Mandi Law Group

§Capital Region Immigration Lawyer

An immigration lawyer who is actually in the Capital Region

Mandi Law Group LLP works from one office — 22 Century Hill Drive #101, Latham, NY 12110 — about ten minutes from downtown Albany, and a few minutes from the USCIS Albany Field Office on Troy-Schenectady Road where this region’s green-card and citizenship interviews are held. Walk in Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., without an appointment.

Most firms advertising Capital Region immigration work are running the case from downstate. M. Riaz Musani, Esq. has practised immigration law since 2012, is admitted in New York and Connecticut, and takes the meeting himself. Consultations are confidential and paid; the fee is quoted in writing before any work begins, and payment plans are available.

Book a consultation(518) 698-0347
Latham
The firm's only office
Walk-ins
Mon–Fri 9:00–18:00 ET
USCIS Albany
Minutes from the field office
Since 2012
M. Riaz Musani in immigration law

01About Our Albany Practice

Based here, not visiting from downstate

The Capital Region of New York — comprising Albany County, Schenectady County, Rensselaer County, and Saratoga County — is home to over 1.1 million residents and serves as the governmental, educational, healthcare, and economic center of upstate New York. From the historic state capitol in Albany to the tech manufacturing facilities in Malta, the universities in Troy, and the growing cities of Schenectady and Saratoga Springs — the Capital Region's economy is diverse and dynamic.

Mandi Law Group LLP works from 22 Century Hill Drive #101 in Latham, minutes from downtown Albany and Troy, and minutes from the USCIS Albany Field Office at 1086 Troy-Schenectady Road, where the region’s naturalization and adjustment interviews are held. You can walk in on a weekday between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. and put the documents on the table. The people who do are state employees and their relatives, international students at UAlbany and RPI, engineers at GLOBALFOUNDRIES and IBM, nurses and physicians at Albany Med and St. Peter’s, faculty and postdocs, small-business owners, and families who arrived through resettlement and are now ready to file.

The work is the whole range: Form I-129 petitions for H-1B, L-1, O-1 and TN status; I-130 family petitions and I-485 adjustment; K-1 fiancé(e) visas; PERM and I-140 employment green cards; N-400 naturalisation; I-751 to remove conditions; I-589 asylum; I-601 and I-601A waivers; F-1 status, OPT and CPT questions; removal defence and EOIR-26 appeals; and I-9 and E-Verify compliance for employers. Clients come from Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Saratoga Springs and across the Capital Region.

Capital Region Areas

Clients come in from across these towns

  • Albany
  • Colonie
  • Guilderland
  • Bethlehem
  • Cohoes
  • Watervliet
  • Green Island
  • Altamont
  • Schenectady
  • Niskayuna
  • Rotterdam
  • Glenville

Ask an immigration lawyer

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Submitting this form does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send confidential information until a written engagement letter is signed.

Confidential. Paid consultations with payment plans available. Immigration matters only, NY & CT.

02Services

Immigration Services for Capital Region Clients

  1. Employment Immigration for Capital Region Professionals

    The Capital Region is home to major employers including New York State government, universities (UAlbany, RPI, Union College, Siena), healthcare systems (Albany Med, St. Peter's), tech companies (GLOBALFOUNDRIES, IBM), and growing startups. We assist professionals with H-1B visas, L-1 transfers, O-1 visas, TN visas, and employment-based green cards.

  2. Family Immigration Services

    I-130 petitions for a spouse, child, parent or sibling; I-485 adjustment of status; K-1 fiancé(e) visas; consular processing through the National Visa Center; and I-751 to remove the conditions on a two-year green card. Marriage and adjustment interviews for this region are held at the USCIS Albany Field Office, and couples are prepared for the questions that office actually asks.

  3. Citizenship & Naturalization

    The N-400 is reviewed before it is filed — continuous residence, physical presence, time spent abroad, taxes, selective service, and any arrest anywhere, however minor it seemed. Then the application, the biometrics appointment, and the interview and civics test at the USCIS Albany Field Office, which also schedules the oath ceremonies for this region.

  4. Deportation Defense & Asylum

    Affirmative asylum on Form I-589 before the asylum office, defensive asylum and withholding of removal in immigration court, cancellation of removal, bond hearings, I-601 and I-601A waivers, and appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals on Form EOIR-26. Capital Region cases are generally heard at the Buffalo Immigration Court, or at Batavia if you are detained. Bring the Notice to Appear; the venue and hearing date printed on it decide the first move.

03Why this firm

What is actually different about using this office

  1. A real office you can walk into, in Latham

    The firm's only office is at 22 Century Hill Dr #101, Latham, NY 12110, in the Century Hill office park in the Town of Colonie. Walk in between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on any weekday — no appointment — or come Saturday by arrangement. That matters more than it sounds: most firms advertising Capital Region immigration work are running the case from downstate. Here you can sit across a table from the attorney handling your file, empty the shoebox of documents onto it, and leave knowing what happens next.

  2. Close to the offices your case actually goes through

    Naturalisation and adjustment-of-status interviews for Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Saratoga and the surrounding counties are held at the USCIS Albany Field Office on Troy-Schenectady Road in Latham — not downstate. Non-detained removal cases from this region are generally venued at the Buffalo Immigration Court, and detained cases at the Batavia court inside the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, though some are venued in New York City at 26 Federal Plaza instead. The venue and the date are printed on your Notice to Appear; we read that first, because a missed hearing usually produces a removal order in your absence.

