Children, including step-children and adopted children, of U.S. citizen parents or grandparents may pursue citizenship through various methods. At Ackerman Immigration Law, we provide experienced, personalized representation in guiding you through this potentially complex process.

We thoroughly review and research all facts, including birth, heritage, and current citizenship, that may support adjusting or validating citizenship status in the United States.

As of February 27, 2001, certain individuals who immigrated to the U.S. on permanent visas and who resided with a citizen parent prior to their eighteenth birthday may have automatically acquired citizenship. The child:

• must be under 18 years of age,

• must have at least one parent who is a US citizen,

• must reside permanently in the United States in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent, and

• must have been admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident.

Depending on the immigration benefits you are pursuing, you might be required to apply for such benefits from within either the United States or with the U.S. consulate in your home country. For those who immigrated to the United States at a young age, returning to their home country can be daunting.

At Ackerman Immigration Law, we carefully review your case to present you with the least costly and burdensome options. Knowing the difference between when to apply within the United States and outside of the United States can save thousands of dollars.

We will equip and advise you such that you can feel confident when traveling to the U.S. consulate of your home country. Our expertise will ensure your cost and time-efficient movement through the steps of the immigration process.

Ackerman Immigration Law dedicatedly defends its clients in removal proceedings to provide them with the best possible outcomes. We seek creative solutions and negotiate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to extricate our clients from removal proceedings.

Our ideal is to provide hope to those who believe that they have lost their chance to live in the United States and to keep families together.

We seek to ensure justice for immigrants who have not been faithfully represented by their prior immigration attorneys. If you have received ineffective assistance of counsel, we seek a second chance to have your applications heard during removal proceedings.

Employers and employees face a broad variety of options for employer-sponsored visa applications, such as employee transfer, investor, NAFTA, and religious worker visas. These visas include non-immigrant visas for temporary residence and work in the United States and immigrant visas for permanent residence.

Temporary residents with non-immigrant visas may later have the opportunity to apply for immigrant visas for permanent residence.

Employment visas often require careful attention to detail in the employer’s hiring process. This involves careful drafting of the job description and performance of the subsequent job offer.

Ackerman Immigration Law provides dual representation to employers and employees in the employment-based immigration process. We advise clients as to the timelines, costs, and benefits of different visa types, handle the burdensome paperwork needed for such visa applications, and guide employers and employees through the steps needed prior to beginning the visa application process.

Ackerman Immigration Law seeks to keep together and reunite U.S. citizens and permanent residents with their families through the immigration legal process.

The family-based immigrant visa involves a two-step process, the initial petition by a family member and a subsequent or concurrent green card application. Someone immigrating to the United States through U.S. citizen or permanent resident family must apply for a green card, even if a U.S. citizen or permanent resident family member has successfully petitioned for that person.

The application process for family-based green cards is both lengthy and time-sensitive. Mistakes may lead to permanent ineligibility for an immigrant visa. The process may even require an immigrant to return to the U.S. consulate in the immigrant’s home country. As such, each step of the process must be completed quickly and without error.

Many immigrants believe that their opportunity for a green card is lost upon a change in their familial relationships to a petitioning family member, such as through death or divorce. In the event of the unexpected death or divorce of a petitioning family member, a green card application may still be possible via a waiver, alternative application, or amendment to an existing application.

A green card grants you the ability to permanently live and work in the United States. A green card holder may apply for citizenship after five years, if living as a permanent resident in the United States and, if married to and residing with a U.S. citizen, potentially after three years.

Green cards are often sought through family-based immigration (through spouse, child, parent, or sibling), employment-based immigration (through employer sponsor visas, such as petitions for unskilled workers or immigrants with extraordinary talents, or immigrants seeking to make substantial business investments in the United States).

In addition, there are a variety of other options for a green card depending on your unique characteristics and circumstances such as:

• having been living in the United States as an asylee or refugee for more than one year,

• possessing an extraordinary ability,

• making a substantial investment to a qualifying venture in the United States.

Deadlines and sponsorship requirements complicate the green card application process. A skilled immigration lawyer at Ackerman Immigration Law can ensure you avoid the common mistakes of this process.

