How Does Family-Based Immigration Work?
In my practice, I work with people immigrating from all parts of the world. Frequently, I must overcome the wariness of clients from countries where people are mistrustful of attorneys and often of government agencies. I also find it my responsibility to explain the nuances of “how immigration works” in this country. Even many attorneys do not understand that “immigration” is composed of several separate agencies. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the agency where I send petitions for the majority of my clients; however, it is my duty as an immigration attorney to ensure that there are no inadmissibility issues such as prior admissions into the United States, prior marriages that have not properly ended, or misrepresentations in prior visa applications. I usually explain to clients how their particular manner of entry or previous immigration encounters impact their process, particularly when discussing inadmissibility issues.
Immigration law also encompasses other agencies. At ports of entry, clients deal with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP); when detained, clients deal with Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO); finally, when faced with immigration proceedings in immigration court, clients appear before the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). When discussing a previous encounter with any part of this system, clients will often generalize it simply as “immigration.”
The spiderweb of agencies is still easier to explain than the various statutes, federal regulations, memoranda, and other federal court cases that make up a disjointed body of immigration law. There is no single, uniform place for all things immigration.
Explaining Who Can Immigrate
For many of my clients, one of the most exciting parts of obtaining legal status in the United States includes helping their loved ones, particularly children, immigrate. Explaining the different eligibility categories and then visa availability requires some sensitivity, and it is a topic not commonly known to attorneys outside of immigration law practice. For example, some relatives are considered “immediate relatives,” a category limited to the relatives of U.S. citizens and including their spouse, parents, and unmarried children under 21 years old. Other relatives are considered “preference relatives.” Unlike immediate relatives, preference relatives typically must wait several years before they are allowed to apply for a green card (a permit allowing a foreign national to live and work permanently in the United States). In addition to their immediate relatives, U.S. citizens can petition for preference relatives including their unmarried children over 21 years old, their married children of any age, and their siblings. Lawful permanent residents (LPRs) can also petition for relatives, but all their relatives fall under the category of preference relatives. LPRs can petition for their legal spouse, unmarried children under the age of 21, and (in a separate, lower preference category) unmarried children 21 years of age or older; LPRs cannot petition for their parents or siblings.
The various categories of preference relatives have different wait times. The longest petition is the fourth preference category—the sibling category—for which the wait time averages 17 years. I often get telephone calls from clients saying that their sibling petitioned for them “forever” ago, and they are concerned that nothing has happened.
Every month, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) releases a Visa Bulletin, which announces the dates when certain petitions are likely to be approved.
Interview Preparation
An important part of my practice is to help clients prepare for immigration interviews. The main family-based interview that I assist my clients with is a marriage-based petition interview. Married spouses are interviewed about their marriage, the scope of their relationship, and details about their everyday activities. Many clients hold the misconception that because they will give true and accurate answers at the interview, there is no need for them to prepare. But I have found that, without preparation, clients often get nervous about being in an interview room with officers and forget things such as their anniversary date and minutia about their relationship they would not deem important.
Related Areas of Practice
My office also handles affirmative asylum and defensive asylum applications, as well as deportation defense cases, although they are not directly family-based immigration. All these issues tie into family-based immigration because family members seeking petitions sometimes have cases in immigration court that need to be addressed or closed or the family member could have a pending asylum petition as well.
Finally, as an immigration attorney and a Spanish speaker, I find that I am a trusted source for clients, who frequently ask me many nonimmigration questions—how to get a driver’s license, how to get a Social Security card, how to open a bank account. Although immigration attorneys cannot advise clients on all questions such as those above, it’s important that we use empathy and let our clients know where they can find answers.
Practice Setting
At the beginning of my law practice as a solo-preneur, I decided that a virtual-forward office is my preferred mode of running my law practice, DVH Law Group. I have an actual office space, but I lean heavily on remote video/telephonic consultations, electronic filings, electronic files, electronic intakes, and virtual court appearances. I seldom take in-person consultations, and I do not have access to walk-in clients because we do not have a traditional brick-and-mortar law office. I thought this would be a struggle with the demographic of clientele already wary of trusting attorneys. However, the reputation of my work has created good word of mouth; this, coupled with Google reviews and an online presence, has been beneficial to my practice.
