Christopher Richardson is an immigration attorney and former U.S. Diplomat. He has a wide range of experience as an immigration attorney in providing strategic corporate immigration counsel to clients ranging from small and medium-sized companies to finance, consulting, accounting, educational services and healthcare services industries. He also works on pro bono immigration cases including asylum for unaccompanied minors and advising non-profit groups and legal clinics on a range of consular-related issues.
Richardson was a Foreign Service officer for 7 years. He served as various roles including Deputy Consular Section Chief, American Citizens Services Chief, Immigrant Visa Chief, and Nonimmigrant Visa Chief with assignments in Nigeria, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and Spain. He won numerous State Department awards including Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards.
Richardson has been featured in Mother Jones, Slate Magazine, Reuters, NPR, Embedded, All Things Considered, SCOTUS Blog, BBC, Georgia Public Radio, Intercept, and the Atlanta Constitution Journal. He has also been interviewed by CNN and CBS. Richardson has written several well-received opinion columns for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Slate Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, and the Nation about immigration policy under Presidents Trump and Obama.
Richardson serves on the Board of Directors for Upstate Forever (an environmental group) and Upstate International (both in South Carolina). He has advised U.S. Senators and House members on a wide range of immigration and State Department issues including the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act, the various travel ban, and diversity.
Richardson has also worked at international law firms including Nelson Mullins LLP, Alston and Bird LLP, and Kilpatrick Townsend LLP. He is a graduate of Duke University School of Law and graduated summa cum laude from Emory University in 2003. He is also the co-author of the Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement (2014). He currently works as the General Counsel and COO of BDV Solutions, LLC, an immigration consulting firm.