants and staff.  In addition, we obtain personal information from third-party sources, such as former employers, educational institutions you attended, relocation companies, and your current or prospective employer.  We use this information to provide immigration consulting and legal services, including analyzing, completing and processing immigration, visa and related filings and submissions to relevant government agencies, providing legal and consultative advice as to eligibility to obtain immigration benefits, and assisting with relocation and other expatriate issues.

In many instances such as visa extensions, permanent residency, and other cases related to changes in employment, the services we provide require follow-up services. If such follow-up is required, the information we have collected previously is used to provide the additional related services for which we have been engaged.

We also use your personal information in other instances in connection with the services we provide. This use occurs only when there is a legitimate interest to do so that is not overridden by your data protection rights as required by law, such as assisting in the management and administration of our clients’ global mobility programs (such as visa expiration tracking, immigration program compliance, etc.), providing access to online case-management tools, where applicable, and analyzing immigration trends, such as visa processing times and government approval rates. Where we are engaged by your employer, we process your personal information because it is in our legitimate interests to do so in order to fulfil our contract with your employer for client services.

In addition to providing you or your employer with our services, we process personal information to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations including record-keeping requirements. For example, we process personal information under “know your customer”, anti-money laundering regulations, anti-bribery regulations and professional regulations.

PRE-EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION

Certain countries require verification of new employees’ employment eligibility at the time of hire.  Examples of such requirements include the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (“IRCA”) in the United States and the Immigration, Asylum & Nationality Act of 2006 in the United Kingdom, pursuant to which The Victoria Law Group collects and processes personal information such as your name, email address, home address, military service, and citizenship status.

INFORMATION REQUESTS

If you request information about our services directly, you may choose to provide personal information such as your name, address, email address and telephone number.  We use your information to respond to your request.

OTHER USES OF INFORMATION

Where it is in our legitimate interests and not outweighed by your data protection rights, we use personal information we collect and process for client and The Victoria Law Group administration, compliance audits, compliance with The Victoria Law Group’s policies and procedures, ensuring the security and integrity of our services and in ensuring that our IT systems function effectively.

In addition, we process your personal information with your consent, such as when we use your contact details to respond to a request or question by you, or where required by law.

IMMIGRATION SERVICES

Governments worldwide require the collection and processing of a wide variety of personal information from foreign nationals seeking to enter the country and obtain immigration benefits such as employment authorization or residency status. Governments require this information for reasons such as the protection of borders, health, sovereignty, national security, and the regulation of the local employment market. Certain categories of personal information may be considered “sensitive” and are subject to a higher level of data protection. These categories may include race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, sex life or sexual orientation, physical or mental health or condition, data relating to offenses and/or criminal convictions, and biometric data, such as fingerprints, when used to uniquely identify you.

In the context of the services we provide, The Victoria Law Group collects sensitive personal information when the submission of such data is necessary to comply with the legal obligations of the country in which you are seeking a visa or work permit. In addition, The Victoria Law Group may need to inquire about certain sensitive information in order to provide legal or consultative advice as to your eligibility to travel to or obtain an immigration benefit from a specific country. For instance, we may need to ask whether you have been previously convicted of any criminal offenses, have certain political affiliations, or other personal matters when the local applicable immigration laws would require such data for purposes of preparing an application or petition on your behalf or evaluating whether certain personal information would bar you from entering the country. In some instances, the laws of EU member states require that we process sensitive personal information for these purposes as permitted by the terms of the GDPR; on other occasions we will ask for your explicit consent to process this data.

LEGAL SERVICES

In the course of our client services, we may represent you and/or your employer in legal matters that require us to collect and use sensitive personal information relating to you. For example, if we represent you in a criminal case, we will collect information about the alleged offenses and any related criminal history. In some employment representations, such as disputes involving alleged discrimination, information about medical conditions, race, religion and/or sexual orientation may be relevant to the representation. Similarly, representations in tax or social security matters may also require us to collect sensitive personal information, such as if we are advising on whether certain disabilities qualify for social security or tax benefits. Where we process sensitive personal information in the course of these and other similar client services, we do so to assist you and/or your employer to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or to assist you and/or your employer in fulfilling the rights and obligations of applicable employment or social security laws.

