Private Bill by Congress person or Senator

This is such a rare procedure in recent history, that it is hardly worth mentioning. However, aliens who would like a green card but cannot qualify for same under normal channels sometimes ask if a Congressperson could help. Our response is generally, "Ask the Congressperson to propose more generous laws, or at least ask Congress to pass a special law for you." Sometimes, famous, noble people, like Mother Teresa, are beneficiaries of symbolic Congressional enactments. She was reportedly bestowed honorary U.S. citizenship, but never came to live here.

There is no "nice person" immigration law. We would like to think that most people in the world are nice and deserving, but this does not qualify that person to immigrate to the U.S. Likewise, U.S. citizens cannot "sponsor" someone to immigrate here just because they want to help the person or their family. People often come to us thinking that they can adopt a deserving person to set up a family immigrant petition. We have to explain that the adoption must occur before age 16, and that there is a two year physical custody requirement. U.S. law does provide for Family Orphan petitions, but the child must indeed be an orphan. Trying to qualify a niece or nephew as an orphan where existing family ties are not actually severed is not likely to succeed.

We hope this Overview will help to acquaint the reader with a "Bird's eye" View of the Immigration System. Among the services we provide as Immigration lawyers is an evaluation of the particular client's ability to qualify under one or more of the temporary or permanent categories. Oftentimes this involves discussing the pros and cons of the various opportunities that are identified. We invite you to contact our firm to schedule a consultation to discuss and evaluate your personal and family objectives. Upon identifying and selecting the desired classification we will be happy to represent you in pursuing your application.