Immigration · Homestead
Homestead immigration lawyer
The Krome immigration court is closer to this office than to any other in the county
Jose A. Dapena handles immigration from the Homestead office on NE 15th Street. Removal defense and bond, asylum, U and T visas, VAWA, waivers, family petitions, adjustment of status, citizenship, DACA and TPS. The consultation is with the attorney who would appear.
- Homestead office
- 100 NE 15th Street, Suite 210
Homestead, FL 33030 - Phone
- (786) 900-0184
- Hours
- Monday to Friday
08:30–17:00 - Who handles it
- Jose A. Dapena
Florida Bar 152358
South Dade is closer to the detention system than anywhere else in Florida. The Miami Krome Immigration Court sits inside the Krome North Service Processing Center on SW 12th Street, and it controls cases for people held there and at the other facilities on its list, including Broward Transitional Center and Glades. For a family in Homestead or Florida City, that is the court the case is almost certainly in if somebody is detained.
Non-detained cases go to the Miami Immigration Court downtown instead. Which one a case is in is decided by whether the person is detained and by which DHS office issued the charging document — never by where they live. The law behind all of it is on the Florida immigration page.
01 Handled from this office
Immigration matters handled from Homestead
Each one has its own page, with the Florida statutes and what actually decides the case.
- Deportation and removal defenseThe government started this case, which means the deadlines are the government’s and not yours
- Immigration bondWhether bond is even available is decided before anyone argues about the amount
- AsylumOne year from your last arrival, and the exceptions are narrower than people hope
- U visas and T visasStatus built on having been a victim, and on having helped
- VAWA self-petitionsThe petition the abuser does not sign, is not told about, and cannot stop
- Waivers of inadmissibilityA US citizen child does not count, and that single fact changes most of these cases
- Family petitionsTwo categories, and only one of them has a line to stand in
- Adjustment of statusGetting the green card without leaving, and the entry question that decides who can
- Consular processingThe route for people who cannot finish the case here, and the question to settle before booking anything
- Citizenship and naturalizationThe civics test changed, and most of what is published still describes the old one
- DACARenewals still work. First-time requests are a different conversation.
- Temporary Protected StatusFor most people reading this, the designation has already ended
- Marriage and fiancé visasMarry first or marry after, and the ninety-day rule that is not negotiable
- Work permitsThere is no application for a work permit by itself, and that is the thing most people are not told
- Green card renewalThe card expires. Your residence does not — but three things can still go wrong
02 Where a South Dade immigration case is heard
Miami Krome Immigration Court
Krome North Service Processing Center, 18201 SW 12th Street, Miami, FL 33194
Immigration court is federal and entirely separate from the state courts where a divorce or an injury case is heard. It is also separate from the South Dade Justice Center, which handles the state matters from this part of the county and has nothing to do with an immigration case.
A detained case moves on a far faster schedule than a non-detained one. That is the single biggest practical difference between them, and it is why the first twenty-four hours after a detention are worth more than the next three weeks. Bond, where bond is even available, is decided early.
Read the Notice to Appear rather than assuming. The charging document names the court. A family that guesses from an address can send somebody to the wrong building on a hearing date, and a missed hearing is its own problem. The court’s automated case information system will confirm the next hearing date from an A-number.
Being in Homestead matters for one specific reason: a detained case can require appearances at short notice, and a transfer between facilities can change the court without much warning.
03 How it starts
- The consultationAt the Homestead office in Homestead, the main road through town, a short drive from US-1 and the Turnpike. By phone where somebody is detained and time matters. It is with Jose A. Dapena.
- What to bringAny charging document, any notice from the immigration court or USCIS, every receipt notice, any prior filing including ones that were denied, and everything from any criminal case in any state, open or closed. Bring it incomplete rather than not at all.
- The datesWhen you last entered and how, how long you have been here without a break, and when anything was filed before. More immigration outcomes turn on dates than on anything else, and a date nobody wrote down gets reconstructed badly later.
- What it costsImmigration matters are billed hourly, which is the opposite of how the injury side of this office works. Government filing fees are separate and paid to the agency that sets them. Payment plans are available, and the rate is stated before anything is signed.
What people ask in Homestead
My relative was detained last night. What happens now?
Find the A-number — nine digits beginning with A, on almost any immigration paperwork — and the ICE detainee locator will find them. From South Dade they are frequently at Krome, and the court for detained cases there is the Miami Krome Immigration Court. Whether bond is even available is the first question, and it turns on the charge and the record rather than on sympathy.
Which immigration court do I go to?
The one named on your Notice to Appear. Detained cases out of Krome go to the Krome court; non-detained cases generally go to the Miami Immigration Court downtown. The assignment follows custody and which DHS office issued the document, not your address.
Does working in agriculture change anything?
Not the immigration rules themselves, but it changes what evidence exists. Pay records, crew leader records and tax filings are frequently the proof of continuous presence and of work history that a case needs, and they are easier to gather before they are needed than after.
Can I be deported while my green card case is pending?
A pending case at USCIS does not stop a removal case in immigration court. They are separate tracks and the court does not pause because something is filed elsewhere. What can be done is to ask the court to account for it, which depends on what is pending and how far along it is.
My TPS ended. Am I out of options?
Usually not, though the answer is individual. The useful question becomes what else you qualify for — a family petition, asylum if the year is still open, withholding if it is not, a U visa, VAWA. The worst outcome is finding out after a charging document arrives.
Does an old arrest matter?
Often decisively, and not the way state court treated it. A withhold of adjudication is frequently a conviction for immigration purposes, and a sentence of exactly one year can close off most relief. This office handles criminal defense as well, which is why both sides can be read together rather than one after the other.
Consultations and attorney’s fees are billed hourly. Government filing fees and other third-party expenses are separate. Payment plans are available.
Talk to Jose A. Dapena about a South Dade immigration case
The Homestead office is on NE 15th Street. If somebody is detained, call rather than wait for an appointment.
Consultations and attorney’s fees are billed hourly. Government filing fees and other third-party expenses are separate. Payment plans are available.