Immigration Lawyer in San Jose, CA

An immigration lawyer in San Jose helps with green cards, citizenship, waivers and fighting removal, and also defends the criminal charges that can trigger those problems. The Law Offices of David S. Chesley's immigration practice handles both sides together, because a plea entered in a Santa Clara County courtroom can decide the outcome of a separate federal immigration case.

Our law firm has been featured on

David Chesley in the news

Select a photo to enlarge

Where is a San Jose criminal case heard?

Santa Clara County's own court names four buildings. Your citation or release paperwork names the one that actually applies to you.

The Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara states on its own criminal division page: "Criminal cases are heard in the Hall of Justice in downtown San Jose, as well as in the Family Justice Center (Drug Court), Palo Alto, and South County Courthouses." A written notice to appear for a misdemeanor, under Penal Code 853.6(a)(1), must state only "the time when, and place where, the person shall appear in court." It does not list a department. Read the paper closely rather than guessing the building.

The Law Offices of David S. Chesley's own San Jose office is at 177 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95113, (669) 900-4115. The firm's wider San Jose practice is on the San Jose criminal defense page, and a San Jose DUI arrest has its own page, the San Jose DUI page.

Where does a San Jose immigration case actually go?

Three different federal agencies, in three different places, not San Jose itself.

USCIS assigns San Jose addresses to a real, named office: the USCIS San Jose Field Office, 1450 Coleman Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95050, confirmed directly through USCIS's own locator for San Jose ZIP codes. That office handles interviews for green card and other non-asylum cases and naturalization ceremonies. It is appointment-only; USCIS does not accept walk-ins. Biometrics (fingerprints and photos) are handled separately, at a USCIS Application Support Center, not at the field office. USCIS's own page says it best: "Please refer to your interview or appointment notice to confirm the field office address for your visit."

Immigration court is a separate system entirely, run by the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR's own court listing shows only two Northern California courts: Concord and Sacramento. No EOIR page states which counties or cities each one actually covers, so this page does not guess. What decides a real case is the hearing notice the immigration court itself sends once a Notice to Appear is filed; that notice states the court, the date and the time. The Concord Immigration Court sits at 1855 Gateway Boulevard, Suite 850, Concord, CA 94520, (925) 680-9015, open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday except federal holidays.

Once a case is filed, EOIR's Automated Case Information System lets a person check it online. In EOIR's own words, ACIS "provides basic information about the status of certain cases," and "Not all cases, or all information about a case is displayed." It needs the person's A-Number and nationality. EOIR says plainly that the documents the court or the Board of Immigration Appeals actually issue, not ACIS, "are the only official determinations related to your case."

ICE runs removal and detention matters out of its Enforcement and Removal Operations San Francisco Field Office, 630 Sansome Street, Room 590, San Francisco, CA 94111, (415) 365-8800. ICE's own directory lists that office's Area of Responsibility as "Northern California, Hawaii, Guam, Saipan," which is the office covering San Jose.

How can a criminal case change someone's immigration status?

Two federal statutes decide this, not the Santa Clara County court. Each one lists specific grounds.

8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(2) makes a noncitizen already admitted to the country deportable for any of the following:

• An aggravated felony, at any time after admission.
• A single crime involving moral turpitude, if it was committed within five years of admission and could carry a sentence of a year or more.
• Two or more crimes of moral turpitude at any time after admission, as long as they did not come from a single scheme of criminal misconduct.
• Certain controlled substance offenses.
• Certain firearms offenses.
• A crime of domestic violence, stalking, child abuse or neglect, or violating a protective order.

A different statute, 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2), decides inadmissibility, which comes up when applying for a visa, a green card or reentry. It reaches a crime involving moral turpitude or a controlled substance violation. There is a real exception, but it is narrower than it sounds, and it applies only to the moral turpitude ground, never to a drug offense:

• One branch covers a single crime committed before age 18, but only if the crime, and any release from confinement for it, happened more than five years before the application.
• The other branch, the one usually called the petty offense exception, covers a single crime where the maximum possible sentence did not exceed one year, and the person was not sentenced to more than six months. That six-month limit looks at the sentence a judge imposed, not the time actually served.

"Aggravated felony" is its own federal term, defined at 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(43). It can include a theft or burglary offense, or a crime of violence, but only where the sentence imposed reaches one year. California's own Penal Code 18.5 caps a California misdemeanor at 364 days, so a California misdemeanor by itself cannot reach that one-year mark; it takes a felony sentence to trigger those two categories.

Whether something even counts as a "conviction" has its own federal rule, at 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(48)(A). A formal judgment of guilt is a conviction on its own. Separately, where a court withheld a formal judgment, a guilty plea, a no contest plea, or an admission of facts, combined with any punishment the judge orders, also counts as a conviction. A suspended sentence still counts at its full length for this purpose; actual time served does not matter.

A conviction can also close off relief. 8 U.S.C. 1229b lets an immigration judge cancel removal in some cases, but an aggravated felony bars it for a lawful permanent resident, and a conviction under 1182(a)(2), 1227(a)(2) or 1227(a)(3) bars it for most other people.

Does the court have to warn me before I plead guilty?

Yes, before nearly every plea. The court may not need to use those exact words for a plea taken before 2026.

