It is essential that an intending immigrant understand whether they may apply for immigration benefits from within the United States, or whether the law requires that they return to their home countries to apply at the U.S. consulate abroad. At Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, we thoroughly analyze each case to determine the best legal means of immigrating.

We will determine if you need to travel home to apply for the immigration benefits. In some instances, an immigrant may save thousands of dollars by applying within the United States rather than returning to their home countries to complete the visa process. 

We work with individuals who were brought here when they were young and who now must return to their home country to apply at the U.S. consulate. This can be an overwhelming task, especially for those who have not spent much time back in their home country. We will equip you with the answers and information you need to feel confident when traveling to the U.S. consulate abroad.

At Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, our expertise enables our clients to quickly move through the steps to their immigration goals by passing costly and potentially disastrous mistakes along the way. We take the time to thoroughly evaluate your situation, providing all available options and alternatives given your individual needs, goals and circumstances.

We vigorously defend our clients in removal proceedings. We think creatively to try to obtain the best possible outcome. The key may be to negotiate a solution with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sue the government to try to obtain a helpful decision before a judge has time to order a client’s removal, or collaborate with a criminal law attorney to undo a criminal conviction that is the basis for removal.

Roy Petty is Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and highly experienced practitioners in the immigration courts.

Many families and individuals come to us when they feel that they have lost their chance at remaining in the country. We have turned around many cases that otherwise seemed lost. Our dedication keeps families together.

At Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, we handle a broad variety of employer sponsored visa applications, including investor, NAFTA, employee transfer and religious worker visas. We work together with both the employer and the visa applicant to handle all the paperwork without the hassle.

Our attorneys have successfully helped many pastors and religious leaders abroad immigrate to America to pursue their ministry. We have also assisted multinational executives transfer seamlessly into new assignments in the U.S.

• E1: This visa is designed for individuals with significant education, training or ability, otherwise known as extraordinary abilities. This includes executives, researchers, managers and professionals. It can also be extended to highly talented individuals, including artists and athletes.
• E2: This visa is designed for highly talented individuals in business, science or art.
• E3: This visa is designed for skilled workers with at least two years of training or experience, workers with a degree or workers that can fill a position requiring less than two years of experience.
• E4: This visa is designed for religious ministers, retired NATO civilians and several other various and specific categories.
• E5: Investor visas are designed for individuals showing that they intend to invest between $500,000 and $1 million in the United States or create at least 10 new jobs.
• L1 and L2: Accommodate intracompany transfers.
• R: There are religious visas available for ministers and religious workers seeking to enter the country to serve in a religious capacity.

We work both with employees seeking a visa to work in the country and employers seeking to obtain a visa for a worker they hope to employ.

Most immigrants come to the United States through immigrant visa petitions filed by relatives who are US citizens or lawful permanent residents. At Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, we are dedicated to reuniting families through the lawful immigration process.

The immigrant visa process is a two-part process. Even after a loved one petitions to have you enter the country; you must still apply for a green card. On occasion, this may happen simultaneously, but generally it occurs separately. There are several significant timelines and steps to be followed through this process. There is also plenty of confusion surrounding whether one may apply for the green card in the United States or if he or she must go back to their home country to apply at the U.S. embassy.

Our attorneys have successfully handled hundreds of green card cases both in the United States and working with U.S. embassies abroad. We will guide you through each step-in order to avoid common mistakes and pitfalls in the process. These matters are often highly time sensitive. Mistakes may lead to permanent ineligibility for an immigrant visa.

At Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, we have successfully sued on behalf of our clients in the Federal District Court. Our federal court practice has enabled out clients to cut through administrative red tape to obtain decisions on immigration applications that have been pending for unreasonable amounts of time.

We have also successfully challenged the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) decisions to deny naturalization to eligible individuals. The Federal Court has ordered USCIS to grant citizenship to our client. Immigration may have told you that your background checks are not complete and that it cannot decide your case until the FBI completes the required checks.

Did you know that USCIS has no procedure to verify that the FBI has received a request for a required background check, and that the FBI has told USCIS not to ask whether it has received a particular request? In the course of litigation against the government, we have discovered that information about the required background checks are exchanged manually between USCIS and the FBI. We also have discovered instances in which the information has been lost between the two agencies without either agency knowing that the information was lost. Lost data between USCIS and the FBI have resulted in unreasonable waits for immigration background checks. Our lawyers make sure that your case does not fall into an immigration black hole. We challenge the system in federal courts. Our creative strategies have obtained good results for our clients.

When you are granted your green card, you may permanently live and work in the United States. You may also apply for citizenship after five years as a permanent resident living in the United States. Green card holders who are married to and reside with a U.S. citizen may be eligible to apply for citizenship after just three years.

Representing Immigrants Living in the United States.

Most people seek a green card either through family-based immigration or employment-based immigration. Family-based immigration may be based on your relationship with your spouse, parent, sibling or child.

Employment-based immigration is available through a variety of employer-sponsored visas. These visas may range from unskilled workers petitioned by an employer, to immigrants with extraordinary talents, to individuals seeking to make sizeable business investments in the United States.

Other options for obtaining a green card include:

• You possess an extraordinary ability.
• You have invested a substantial amount of money to a qualifying venture in the United States.
• You have been an asylee or refugee for over one year in the United States.

