Immigration Attorney in Illinois

Most people who call us are not looking for a lecture on immigration law. They want to know three things: whether their case is possible, what it will take, and how long they will be waiting. This page answers those questions as plainly as we can, and tells you where the honest uncertainty lies.

We represent people across Chicagoland and throughout Illinois — from DuPage and Cook County and well beyond — in family-based petitions, humanitarian cases and removal proceedings. The firm has been doing this work since 1983, and Joe is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Consultations are free, and we take cases in English and Spanish.

Family-based immigration

Most of the cases we handle are families trying to stay together: a spouse, a fiancé(e), a parent or a child. Which route applies to you depends less on what you want and more on two facts — where the relative is right now, and how they last entered the United States.

Marriage-based green cards: two different roads

If your spouse is already in the United States and is eligible, the case may be handled through adjustment of status — the green card is applied for without leaving the country. If your spouse is abroad, the case normally runs through consular processing: the petition is approved here, then the interview happens at a US consulate in their country.

The two roads differ in cost, waiting time, travel risk and what happens if something goes wrong, and the choice is not always free — sometimes only one is available. We compare them properly at the consultation rather than guessing. Joe has written about the trade-offs in adjustment versus consular processing and about the evidence that actually persuades USCIS that a marriage is genuine.

A common question deserves a direct answer: an overstay does not automatically end a marriage-based case. For some spouses of US citizens it can be forgiven; for others, particularly where the last entry was not a lawful one, it changes the strategy completely. It turns on your specific history, which is why we ask about entries and dates early. See can a spouse adjust status after overstaying.

Fiancé(e) visas (K-1)

A K-1 visa brings a fiancé(e) to the United States to marry. It begins with Form I-129F, and USCIS requires that the couple intend to marry within 90 days of the fiancé(e)'s entry. After the wedding, a separate application is needed for the green card itself — the K-1 is the beginning of the process, not the end of it. If you are weighing it against a spouse visa, Joe compares them in K-1 versus CR-1, and walks through the sequence in the seven steps of the K-1 process.

Conditional residence — the deadline people miss

If the marriage is less than two years old when residence is granted, the green card is conditional and valid for two years. To keep it, Form I-751 must be filed in the 90-day window before the card expires. A conditional card cannot simply be renewed, and if the conditions are never removed the person loses permanent resident status and becomes removable. This is one of the most damaging deadlines to miss, and we calendar it for clients rather than leaving it to memory.

Humanitarian and protection cases

VAWA self-petitions

The Violence Against Women Act allows an abused spouse, child or parent of a US citizen or lawful permanent resident to petition without the abuser's knowledge, consent or participation. The petition is Form I-360, and USCIS charges no filing fee to a VAWA self-petitioner. Confidentiality protections apply to these cases. If you are weighing VAWA against a U visa, Joe sets out the difference in VAWA versus U visa and the requirements in VAWA self-petition requirements.

U visas for victims of crime

U nonimmigrant status is for victims of certain crimes who suffered substantial mental or physical abuse and who are helpful to law enforcement in investigating or prosecuting that crime. In practice the certification from a police department or prosecutor is the part that most often decides whether a case can move, and it is the part we spend the most effort on. More in U visa eligibility explained.

Asylum

There are three routes to asylum: the affirmative process with USCIS, an Asylum Merits Interview following a positive credible fear determination, and the defensive process in immigration court. The affirmative application is Form I-589, and it must generally be filed within one year of your last arrival in the United States — unless you qualify for an exception, such as changed circumstances or extraordinary circumstances.

If you are near, at, or past the one-year asylum deadline, call us before you assume the door has closed. Exceptions exist, but they have to be argued.

Asylum is also the area where the rules move most. Policy and litigation have changed what is possible more than once in recent years, so we check the current position on every case rather than relying on how it worked last year. Background reading: asylum versus withholding of removal and the supporting evidence that matters.

Deportation and removal defence

We appear for people in removal proceedings, and we take bond and cancellation of removal matters. If a family member has been detained, time matters more than anything else you will read on this page — call the office rather than waiting for a call back through the website.

If you have been served with a Notice to Appear, our deportation and removal defence page sets out what the document is, what happens at the master calendar and merits hearings, and the deadlines — including the 30 calendar days to appeal — that end options once they pass.

Work visas and employment-based immigration

We also handle immigration through work: TN status for Canadian and Mexican professionals, H-1B specialty occupations, employer-sponsored green cards and EB-2 petitions — including the National Interest Waiver, which lets an eligible person petition for a green card on their own, with no sponsoring employer. We act for individual professionals and for the businesses that hire them.

Our work visa and employment immigration page sets out which route fits which situation, how PERM labour certification works for employers, and why a Canadian and a Mexican professional take different paths to the same TN status.

What working with us actually looks like

• A free consultation. We establish what happened, in what order, and on what dates. Most bad immigration outcomes trace back to a fact nobody asked about at the start.
• A strategy, and the alternatives. If there is more than one route, you hear the trade-offs. If there is a real risk, you hear that too.
• Preparation and filing. Forms are the easy part; the evidence is what decides cases.
• Requests for evidence and interviews. We respond to RFEs and prepare you properly for the interview. Joe has written a spousal interview preparation guide and how to prepare for an adjustment interview.
• Deadlines, tracked. Including the ones that arrive years later, like removing conditions on a green card.

What it costs

There are two separate costs in any immigration case: the government filing fees that USCIS charges, and the legal fees for the work.

We deliberately do not print USCIS fee amounts on this page. The fee schedule is being actively revised and parts of it are in litigation — a new edition was issued in September 2026 — so any figure published here would be out of date before long. Check the current amounts on the official USCIS fee schedule, or ask us and we will confirm what applies to your case on the day. One fee worth knowing: USCIS charges nothing to file a VAWA self-petition.

Our own fees are quoted before any work begins, the first consultation is free, payment plans are available and we accept all major credit cards.

How long it takes

Honestly: it depends, and anyone who gives you a confident number without looking at your case is guessing. Timing turns on the form, the service centre or consulate handling it, your category, and whether a request for evidence is issued. USCIS publishes current figures by form and office — you can look yours up on the USCIS processing times page. What we can tell you is which stage your case is at, what is normal for it now, and when waiting has become a problem worth acting on.

Our office, and Spanish

Our office is in Oak Brook, at 2625 Butterfield Road, Suite 138S. Consultations can also be done by video if travelling is difficult — Joe describes what to expect in what to expect in a video consultation. Se habla español: we take cases in Spanish, and some of our guides are written in Spanish.

About the firm

Joseph C. Michelotti has practised law in Illinois since 1983, read law at McGill University, and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He handles immigration alongside bankruptcy and foreclosure defence — which matters more often than you would expect, because financial pressure and immigration problems tend to arrive together in the same household. You can read more about Joe, or see what clients have said.

Nothing on this page is legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship. Immigration law changes; what is written here was checked against USCIS guidance in September 2026.