Immigration Lawyer Seattle

Novo Legal Group is a Seattle immigration law firm representing immigrant families across the Greater Seattle and Puget Sound area — Bellevue, Redmond, Kent, Renton, Tukwila, Tacoma, and South King County. We appear at the Seattle Immigration Court, in person and by WebEx as the docket requires. Our practice covers deportation and removal defense, family-based immigration and green cards, DACA and humanitarian relief, and employment-based and H-1B immigration. Our team is bilingual in English and Spanish. Call (206) 212-0260 (Seattle office) or (888) 746-5245 (toll-free) to book a consultation.

How we help Seattle and Pacific Northwest immigrants

Family-based immigration and green cards

Most of the people who walk into our office are here for one reason: they are trying to keep a family together. We handle I-130 petitions, adjustment-of-status filings under INA § 245, consular processing, marriage-based green cards, and the harder cases — prior immigration history, prior denials, public-charge complications, criminal-history overlap, and waivers. Family-based immigration looks simple from the outside. In practice, the difference between a clean filing and a denied case often comes down to one document, one disclosure, or one waiver request prepared the right way. Start with our family immigration overview for a deeper look at the family track.

DACA — and what comes after DACA

DACA is in active litigation, and the program’s operational posture changes. We help DACA recipients with renewals, and we plan for what comes next — because no one should build their future on a program that is one court ruling away from changing. Where the facts support it, we look at asylum, U-visa relief for crime victims, VAWA self-petitions for survivors of domestic violence, and other humanitarian paths that can outlast DACA. This is a core part of our practice, not a side service: our Seattle office is led by Luis Cortés Romero, who was co-counsel on DHS v. Regents — the Supreme Court case that blocked the rescission of DACA. Luis has helped Washington families through thousands of DACA applications over the course of his career. See our DACA application lawyers page for the DACA-specific scope.

Employment-based and H-1B immigration

The Greater Seattle and Bellevue tech corridor is one of the highest-volume H-1B regions in the country, and the questions that come with an H-1B career rarely stop at the first petition. We work with specialty-occupation professionals and their employers on H-1B classification, cap and lottery questions, H-1B portability when you change employers (the “AC21” framework), extensions, and the transition from a temporary work visa to a green card through employer sponsorship. If your career is built on your status, your status deserves real legal attention — not a form filled out at the last minute. For the employment-based and family-based tracks alike, we work from our immigration law practice and tailor the strategy to your facts.

Removal defense in Seattle Immigration Court

If you or someone in your family has been placed in removal proceedings, the stakes could not be higher. A removal order can mean separation from a spouse, from children, from a life built over decades. Removal proceedings are governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1229a, and the procedural rules — burden allocation, in-absentia consequences, motions to reopen — leave no room for guesswork. We appear at the Seattle Immigration Court, in person and by WebEx as the docket requires, and we represent clients with matters on the Tacoma detained docket as well — the Pacific Northwest’s primary immigration detention court, near the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. A Seattle-area firm reaches both the non-detained and detained populations of the Puget Sound region without leaving the metro. We build the record at the Immigration Judge level with the appeal already in mind. Learn more on our deportation defense page.

Why Pacific Northwest families choose Novo Legal

A Seattle-based partner with Supreme Court DACA experience

This page is reviewed by Aaron Elinoff, Managing Partner at Novo Legal Group. Our Seattle office is led by Luis Cortés Romero, who was co-counsel on DHS v. Regents of the University of California — the case in which the Supreme Court held that the attempted rescission of DACA was unlawful — and sat at counsel table during the oral argument alongside Ted Olson. Over his career Luis has helped Washington families through thousands of DACA applications. Few attorneys anywhere were at counsel table for the Supreme Court case that decided DACA’s future. For a DACA recipient in Seattle deciding who to trust with their future, that experience is not a tagline — it is the difference between a lawyer who has read about the program and one who helped defend it.

Firm credentials: a nationally recognized immigration and civil-rights practice

Luis practices alongside Novo Legal’s broader leadership, including managing partner Aaron Elinoff, a nationally recognized immigration and civil-rights attorney. Novo Legal is not a satellite branch of an out-of-state firm and not a referral mill. We are a human rights firm — we frame immigration work as the defense of people and families, not the processing of paperwork. When your future in this country is on the line, you want a team that treats it that way.

A bilingual, native-Spanish team

Every Novo Legal attorney speaks English and Spanish. That is not a marketing line — it is a hiring standard. When your spouse needs to be on the consultation call, or your mother needs the engagement letter explained the way she would understand it at her own kitchen table, we do not hand you off to an interpreter. We represent you directly, in the language of your household. Novo Legal Group serves Pacific Northwest clients in English and Spanish at every stage — from the first intake call to the final hearing.

We appear regularly at the Seattle Immigration Court

We appear regularly at the Seattle Immigration Court, in person and by WebEx as the docket requires, and we represent clients on the Tacoma detained docket as well. Knowing the courtroom — the Immigration Judges, the ICE counsel, the local procedural conventions of the Western District of Washington — is not a credential we list on a wall. It is how we prepare every single hearing. Visit our Seattle office page for directions and the broader Seattle team.

Recent outcomes for Pacific Northwest clients

We do not publish raw volume claims, and we do not promise outcomes. What we can tell you, in plain language, is the kind of work our team does for Pacific Northwest families every year.

• Removal defense: Our team appears at the Seattle Immigration Court on removal cases throughout the year, including matters on both the non-detained Seattle docket and the Tacoma detained docket.
• Family-based filings: Our team files family-based petitions and adjustment-of-status packages — marriage-based green cards, parent and adult-child petitions, and the harder cases involving waivers and prior immigration history.
• DACA work: Our team prepares and files renewal packages for DACA recipients across Washington and continues to plan humanitarian alternatives as the program remains under active litigation.
• Employment-based immigration: Our team supports specialty-occupation professionals and their employers across the Seattle–Bellevue tech corridor with H-1B and employment-based green card matters.

Past results do not predict outcomes in any specific case. Every case turns on its facts, and immigration law changes — sometimes weekly. The honest version is this: we have done this work, in this courtroom, for years. We will tell you what we can and cannot do for your case at the consultation.

Frequently asked questions