Austin Immigration Lawyer

Areas of Practice

Many clients arrive with one legal problem and discover, in the conversation, that several pieces of their life or business need attention. A broad practice background spanning immigration, business, property, and family wealth makes it possible to see the connections and bring focused experience to each piece. The firm does not try to be everything to everyone, but the areas it does handle, it has handled for many years.

Immigration Law

Immigration is one of the most active parts of the practice. As an experienced Austin immigration lawyer and Texas immigration attorney, Kyle Kinzy has handled immigration matters for more than 20 years and has filed applications across most categories the system recognizes, from routine family petitions to complex investor, humanitarian, and removal-defense matters.

On the family side, the firm helps clients bring spouses, children, fiancé(e)s, parents, and siblings to the United States and obtain green cards through marriage, family petitions, adjustment of status, and consular processing. For businesses and investors, it handles E-2 Treaty Investor visas, EB-5 Immigrant Investor visas, L-1 intracompany transfers, EB-1C multinational executive petitions, H-1B and employment-based petitions, and O-1 extraordinary ability cases. The firm has structured E-2 and EB-5 investments across a range of industries, including real estate, construction, distribution, hospitality, retail, franchising, solar power, farming, cattle, and ranching, and it is comfortable working through the business and deal-structure questions that decide whether an investor petition succeeds. Our firm also helps long-time permanent residents apply for U.S. citizenship through naturalization, and it evaluates complicated cases where filing is not as simple as it looks.

A significant part of the work sits at the intersection of criminal and immigration law. When a non-citizen faces criminal charges, the immigration consequences often matter as much as the criminal case itself, and the firm works with criminal defense counsel on the immigration exposure of a charge or plea. The firm represents people in removal proceedings in immigration court, including bond hearings, cancellation of removal, and asylum, and it handles withholding of removal, Convention Against Torture protection, TPS, U visas, T visas, and VAWA self-petitions, as well as appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals and the federal circuit courts.

Immigration clients are served in English, Spanish, Hindi, and Urdu, with attorney and staff or interpreter support. Federal immigration practice is available nationwide from the Austin office.

Estate Planning and Asset Protection

Estate planning is about making sure that what you have built supports the people you love, that your wishes are followed, and that someone you trust can make decisions if you cannot. The firm prepares wills, revocable living trusts, financial and medical powers of attorney, advance directives, HIPAA authorizations, and guardianship designations for minor children. For business owners, ranchers, professionals, real estate investors, and international families, the firm layers in asset protection planning, including Texas LLCs, series LLCs, family limited partnerships, irrevocable trusts where appropriate, and proper insurance coordination. Texas already offers some of the strongest built-in asset protection in the country, but those protections only go so far without a real plan.

Texas Probate

When a loved one passes away, somebody has to handle the legal side. The Texas probate process is more streamlined than in many other states, particularly when there is a properly drafted will, but it still requires careful attention. The firm handles independent administrations, muniment of title proceedings, small estate affidavits, determinations of heirship when there is no will, and contested probate matters when family disputes arise. Many clients come in shortly after a parent or spouse has died with no idea where to start. You will get a clear walk-through of what needs to happen, what it will cost, and how long it will take.

Business Law

Whether you are starting a company, buying one, selling one, or running into a problem with one, the legal pieces should not slow you down. The firm handles entity formation (LLC, S corporation, partnership), operating and shareholder agreements, contracts, and disputes for small and mid-sized companies and for foreign owners entering the U.S. market, including multimillion-dollar transactions. For owners who do not need a full-time lawyer but want one a phone call away, the firm offers fractional outside general counsel arrangements.