If you have received a deportation order from an immigration judge, Ackerman Immigration Law can explore the possibility of canceling your deportation order by reopening your case or asking the Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider it.

We may be able to cancel your deportation order and reopen your case by negotiating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or filing a request directly with the immigration judge. If your appeals have been exhausted, we may still be able to seek a stay of your removal.

The U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) processes over 6 million applications every year. Temporary and contract workers handle many of these applications, leading to frequent erroneous decisions that may be appealed or used to reopen a case. Rejected immigration applications with the USCIS may often be appealed with the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO).

Ackerman Immigration Law thoroughly reviews USCIS field office and immigration judge decisions for administrative errors that would allow for appeal or reopening of a client’s cases.

Generally, a U.S. citizen or permanent resident may petition for a green card for a non-citizen/non-resident spouse.

The Defense of Marriage Act’s third section federally defines marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman. However, on June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court held this section to be unconstitutional and declared that the definitions of “marriage” and “spouse” in the federal law included same-sex couples. United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744 (2013).

USCIS and U.S. Embassies under the Department of State currently accept and process couples’ petitions and requests by U.S. citizens and residents in same-sex couples. At Ackerman Immigration Law, we rigorously research national and local marriage laws to assist our clients in navigating the complex family petition process.

A U-Visa grants a temporary visa for victims of violent crimes who report the crimes to the police or another law enforcement agency and assist law enforcement and prosecutors in arrest and conviction of the criminal.

The U-visa allows these victims and certain members of their families to stay in the United States during the investigation and trial of the applicable criminal. After three years of U-Visa status, the victims and certain family members may apply for a green card.

Crimes potentially covered by the U-Visa include rape, torture, domestic violence, physical assault, sexual assault, prostitution, incest, slavery, kidnapping, murder, blackmail, abduction, solicitation or exploitation, etc.

Criminals frequently target undocumented immigrants out of a belief that these immigrants will not report the crime for fear of deportation. Many undocumented immigrants in the United States are victims of violent crimes, such as domestic violence.

If you are the victim of a violent crime, we may be able to help. Contact Ackerman Immigration Law for guidance on the U-Visa application process.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), signed into law in 1994, seeks to protect immigrants in abusive relationships with U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

Abusive spouses might abuse their spouses because of a spouse’s immigration status. Such abuse may include blackmail by threats of deportation or threats to use immigration status to gain custody of a child.

Under VAWA, abused spouses of U.S. lawful permanent residents and citizens, both men and women, have the opportunity to escape abusive relationships and self-petition for a green card as victims of domestic violence.

Pursuing a green card under VAWA requires a substantial amount of evidence to prove abuse. If you fear you will lose your green card sponsorship and are in an abusive relationship, Ackerman Immigration Law can assist you in obtaining the evidence needed. We will take effective steps to protect you from a dangerous situation.

Generally, visas are divided into immigrant visas, for those seeking to permanently reside in the U.S., and non-immigrant visas, for those seeking to temporarily stay.

We provide our clients with skilled and experienced legal counsel to guide them through the visa application process. This includes filing the correct applications and preparing clients to pass interviews with immigration officers. We will help you assemble the additional records and documentation that may be required to prepare for the application and interview.

A waiver might be for an immigrant who otherwise cannot obtain admission in the United States. I-601 waivers can allow entry for immigrants who are otherwise inadmissible for specific criminal offenses or immigration violations.

An immigrant who has entered the United States without permission or whose visa has expired but has still remained in the United States may need to apply for a waiver before seeking to obtain a green card.

Waiver approval requires that the immigrant demonstrate that deportation would require extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or parents.

The work authorization process for immigrants often depends on the particular visa an immigrant has acquired or is currently pursuing.

To obtain work authorization, many visa holders and green card applicants need to file an I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. When that application is filed often depends on the duration of time that these immigrants have been in the immigration process.

However, certain green card applicants may have the opportunity to apply for and obtain work authorization before the green card application is fully processed. For example, immigrants on F-1 student visas may, through their educational institution, enter into specific kinds of employment through Curricular Practical Training (CPT) or Optional Practical Training (OPT).

At Ackerman Immigration Law, we assist our clients in identifying all possible paths to achieving work authorization while educating clients on how the work authorization interacts with other parts of the immigration process.