Family Immigration Lawyer in Dallas, TX

A family visa lawyer takes a relationship — a marriage, a parent, a child, a sibling — and turns it into an approved petition. That sounds simple and mostly is not, because the same relationship can lead through several different routes, and the right one depends on the petitioner's status, where the relative is now, how they entered, and what is in their history.

The work has four parts. First, choosing the category and the route: an immediate-relative petition or a preference category; adjustment of status inside the United States or consular processing abroad; a K-1 fiancé visa or a spouse visa after marriage. Second, checking everyone's immigration history for anything that needs a waiver before it becomes a denial. Third, building the file — the I-130 petition, the I-864 affidavit of support, civil documents and translations, and for marriages the evidence that the relationship is real. Fourth, preparing you for the interview, where the file is tested in person.

We do all of this from our Dallas office for families across Texas and the country, on a flat fee agreed before we start, with a dedicated paralegal who knows the case.

U.S. citizens can petition for a spouse, a fiancé (K-1), unmarried children under 21, parents (once the citizen is 21), married children of any age, and siblings (once the citizen is 21). Spouses, parents, and unmarried minor children are immediate relatives: there is no annual limit and no wait for a visa number.

Permanent residents can petition for a spouse and for unmarried children. They cannot petition for parents, siblings, married children, or a fiancé — which is why many families naturalize first and then file for parents.

Everything outside the immediate-relative group falls into the family preference categories, which have annual quotas by category and by country of birth. The wait can be a few years or more than a decade; the monthly Visa Bulletin says where each category stands, and we check it against your priority date at every stage.

For immediate relatives adjusting status inside the United States, a year to two years from filing to green card is typical, with interviews at the USCIS Dallas Field Office. Consular cases add the National Visa Center stage and the embassy's own scheduling. Preference categories are governed by the quota wait, which can dwarf the processing time itself.

What slows a case: a missing document at filing, a history that turns out to need a waiver, a marriage file that is thin, a request for evidence that is answered late. What speeds it up: filing the work permit and travel document with the green card application, a complete affidavit of support the first time, and a client who knows what the interview will ask. Our guides on the I-130 timeline and on adjustment of status versus consular processing go into both.