Joshua L. Goldstein

Career Highlights

• Firm Founder: Founded Goldstein Immigration Lawyers, an immigration practice with offices in Los Angeles and Boston that concentrates heavily on federal litigation involving delayed visas, green cards, naturalization applications, and other stalled immigration matters.
• More Than 26 Years in Immigration Law: Has practiced since 1999 and developed a nationwide immigration and federal-court practice encompassing mandamus litigation, family immigration, citizenship, adjustment of status, removal defense, immigration appeals, and release from immigration detention.
• National Immigration-Delay Focus: Built a distinctive practice around writ-of-mandamus lawsuits—federal actions asking a court to require an agency or consulate to decide an immigration matter that has remained unresolved for an unreasonable period.
• National Immigration-Law Instructor: Has taught immigration lawyers at American Immigration Lawyers Association programs on FBI name-check litigation, delayed immigration adjudications, mandamus actions, naturalization review proceedings, adjustment of status, consular processing, and citizenship.
• AILA National Conference Faculty: Presented on immigration delays, mandamus litigation, and naturalization review at the 2010 American Immigration Lawyers Association National Conference and later addressed citizenship and naturalization at its 2016 Annual Conference.
• Former Immigration-Court Liaison: Served as the American Immigration Lawyers Association New England Chapter’s liaison to the Boston Immigration Court, facilitating communication between immigration practitioners and the federal immigration-court system.
• Professional-Service Leadership: Served on the National Lawyers Guild Massachusetts Chapter’s Lawyer Referral Service oversight committee, which helped connect members of the public with legal representation at accessible rates.
• Community Immigration Service: Provided volunteer immigration assistance through the City of Boston’s Office of New Bostonians and has remained involved with the Silver Lake Independent Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles.
• Peer Recognition: Selected to Massachusetts Super Lawyers in Immigration Law in 2013 and 2014 after an earlier Rising Stars selection in 2009.
• National Media Authority: Consulted by journalists regarding diversity visas, administrative delays, changing immigration policies, and the danger facing families during the fall of Afghanistan. The Daily Beast documented the reliance Afghan-American families placed on him during the Kabul evacuation crisis.
• Academic Recognition: Named a Paul J. Liacos Scholar while attending Boston University School of Law.
• Public Immigration Education: Has published immigration guidance and participated in public programs explaining visa delays, naturalization, administrative processing, and changing immigration policies to immigrants, families, businesses, and other attorneys.

Proven Experience

• Immediate Release from Immigration Detention: Obtained a federal habeas corpus order requiring the immediate release of an asylum seeker from immigration custody. The court agreed that the client’s prompt self-reporting undermined the government’s concern that she intended to flee or destroy property, allowing her to leave detention without waiting weeks for an ordinary bond proceeding.
• 18-Month Visa Delay Broken in 23 Days: Represented a United States citizen whose pregnant wife and young son remained abroad while her visa sat in administrative processing for approximately 18 months. After Goldstein filed a mandamus lawsuit, the processing delay ended within 23 days and the consulate requested the final medical examination, clearing the family’s path toward reunification.
• Four-Year Spousal Visa Approved in Approximately 2½ Months: Assisted a husband whose effort to bring his wife to the United States had remained unresolved since 2019. Following mandamus litigation, the visa was approved approximately two and a half months after he retained the firm, allowing the couple to begin their life together in the United States.
• Family Reunited Approximately 35 Days After Filing: Represented a family that had endured approximately five years of separation while a husband’s visa remained in administrative processing. The husband received his visa approximately 35 days after the mandamus action was filed, joined his family in the United States, and met his daughter in person for the first time.
• Asylum Granted After a Five-Year Delay: A former client reported that an asylum claim had remained unresolved for five years before Goldstein’s team filed a mandamus lawsuit. The litigation produced a hearing date, and the client’s asylum application was ultimately granted, bringing the client and family long-awaited security.