  3. The communities the Capital Region actually has

    Albany's immigrant population is substantially Dominican, Ecuadorian, Salvadoran and Guatemalan, alongside long-standing refugee resettlement — the families resettled here in recent years have come mainly from Afghanistan, Burma (particularly Karen and Karenni families), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and Syria. Schenectady has one of the largest Guyanese communities in the Northeast: roughly 5,600 Guyana-born residents, about one in ten of the city, and largely Indo-Guyanese and English-speaking rather than Hispanic. Those are different caseloads — refugee and asylee adjustment, TPS, family petitions and naturalization — not the H-1B-heavy mix a Manhattan firm is set up for.

  4. University & Student Immigration Services

    The Capital Region is home to thousands of international students at UAlbany, RPI, Union College, Siena College, Russell Sage, and other institutions. We assist students with F-1 status maintenance, OPT/CPT, H-1B cap-gap extensions, and transitioning from student to work visas or green cards.

04Albany specialty pages

Capital Region Immigration by Practice Area

Each Capital Region practice area below goes deeper than this overview page, and our Latham office page has full directions and hours.

05Your first meeting

What a Capital Region client should bring

None of it is compulsory — come in with nothing if that is where you are. But every item below shortens the guessing and puts the meeting onto your actual options.

  • Your passport, including expired ones, and any prior passports carrying US visa stamps.
  • Every notice USCIS has sent you — receipts, biometrics appointments, requests for evidence, approvals, denials — with the envelopes, because the postmark can matter.
  • Your I-94 arrival record, and any I-20, DS-2019, employment authorisation card or green card you hold.
  • Any immigration court paperwork: the Notice to Appear (Form I-862), hearing notices, and any order a judge has already signed.
  • Proof of the relationship or the job — marriage and birth certificates, joint lease or accounts, or the job offer, degree, transcripts and pay records.
  • Certificates of disposition for any arrest, anywhere, however old or minor. This is the single most common thing that changes the answer.

06Questions clients ask

Capital Region Immigration FAQs

Where is your office, and can I come in person?
Yes — you do not need an appointment. The office is at 22 Century Hill Dr #101, Latham, NY 12110, roughly ten minutes north of downtown Albany and about the same from Troy. Walk in Monday to Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.; Saturdays are by appointment. Coming in is usually the fastest way to get a case assessed, because the actual documents can be read rather than described. Phone and video consultations are available if getting here is difficult. Call (518) 698-0347.
I was granted asylum or came as a refugee. When can I get a green card?
Generally one year after your asylum grant, or one year after admission as a refugee, you can file Form I-485 to adjust to permanent residence. Refugees are required to apply; asylees may. The year is counted in physical presence, and time spent outside the United States can complicate it. Bring your approval notice or I-94 — the dates on those documents determine when your window opens. This is a common filing in the Capital Region given the area's resettlement history, and it is one where the paperwork is usually more straightforward than people expect.
Can you help with immigration for SUNY Albany or RPI students?
Yes. Students at UAlbany, RPI, Union College, Siena College and the other Capital Region institutions come in about F-1 status maintenance, Optional Practical Training and Curricular Practical Training, STEM OPT extensions, cap-gap, the change from F-1 to H-1B status, employment-based green cards, and family petitions. Bring your I-20 and your I-94 record; those two documents answer most of the first questions.
Do you work with New York State government agencies on immigration?
Yes. While state government employees are generally U.S. citizens, we work with state agencies on employment verification (I-9 compliance), visa sponsorship for specialized positions, and immigration-related matters. We also assist state employees' family members with family-based immigration petitions and help state contractors and consultants with work authorization.
How long does the green card process take for Capital Region residents?
There is no honest single answer, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. What decides it is your category and, for preference categories, your country of chargeability: immediate relatives of US citizens have a visa available immediately, while preference categories wait for a priority date to become current in the monthly Visa Bulletin. Employment cases may also need PERM labor certification first. USCIS publishes its own current processing times per form and office, and the Visa Bulletin is published monthly by the State Department; we read both against your specific facts rather than quoting an average.
Can you help tech workers at GLOBALFOUNDRIES or IBM with H-1B visas?
Yes. The semiconductor and technology corridor along the Northway — GLOBALFOUNDRIES in Malta, IBM, and the companies that have grown around them — employs a large number of people on H-1B and other work status — GLOBALFOUNDRIES alone filed more than a hundred Labor Condition Applications in 2025, and RPI filed over eighty in its 2025 fiscal year. The firm prepares Form I-129 petitions and the underlying Labor Condition Application, PERM labor certification, Form I-140 immigrant petitions, and adjustment applications for engineers, software developers, process technicians and researchers. Employers get a single point of contact for status questions that come up mid-year.

07Guides

Helpful Immigration Guides & Resources

Plain-language explanations of the processes these filings go through, written for people who are about to start one.

08Other areas

Elsewhere in New York

One office, in Latham. Clients outside the Capital Region work with us by phone and video, and we travel to the court or USCIS office hearing the case.

§Talk to us

The office is ten minutes from downtown Albany

22 Century Hill Drive #101, Latham, NY 12110. Walk in Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Saturday by appointment. Clients come from Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Saratoga Springs and the surrounding towns. Consultations can be held in English, Spanish, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati or Swahili.

This page is informational only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship; that begins only when a written retainer is signed. Consultations are confidential and paid, the fee for any work is quoted in writing beforehand, and payment plans are available.

Book a consultation(518) 698-0347