Often, issues cannot be resolved solely in Immigration Court and further court proceedings are necessary.  We diligently represent our clients with appeals before the following courts:

AAO Appeals

Petitioners and applicants whose cases have been denied by the USCIS, or have received unfavorable determinations by ICE, can appeal a decision to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO). We have experience with filing AAO Appeals in the following cases: 

  • Employment-based immigrant and nonimmigrant visa petitions 
  • Applications for Temporary Protected Status 
  • Fiancé(e) petitions
  • Applications for waiver of ground of inadmissibility or adjustment of status applications 
  • Applications for permission to reapply for admission after deportation or removal
  • Certain special immigrant visa petitions 
  • T and U visa applications and petitions, and related adjustment of status applications
  • USCIS revocation of certain previously approved petitions 
  • ICE determinations that a surety bond has been breached.

BIA

Unfavorable decisions rendered by an Immigration Judge and certain decisions by the District Directors of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). To be considered timely filed, the appeal must be received by the BIA within 30 days from the date of the Judge’s order, or the DHS decision. If the appeal is filed timely, the Judge’s order is not final and the immigrant can continue to live and work in the United States. However, if the appeal is not filed timely, the removal order becomes final and ICE can physically remove the immigrant from the United States. 

We assist our clients with the following type cases:

  • Appeals from an Immigration Judge’s Order
  • Appeals to Motions to Reopen/Reconsider 
  • Appeal to various Denial of Petitions and Applications by DHS

Appeals of BIA Decisions – Federal Court Review

To appeal an unfavorable decision from the BIA, the immigrant must file an appeal (“petition for review”) with the appropriate Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, otherwise the BIA’s decision makes the removal order of the Immigration Judge final. This means that the government can physically deport an immigrant. The immigrant has 30 days to “petition” a Circuit Court of Appeals to review the Board’s decision.  During these 30 days the government can still deport an immigrant. However, if an appeal is filed, the Circuit Court can issue a “stay of removal,” which would order ICE not to deport the immigrant.  We often litigate those cases successfully on behalf of our clients, and negotiate with ICE in the process, so that our clients are not physically removed from this country, while we exhaust every possible legal option on their behalf. 

We also assist our clients with various appeals in Federal District Court on matters where the USCIS abuses its discretion, and  unreasonably delays to act on petitions and applications filed on their behalf. We have filed federal law suits on cases involving delays with the adjudication of green card applications as well as applications for citizenship. We zealously represent our clients on cases where the USCIS attempts to strip someone of the U.S citizenship through a Denaturalization process. We have successfully filed law suits on cases where the Department of States has refused to issue passports to U.S. citizens born in this country who have “delayed birth certificates”, or “birth certificates issued by midwifes/parteras”. 

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is the Highest Court of the Land. At our Firm we are eligible to practice before the Supreme Court and we often update our clients on important Supreme Court decisions affecting immigrants’ rights. There have been many important pro-immigrant decisions from the Supreme Court, most recently the DACA decision in DHS. V. Regents of the University of California, where the Court ruled that the administration did not adequately explain its decision to end DACA. This decision allows the program to continue and DACA recipients should continue to be able to renew their applications.