The process of obtaining a green card is often complicated due to certain deadlines and sponsorship requirements. You need a skilled immigration lawyer on your side, fighting for your case. At Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, we handle these cases on a daily basis and are able to help our clients avoid many of the common mistakes and pitfalls.

If a Judge has ordered your removal, we may be able to seek a stay of your removal from the United States until you have exhausted your appeals. We may also be able to reopen your case and cancel your deportation order, either by filing a request directly with the immigration judge, or by working together with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Just because Immigration says that you are not eligible for a benefit does not mean that you are not eligible. The agency processes over 6 million applications each year. Temporary and contract workers handle much of Immigration’s work and errors are frequent. We have successfully overturned many erroneous decisions on appeal as well as reopened many cases with the Immigration field offices based on administrative errors.

At Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, we have successfully petitioned the immigration court for permit appeals and relief from deportation for many of our clients. Relief from deportation may be obtained by demonstrating exceptional hardships to qualifying family members, good moral character, rehabilitation and community involvement. We vigorously challenge the government’s decision to place an individual in deportation proceedings where it appears that the individual is not deportable. Our attorneys’ backgrounds and experience enable us to find creative solutions. Many times, a successful outcome in immigration matters hinges on innovative ideas and close attention to detail.

New Laws

The Defense of Marriage Act is a federal U.S. law signed by President Bill Clinton on September 21, 1996. The third section of the law defining marriage federally as a legal union between a man and a woman was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on June 26, 2013.

United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. _____ (2013) (Docket No. 12-307), the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the definition of “marriage” and “spouse” in the federal law should include same-sex couples.

Application of New Legislation

President Obama said that the decision of the Supreme Court immediately applied to all immigration procedures. That is, a citizen may immediately ask his/her same-sex partner. USCIS and Department of State (Embassies) are accepting and processing requests of citizens and residents to their same-sex couples. Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, is an international law firm specializing in U.S. immigration law with offices in Texas and Colombia. The firm helps the LGBT community navigate their way through the complex legal system.

Undocumented immigrants in the United States are often victims of violent crimes, including domestic violence. Criminals often target undocumented immigrants because they believe that the immigrant will not report the crime to authorities out of fear of deportation.

The U-Visa is granted to those victims of violent crimes who report the violence to the police or other law enforcement agency, and who assist law enforcement and prosecutors to arrest and convict the criminal. This visa is a temporary visa that allows the victim and certain members of their family to stay in the country while the investigation and trial of the perpetrator is ongoing. After three years in U-visa status, the victim and certain members of their family may apply for a green card. If you have been the victim of a violent crime, contact us today for guidance on how to apply for a U-Visa.

At Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, we have successfully handled dozens of U-visa applications. Many of our clients who were victims of violent crimes now have green cards. If you have been the victim of domestic violence or other violent crime, we may be able to help. Our attorneys are experts at obtaining U-visas for qualified individuals.

The U-Visa statute includes violent crimes such as rape, torture, domestic violence, physical assault, sexual assault, prostitution, incest, slavery, kidnapping, murder, blackmail, abduction, solicitation or exploitation, etc.

The Violence Against Women Act was signed into law in 1994 as a measure to protect immigrants in abusive relationships with U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. Congress recognized that many undocumented immigrants were especially vulnerable to abusive spouses who felt at liberty to abuse their spouse because of the victim’s undocumented status. Abusive spouses often blackmail immigrant men and women by threatening them with deportation if they report the abuse to authorities. The VAWA allows abused spouses of lawful permanent residents and citizens to escape abusive relationships and self-petition for a green card as victims of domestic violence.

If you are in a dangerous and abusive situation and fear that you will lose your green card sponsorship, you need legal representation. These cases require a substantial amount of evidence that abuse is occurring. At Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, our attorneys have been very successful in obtaining the evidence needed to prove eligibility for VAWA. We are committed to protecting you and helping you find a way out of this dangerous situation.

Contact A Dallas Violence Against Women Act Lawyer.

Our attorneys are dedicated to helping you find the visa category that best works for you. Visa categories are generally broken up into immigrant visas and non-immigrant visas, depending on whether the individual is seeking temporary stay in the country or to permanently reside in the United States. At Roy Petty & Associates, PLLC, we assist in guiding individuals through the employment immigration and family immigration processes. Some of the most common employment-based visas include:

• E-2: Investor visas.
• F-1 and F-2: Student visas.
• H-1B and H4: Specialty occupation visas.
• L-1 and L-2: Intra-company transfers.
• R: Religious workers. 

The process of applying for and obtaining visas may be difficult. A skilled and experienced immigration attorney may provide the direction to successfully navigate the immigration process, including filing the correct applications and passing interviews with immigration officers. Additional documentation may be required throughout the process. We will help to ensure that you assemble all records needed and are prepared for the application and interview.

I-601 waivers are available for immigrants who are inadmissible for certain criminal offenses and immigration violations. For example, someone who has entered the United States without permission or who has overstayed a visa may be required to apply for a waiver before they are able to obtain a green card. To obtain a waiver approval, the immigrant must demonstrate that his or her deportation would cause an extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or parents.