Immigration · Miami
Miami immigration lawyer
Two of Florida’s three immigration courts are in Miami-Dade, and which one hears your case depends on where you are held
Jose A. Dapena handles immigration from the office on Sunset Drive in South Miami. 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.
- Miami office
- 5975 Sunset Drive, Suite 102
South Miami, FL 33143 - Phone
- (305) 662-4323
- Hours
- Monday to Friday
08:30–17:00 - Who handles it
- Jose A. Dapena
Florida Bar 152358
Miami-Dade holds two of Florida’s three immigration courts, which makes it unlike anywhere else in the state. The Miami Immigration Court hears non-detained cases on charging documents from the Miami DHS district office and its sub-offices. The Miami Krome Immigration Court, inside the Krome North Service Processing Center, hears cases for people in custody there and at the other facilities under its control, including Broward Transitional Center and Glades.
Which one a case is in is decided by whether the person is detained and by which DHS office issued the charging document — not 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 Miami
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 Miami-Dade immigration case is heard
Miami Immigration Court
One River View Square, 333 South Miami Avenue, Suite 700, Miami, FL 33130
Immigration court is federal and entirely separate from the state courts where a divorce or an injury case is heard. For a non-detained case in Miami-Dade, this is the building, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review lists it as controlling charging documents from the Miami DHS district office and its sub-offices other than Orlando’s.
If the person is detained, the case is almost certainly at Krome. The Miami Krome Immigration Court sits inside the Krome North Service Processing Center at 18201 SW 12th Street, and it controls cases for people held there and at Broward Transitional Center, Glades and the other facilities on its list. A detained case moves on a far faster schedule than a non-detained one, which is the single biggest practical difference between them.
Read the Notice to Appear rather than assuming. The charging document names the court. Where someone lives does not decide it, and a family that guesses from an address can send someone to the wrong building on a hearing date. The court’s automated case information system will also confirm the next hearing date from an A-number.
Being nine miles from the Miami court 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 South Miami office on Sunset Drive, a few blocks west of US-1 and the Metrorail station, with parking on site. By phone where someone 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 Miami
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. In Miami-Dade they are often at Krome or Broward Transitional Center, 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. Miami-Dade has two and the assignment follows whether you are detained and which DHS office issued the document, not your address. Guessing from where you live is how hearings get missed.
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. With Venezuela and Haiti terminated, a great many people in Miami-Dade are in exactly this position, and 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.
How fast does a detained case move?
Much faster than a non-detained one, and that gap is what catches families out. A non-detained case can sit for a year or more between hearings. A detained case can have a bond hearing within days of one being requested and merits hearings on a schedule measured in weeks, which compresses gathering records, finding a sponsor and getting a criminal disposition read into the period when all three are hardest to do.
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 Miami immigration case
The South Miami office is on Sunset Drive. If someone 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.