John Yahya Vandenberg

W. John Yahya Vandenberg, co-founder of Hogan & Vandenberg LLC, has extensive experience in immigration litigation and business immigration. Mr. Vandenberg has extensive immigration litigation experience, including federal appellate litigation, asylum litigation, and deportation defense.

He has briefed and argued before the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Third Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and U.S. Immigration Courts in Philadelphia, PA, York, PA, Newark, NJ, New York, NY, and Falls Church, VA. He drafted legal briefs arguing the precedential U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit cases Fiadjoe v. Ashcroft, 411 F.3d 135 (3d Cir. 2005), and Shah v. Gonzales, 446 F.3d 429 (3d Cir. 2006), cases which successfully argued that Immigration Judges must treat asylum-seekers fairly and with respect.In Thu, the Court granted the Burmese asylum seeker’s Petition for Review because the Immigration Judge failed to consider evidence in the record which demonstrated his political activities.

In 2009, he won a Petition for Review for a young Peruvian student. There, the Third Circuit ordered the Board of Immigration Appeals to Reopen Ms. Torres old removal case, handed down when she was a teenager. In 2010, Ms. Torres was finally granted U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident status.

Mr. Vandenberg has successfully fought deportation on behalf of many clients, obtaining bonds for detained clients and ultimately obtaining relief from removal (deportation) based on family ties, employment, and asylum.

Mr. Vandenberg has obtained PERM labor certification approvals and employment-based U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence (“the green card”) for foreign nationals ranging from small business employees to managers of well-known multi-national corporations. Prior to co-founding Hogan & Vandenberg LLC, Mr. Vandenberg accrued business immigration experience at a well-known local immigration firm, leading the office’s PERM labor certification group to early and continuing success in PERM Labor Certification.

Mr. Vandenberg earned his Bachelors Degree in Middle Eastern Studies (with Departmental Honors) from the University of Texas at Austin. While at the University of Texas he studied the Arabic Language and the history and culture of the Middle East.

Mr. Vandenberg is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and Immigration Courts nationwide. He is a member in good standing of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the National Association of Muslim Lawyers, and the Pennsylvania Bar Association. He is conversational in Bosnian and Arabic.

Bar Admissions:

• Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit
• Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Education:

• Villanova University School of Law, Villanova, Pennsylvania – 2002
• University of Texas, Austin, Texas

Professional Associations and Memberships:

• American Immigration Lawyers Association, Member
• National Association of Muslim Lawyers, Member
• ennsylvania Bar Association, Member
• Board of Trustees of Nationalities Service Center