Andrea Martinez

Andrea C. Martinez specializes in immigration and international law. She provides legal counsel in the following areas:

  • business visas
  • employment based immigrant and nonimmigrant visa petitions including H-1B, L-1B, L-1A, PERM and Extraordinary Ability Green Card petitions for professional athletes and artists
  • family immigration
  • consular processing
  • complex waivers, naturalization applications
  • removal defense
  • federal litigation
  • humanitarian immigration issues, such as asylum, violence against women act

Prior to entering private practice, Andrea served as a federal judicial law clerk to the Honorable Eric G. Bruggink at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. During law school she was a summer law clerk to the U.S. Department of Justice's Arlington Immigration Court. Andrea also worked in Guatemala assisting in the prosecution of child sex offenders.

Andrea is fluent in Spanish. She is a member of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, Andrea has been selected by the Kansas City Star to write articles on international and immigration law for the MIdwest Voices column.

Andrea's international work goes beyond her day-to-day immigration law assignments. This past holiday season, Andrea and her husband from Honduras, returned to Honduras to distribute donated toys to needy children living near the town dump.


Practice Areas

Representative Engagements

  • Served as a summer law clerk to the U.S. Department of Justice's Arlington Immigration Court (2006)
  • Represented an El Salvadoran asylum seeker and four Guantánamo Bay detainees as a student attorney at the American University Washington College of Law's (WCL) International Human Rights Law Clinic (2006-07)
  • Worked in Guatemala as an assistant private prosecutor of child sex offenders with the human rights organization International Justice Mission (2007-08)
  • Green Card petition for professional ballerina based on her extraordinary ability
  • Asylum of Honduran man fearing deportation to his home country
  • Petitioning the U.S. Consulate for a waiver of 10- year bar to re-entry into the United States based on extreme hardship to the noncitizen's U.S. citizen spouse and children
  • Green Card petition for an outstanding researcher
  • Asylum application for an unaccompanied minor in the United States
  • Defense from Deportation
  • Obtaining Green Card for Iraqi refugee
  • Obtaining Green Cards for noncitizens based on marriage to U.S. citizen/U.S. Green Card holder both in the U.S. and abroad (Consular Processing)
  • Naturalization applications
  • U-visa petition for victims of serious crimes

Education

  • B.A. Cross-Cultural Services, John Brown University, magna cum laude, 2004.
  • A.S., Broadcasting, John Brown University, 2004
  • J.D. American University Washington College of Law, 2007

Admissions/Court Memberships

  • State of Missouri
  • United States Court of Federal Claims

Professional Affiliations

  • Member, Missouri Bar Association
  • Member, American Bar Association
  • Member, American Immigration Lawyers Association
  • Member, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Publications and Seminars

  • Andrea has been selected by The Kansas City Star as a writer for their Midwest Voices column on issues related to immigration and international law.

Community Involvement

  • Andrea has studied abroad in Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba and South Korea
  • Andrea and her husband from Honduras, returned to Honduras to distribute donated toys to needy children living near the town dump.