Pembroke Pines, FL Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

You have a major problem. Even if you did not have the conviction, sounds like the arrest involves a situation where an officer may have "reason to believe" that you are engaged or were at some point engaged in the illicit trafficking of a controlled substance. The idea here is that the immigration law provides an avenue by which an application for admission to the US (i.e. through a petition filed by a member of your family) can ultimately be denied based on this "reason to believe" charge without the existence of a conviction. So the conviction is not the issue as much as what the police report, arrest affidavit and other competent and probative evidence relating to your arrest may establish. So instead of going from lawyer to lawyer, each telling you how wonderful they are and how much they can do if you just pay them first, I would recommend finding someone who is experienced and competent enough to figure this out for you ahead of time. This is a tough case with which to have success. There may be a way out of it if you have the right attorney and if the truth is that you were not involved in what the evidence and the fact of your conviction may say. Choose wisely and good luck.

Drug offenses are deportable offenses.  There is an exception for convictions involving possession only of small amounts of marijuana.  You shouldn't apply for citizenship until the offense is at least five years old, and even then, you should hire an attorney to engage in a thorough analysis of the issue for you.

Assuming you are a U.S. Citizen, which is unclear from the question, then when you reach 21 years of age you can file an I-130 petition for your sister with USCIS. The processing dates vary with demand and work load but currently the petitions are decided after about six months from filing if you live in the Western part of the U.S. Assuming the I-130 is approved, you then can file paperwork to immigrate your sister with the National Visa Center of the Department of State, using the I-130 approval from USCIS as a basis and starting point. This stage of the process is somewhat involved, but assuming you qualify in terms of income to immigrate her, then you apply and wait. Since your sister is not considered an immediate relative, she has to wait for a visa to become current in her visa preference category. Again, processing times vary with demand and workload, but there is a special factor in waiting for a visa to become current. Only a certain number of visas are created each year, and they are distributed according to a system of preferences which can be compared to a fountain with water that drips down many levels to the bottom. A visa for the brother or sister of a U.S. citizen is at the very bottom, below all other categories. There is a rough way of predicting the wait. Right now, visas are becoming current for applicants for the Dominican Republic in your sister's visa preference category where the priority date from USCIS was 01JAN02, almost nine years ago. If the pace of applications filed and visas created continues indefinitely into the future, then you can expect roughly that it will take nine years from the time you file with USCIS and the application is accepted before a visa will become current for your sister, who will likely have to wait outside of the U.S. until it does. Please note that without a retainer agreement, we do not represent you or your sister, no communication is attorney client privileged, and we cannot be responsible for your sister's case.