Civil Litigation

When negotiation is not enough, the firm represents businesses and individuals in commercial disputes, contract claims, business torts, high-value consumer matters, and real estate disputes, and it handles appellate work in state and federal courts in Texas and Illinois, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The firm takes matters through trial, settlement, and appeal, and it serves as co-counsel with other firms, including on personal-injury and complex civil matters where an additional experienced hand is useful. Every case begins with an honest assessment of what the facts support, what it will cost, and whether the result is likely to be worth the fight. Results depend on the facts of each case, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

More Practice Areas

The firm also handles a focused set of additional practice areas: real estate law (residential and commercial transactions, owner financing, commercial leases, title and boundary disputes, 1031 exchanges, and FIRPTA planning for foreign buyers); franchise law (FDD review, franchise agreement negotiation, multi-unit development, and coordination of franchise acquisition with E-2 or EB-5 filings); ranching and agricultural law (mineral and surface rights, water rights, grazing and hunting leases, easements, agricultural and wildlife valuation, and ranch succession); and integrated counsel for international families and foreign-owned businesses. Languages: English, Spanish, Hindi, and Urdu.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Mediation and arbitration services. Kyle Kinzy is a licensed Texas mediator and has served as an advocate in international commercial arbitration, including matters seated in the United States and in Singapore.

Why Clients Choose Kinzy Law

Substantial experience in each core practice area. In immigration, estate planning, business, litigation, real estate, and the firm’s other areas, the attorney brings more than 20 years of experience in the relevant jurisdiction. Long experience in a practice area builds the kind of judgment that helps a matter get resolved efficiently and without surprises.

Multilingual capability. Attorney Kinzy speaks fluent English and Spanish (se habla español). Staff and interpreter support serve clients in Hindi and Urdu, which is why South Asian and Latin American families with U.S. legal needs often choose the firm.

Cross-practice perspective. International families need immigration, estate planning, and business advice together. Ranchers need real estate, succession planning, and business structure together. Many clients with international or cross-practice needs end up coordinating between three different lawyers. The firm brings it together.

Serving Austin, Texas, and Beyond

The office is located in West Lake Hills, just minutes from downtown Austin. The firm serves clients throughout Travis, Hays, Williamson, Bastrop, and Burnet counties, including Austin, West Lake Hills, Rollingwood, Lakeway, Bee Cave, Dripping Springs, Kyle, Buda, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, and Georgetown. It also handles matters in San Antonio, Houston, the Dallas–Fort Worth area, Corpus Christi, and across rural Texas where ranching and agricultural work takes it.

Attorney Kinzy is licensed to practice in Illinois (since 1996) and continues to serve clients with matters in the Chicago metropolitan area, particularly federal immigration matters before the immigration courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The firm does not maintain a physical office in Illinois; Illinois clients are served from the Texas office.

For federal immigration matters, the firm represents clients nationwide and worldwide, including consular processing matters, asylum and removal proceedings in immigration courts across the country, and appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals and federal circuit courts. Non-immigration services, including estate planning, probate, business, real estate, and litigation, are offered only in Texas and Illinois, where the firm’s attorney is licensed. If you are searching for an Austin immigration lawyer or a Texas immigration attorney for a federal case anywhere in the country, this practice is set up to handle it.

For Referring and Co-Counsel Attorneys

A meaningful part of the firm’s work comes from other lawyers. Criminal defense counsel refer clients whose charges or pleas carry immigration consequences, so the criminal case and the immigration exposure can be handled together. Personal-injury and civil litigators bring the firm in as co-counsel when an extra experienced hand is useful. In each case, the firm handles the referred matter, keeps you informed, and returns the client to you.

Co-counsel arrangements can sometimes be made with referring attorneys, including on investor-visa matters such as E-2 and EB-5. Where such an arrangement is made, the client agrees to it in writing and knows the fee arrangement, consistent with the applicable disciplinary rules.

Mr. Kinzy is also writing a practical guide to the E-2 process, on how an investor and counsel can work together toward a successful application. Referring and co-counsel lawyers can request a copy when it is available.

Schedule a Consultation

Schedule a 30-minute consultation. You will walk away knowing whether you have a problem worth solving and whether this is the right firm to solve it.