INFORMATION WE SHARE

We will not sell, share, transfer, rent, use, or distribute your information for purposes other than those disclosed here unless required by law or as authorized by you or your employer. We share the information you provide among our subsidiaries, affiliates and your current or prospective employer or a third party as your employer instructs us, as appropriate or necessary in connection with the services (such as your employer’s relocation provider, or to protect the interests of any person, where permitted by applicable law. Where our services are retained by your employer on your behalf, we share your personal information as instructed by your employer, for tax purposes, to assist you in obtaining relocation services, and for any other purpose required to provide the services as permitted by applicable law.

In addition, as part of the immigration consulting and legal services we have been directed to provide, The Victoria Law Group discloses personal information to government agencies, your former, current, or prospective employer and its related entities. In order to obtain immigration benefits on your or your employer’s behalf, we will disclose personal information to government agencies and immigration authorities.

We also share the information with certain service providers we have retained in connection with the services we provide, such as translators, education evaluation services, couriers, or other necessary entities. We take steps to require that service providers protect the information consistently with this Privacy Notice.  These service providers are authorized to use the information only as necessary to perform services on our behalf or to comply with law or legal process. Where we have knowledge that a service provider processes your personal information in a manner contrary to this Privacy Notice, we will take reasonable steps to prevent or stop the processing. In addition, we will disclose information about you: (1) if we are required to do so by law or legal process, (2) to law enforcement authorities or other government officials, (3) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity; or (4) if necessary to protect the vital interests of any person.

HOW WE PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

We seek to ensure that any personal information that we hold about you is accurate, complete, current and otherwise reliable based on data you or an employer provide in order to provide the immigration consulting and legal services. We seek to collect only that personal information that is adequate, relevant and not excessive for these purposes.

We maintain appropriate administrative, technical, organizational, and physical safeguards to protect against loss, misuse or unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of personal information.

We educate our employees and strive to maintain appropriate standards of conduct with regard to the protection of personal information.

We take steps to require that third parties who assist in our provision of services abide by all applicable privacy and data protection laws and prohibit them from using your information other than in connection with the services they have been engaged to provide.

We retain personal information for only as long as we need it to provide the services you or your employer has requested, for our own administration and internal purposes, and for any periods that are mandated by law or otherwise agreed to with our clients, after which, we take steps to delete or anonymize the information.

INFORMATION WE TRANSFER

Transfers required for the services

When we transfer your information to other countries, we will use, share and safeguard that information as described in this Privacy Notice.  We transfer personal information to third countries where it is necessary to provide you the service you (or your employer) requested. For example, the Government requires certain personal information in order to review applications, screen foreign nationals, issue visas and other work authorization documents, etc. We also provide your personal information to local advisors, translators and other service providers where it is necessary to provide the service you requested.

Transfers to other The Victoria Law Group offices

We share some of your personal information with other The Victoria Law Group offices to administer and manage group functions and provide international advisory services. For these purposes, your personal information will be processed in, or accessed from, The Victoria Law Group offices situated in jurisdictions that do not have equivalent data protection laws to those in your country of residence.

In addition, some of our global systems for providing services are hosted by our offices in the United States. We safeguard your data within The Victoria Law Group of companies through the use of European Commission-approved standard contractual data protection clauses.

Transfers to other service providers

Your personal information will be shared with companies providing services under contract to us for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice, some of which are located outside the EEA. If you reside in the EEA, we may use standard contractual data protection clauses, which have been approved by the European Commission. We may also transfer your information to organisations in the US who participate in the EU-US Privacy Shield or which have binding corporate rules in place to protect your data, which have been approved by EU data protection authorities. For further information, including to obtain a copy of the documents used to protect your information, please contact us as described in the How to Contact Us section below.

Real Estate Law

The Victoria Law Group consists of competent and dependable attorneys and legal professionals who are highly knowledgeable in the field of real estate law. Our team of legal professionals has assisted several residential and commercial clients with various legal matters associated with real estate including but not limited to the preparation and revision of contracts, acquisition of properties, refinances, foreclosures, deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure, short sales, landlord tenant disputes, eminent domain, leasing as well as enforcements and evictions.

There is no case too complex for The Victoria Law Group to handle. We understand Miami Real Estate; we were built for Miami Real Estate. We know how important the real estate industry is to the global economy and we work hard to provide our clients with the best solution for all their legal needs.

Representation in our Real Estate Practice Area includes sales, leases, title insurance and other transactions in addition to structuring complex sale and acquisition agreements and negotiating and closing complex mortgage financing on behalf of lenders and developers.