Penal Code 1016.5 requires a judge to read this advisement, word for word, before accepting a guilty or no contest plea to almost any crime: "If you are not a citizen of the United States, you are hereby advised that conviction of the offense for which you have been charged may have the consequences of deportation, exclusion from admission to the United States, or denial of naturalization pursuant to the laws of the United States." If the court skips it, and the conviction may in fact carry one of those three consequences, a judge can vacate the plea. A 2026 change, Senate Bill 281, added one limit: for a plea taken before January 1, 2026, a warning that was given, just not word for word, is not by itself a reason to vacate the plea.

What if nobody ever warned me about immigration consequences?

Two separate California rules exist for this, and they protect different gaps.

Penal Code 1016.2 adopts the United States Supreme Court's decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356, 374 (2010). The Court's own words: "we now hold that counsel must inform her client whether his plea carries a risk of deportation." Penal Code 1016.3 turns that into a California duty: defense counsel must give accurate, affirmative advice about immigration consequences, and prosecutors must weigh those consequences as one factor in plea negotiations.

For a conviction that is already final, Penal Code 1473.7 lets someone no longer in custody move to vacate it. The ground is broader than bad legal advice alone: any prejudicial error that damaged the person's ability to meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the immigration consequences qualifies, and a separate finding of ineffective counsel is not required. Timing runs from the later of two events: a notice asserting the conviction as a basis for removal, or for denying an immigration benefit, lawful status or naturalization, or notice that a final removal order has issued. Before any new plea, reviewing the charge and the immigration history together is worth doing before, not after, the plea is entered.

What immigration services does the firm handle beyond the criminal case?

The firm's immigration practice covers asylum, the EB-5 investor program, and the firm's own named family-hardship waivers, Waivers 601 and 601(a) (these are USCIS form numbers, Form I-601 and Form I-601A, not statute sections). It covers adjustment of status toward a green card and citizenship and naturalization filings. For someone in removal proceedings, the firm handles Cancellation of Removal 42(b) or 42(a), an EOIR form name tied to the actual statute, 8 U.S.C. 1229b, and, if that first request fails, a motion to reopen or reconsider.

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, under 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)(J), is available to a child a juvenile court has found cannot safely reunify with one or both parents because of abuse, neglect or abandonment, where return to the home country would not serve the child's interest, and where DHS consents. The firm also handles T Visas for trafficking victims and U Visas for other qualifying crime victims. A U Visa petition is required by law to include a certification from a law enforcement official, prosecutor or judge; 8 U.S.C. 1184(p)(1) says the petition "shall contain a certification." A criminal protective order is a separate service the firm can help file; it is not part of the U Visa petition itself.

For a case that is already final, the firm also handles post-conviction relief, such as sealing records and certificates of rehabilitation. Those steps help with other parts of life, but they do not by themselves undo an immigration consequence. The BIA's own rule in Matter of Pickering, 23 I&N Dec. 621 (2003), is direct: a conviction vacated solely for rehabilitation or hardship reasons, rather than for a real legal defect in the case, "is not eliminated for immigration purposes." The routes that actually matter for immigration are the ones above, Penal Code 1016.5 and 1473.7.

Frequently asked questions

Does a single misdemeanor in San Jose ever lead to deportation?

A single misdemeanor crime of domestic violence does. So does a single controlled substance offense. Two separate crimes of moral turpitude, even two misdemeanors, can be enough on their own under 8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(2).

If I plead no contest instead of guilty, is my immigration case safer?

No. Under 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(48)(A), a no contest plea counts exactly like a guilty plea once a judge imposes any punishment.

Does an arrest by itself hurt my immigration case if I am never convicted?

Sometimes, yes, even without a conviction. Since the Laken Riley Act (Pub. L. 119-1, January 29, 2025), 8 U.S.C. 1226(c)(1)(E) requires federal custody for a noncitizen already inadmissible under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(A), (6)(C) or (7) who is charged with, is arrested for, is convicted of, admits having committed, or admits committing acts which constitute the essential elements of burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, assault on a law enforcement officer, or a crime causing death or serious injury.

Can local police hand someone over to ICE straight from a Santa Clara County jail?

Rarely. California's Values Act, Government Code 7284.6(a)(1)(B), bars local law enforcement from detaining someone on an immigration hold request alone. Section 7284.6(a)(4) bars a transfer to immigration authorities unless a judicial warrant or judicial probable cause finding authorizes it, or Government Code 7282.5 allows it. That exception reaches only a specific list of convictions, including serious and violent felonies and certain other offenses it names.

Does a U Visa require a police certification, or just cooperating with an investigation?

The certification is required, not optional. 8 U.S.C. 1184(p)(1) requires a certification from a law enforcement official, prosecutor or judge before the petition can be filed.

What if my immigration application is already pending and I am worried about an old San Jose case?

Review the old case against the pending application now, rather than waiting. How it was resolved, and how it is disclosed on the application, both matter.

Talk to a lawyer about a San Jose immigration or criminal matter today

A criminal deadline in Santa Clara County and a federal immigration deadline can both be running on the same case at the same time. The Law Offices of David S. Chesley offers a free consultation, is available 24/7, and offers payment plans. Call (800) 755-5174 or use the firm's consultation request form to go over the facts before either case moves forward.