Dan Berger is a Partner at Green & Spiegel, U.S. leading the Academic and Medical Immigration Team. He is an Academic Fellow at Cornell Law School, and on the Legal Advisory Board and the Board of Directors of the Presidents’ Alliance on Immigration & Higher Education, and on the Legal Advisory Council of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (largest bipartisan congressional caucus). Dan also advises the Talent Mobility Fund on STEM immigration issues, and the new International Student Resource Center.

He is a frequent writer and speaker on immigration, including after the 2020 election for the Brookings Institute on recommendations for the Biden/Harris Administration and also on strategies to support international entrepreneurs. He co-edited an updated edition of Immigration Options for Academics and Researchers. He also wrote an Issue Brief for the American Council on Education (ACE) in 2016 (updated 2021 and 2026), and was a co-author on a “Note” on academic immigration for the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA).

Dan has recently co-authored an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education on preparing for ICE visits on campuses, and an opinion piece in the Hill about historical trends in immigration policy.

In 2023, AILA awarded Dan the “President’s Commendation” for “exemplary service to the President and AILA,” including on the USCIS Headquarters Liaison Committee, writing practice advisories, serving on the AILA Afghanistan Taskforce (a rapid response effort to help Afghans after the Taliban takeover), and being on the editorial board of the AILA Law Journal.

Dan has a particular focus on DACA and undocumented students, evaluating options for longer term status. He advises thedream.us (nation’s largest private scholarship fund with over 10,000 scholarships in ten years to Dreamers).  Dan co-founded and helps lead an innovative DACA clinic at Cornell focused on employment-based options, as described in this Boston Globe article. Last year, he helped lead a pilot program for President Biden’s waiver program for Dreamers to move into status through employer-sponsorship, as described in this New York Times article. Dan was invited to the White House for the June 2024 announcement as recognition of his role in the process.

He was until recently an immigration law adviser on an NIH grant on the use of DNA technology in immigration, and co-authored a peer reviewed article in Science on the use of DNA technology to address family separation at the border.

Dan developed his interest in immigration in college at Harvard, where he studied immigration history and taught English to adult refugees.  He graduated from Cornell Law School and has practiced immigration law for over 25 years.