Immigration

It seems that you may want to get immigration advice as soon as possible to find out if your son’s criminal history would disqualify him for a U visa - either as a principal applicant (applying on his own) and/or as a derivative (under your application). There are certain inadmissibility grounds (reasons why a person may be denied immigration status) and criminal convictions may be one of them – however, there may be a waiver that may be available to your son (which means that the person may qualify anyway). It seems that it may be important to know if your son’s criminal history is something that can be forgiven, or waived – and then you may know if it’s worth applying for him. I am not an immigration expert so I cannot advise you as to whether it would be waived or not. I will link you to lawyer referrals later in this email.

Also, if you apply for him as a “derivative”, he may have to be under 21 and unmarried - it is not clear to me if he’d still have to be under 21 and unmarried at the time the U visa is granted or only at the time you apply for it - again, an immigration attorney can hopefully answer this for you. Here are links for lawyers in STATE and some that are national organizations that you may want to
contact to find one that specializes in U Visas:
http://www.womenslaw.org/gethelp_state_type.php?type_id=1521&state_code=TX and
http://www.womenslaw.org/gethelp_national_type.php?type_id=1047

Here are some additional places in TX that do U visa work: LINK

And here is some basic info on U visas that may be useful:http://www.womenslaw.org/laws_state_type.php?id=10271&state_code=US