18th December 2025
Date
Interviewee
Jyoti Agarwal
Jyoti Agarwal: The Immigration Attorney Who Turned Personal Experience into a Practice Built on Empathy
Two weeks after giving birth to her first child, Jyoti Agarwal made a decision that would define the next three decades of her career. A client she had introduced to her previous law firm wanted her to continue working with them, and rather than decline, she saw an opportunity. "I said, you know what? I can do this from home," she recalls. That moment, nearly 28 years ago, marked the beginning of her immigration consultancy practice in the United States.
Agarwal has continued as an immigration consultant working on cases for other law firms as well as on her own, after moving to London. She brings a perspective that few attorneys possess: she has lived the immigrant experience not once, but twice. From navigating the complexities of US visas and green cards to later settling in the United Kingdom, she has sat on both sides of the desk. It is this duality that shapes her approach to a field she believes demands something beyond legal expertise.
"The biggest thing that appealed to me about immigration law is that it involved a lot of empathy," she explains. "It is something very personal for each individual. As opposed to corporate law, mergers, acquisitions, those are very impersonal in a way. No one individual gets impacted or their life changes with those things. Immigration is different."
The Path to US Immigration Law
Agarwal's entry into immigration law was, by her own admission, accidental. She grew up in India, completed her legal education there, and was fully qualified before moving to the United States. What followed was an intensive personal education in the American immigration system as she dealt with her own visa, marriage, and the green card process.
"It was more my own personal journey," she says. "When I saw what all it involved, and there were quite a few other people in the same boat like me, my husband's friends, other people in our community, just talking to everybody and discussing, it gave me a better understanding about how people have uprooted themselves and are trying to create a life in a different country."
The conversations within her community revealed the weight that the immigration process carries for individuals and families. People who had left everything behind were now navigating a system that would determine whether they could stay, work, and build the futures they had imagined. Agarwal found herself drawn to this work not as an abstract legal exercise but as something profoundly human.
What she discovered was a satisfaction she had not anticipated. Seeing a case through to completion, watching the relief on a client's face when an approval came through, reuniting families separated by borders, helping entrepreneurs launch companies in a new country: these moments became the foundation of her practice philosophy.
"The satisfaction that I would see on each individual's face, or the individual experiencing it, that was the biggest satisfaction for me," she says.
Journey from the US to London
The path from that first home-based consultancy practice to her current position spans continents and decades. After six years running her consultancy practice in the United States, Agarwal and her family relocated to London for what was supposed to be a two-year assignment. Those two years became three, then four, and eventually stretched into 21 years.
During her initial years in London, she managed her consultancy practice on a smaller basis whilst raising a family. Seven years ago, Agarwal got the opportunity to contract with a boutique US immigration firm in London, and she seized it. Despite being qualified as a solicitor in the UK and having the option to practice UK immigration law, she found herself drawn to the American system. The reason surprised even her: complexity.
Why US Immigration Law Over UK Immigration Practice
"My husband used to tell me, why don't you do UK immigration? You are here, it will be much easier," Agarwal explains. "But somehow it really didn't appeal to me. When I got a break to get back into US immigration, I was like, yes, this is what I like."
The distinction, as she sees it, comes down to challenge. UK immigration, based on her knowledge, is more straightforward and factual. Forms are filled, criteria are met, outcomes follow in a relatively predictable fashion. US immigration operates differently.
"With US immigration, even with identical set of facts, you'll get different results," she says. "There are different officers interpreting it differently. It's quite subjective. There's always that challenge to make a really tight case and avoid those RFEs, the requests for further evidence."
Rather than viewing Requests for Further Evidence as setbacks, Agarwal sees them as opportunities. "When an RFE comes, I actually find it very exciting to work on it and draft the response and send it because it's your last chance to get that case approved."
Her drafting skills became well known at her previous firm. Her boss would assign her RFEs for visa matters she had not even worked on because of her ability to craft compelling responses under pressure. "Touchwood, my drafting was good and he liked that," she says. "So even though I was not involved, he would say, okay, you work on this RFE response now."
Current State of US Immigration Policy
When asked about the current immigration landscape, Agarwal's response is pointed: "The less said the better, you know, what clients and attorneys and everybody else is going through."
The challenges she describes go beyond typical policy disagreements. The issue, as she frames it, is not simply that the environment has become less welcoming to immigrants but that the implementation of changes has created chaos at every level.
"Nobody knows what's happening and what's going to happen," she says. "Things just get sprung upon overnight. Policies change, regulations are being changed, rules are changing, and people are running helter-skelter. I know of so many attorneys who are literally drowning, who are finding it difficult to keep up with all these changes."
The problem, she argues, extends beyond the volume of changes to their quality. "The biggest problem is that there is no clarity when any policy or change is being rolled out. It has not been thought through, and there is no clarity as to how it's to be implemented or what's to be done. There's a lot of ambiguity."
Agarwal participates in multiple attorney WhatsApp groups covering business immigration, solo practitioners, and UK-based US immigration attorneys. What she observes in these forums is telling: even seasoned attorneys are second-guessing themselves on basic procedural questions.
"The kind of questions people are posing, seasoned attorneys, simple things, they're second-guessing themselves. Do we do it like this? Do we do it like that? So, it's just creating a lot of chaos and confusion. If attorneys are getting so confused, you can imagine the clients. They have no clue what's happening."
The advice she gives to both corporate and individual clients reflect this uncertainty: "You have to be prepared, you have to be organized, you have to be informed, and you just have to be willing to take things in your stride. Be resilient."
She is careful to distinguish between legitimate policy choices and unnecessary complexity. "There's one thing about not being immigrant friendly, and another thing about just creating confusion and making things complex unnecessarily rather than just being clear upfront and open."
The downstream effects, she believes, will be significant: "Creating these ambiguous rules and policies is not really helping. It's just keeping the government tied up, the attorneys tied up, and very soon the courts are going to be tied up too."
Perspective on AI in Immigration Law
Agarwal approaches artificial intelligence with the pragmatism of someone who has watched many technological shifts transform the practice of law. Her assessment is balanced but cautionary.
"Everything is good in good measure," she says. "AI is here to stay. It's in every field and advancing at a very rapid pace. Attorneys have to keep up with it, embrace it, adapt to it, include it in their business."
She acknowledges concrete benefits for immigration practice: document checking, application tracking, trend prediction. But her concern lies with how the technology might be misused, particularly by those just entering the field.
"My fear with AI is that newcomers, youngsters in any field, may try to resort to AI very easily for quick fixes, quick answers. You ask it a question, and it will spew out information from the net. I've tested it, tried it, and many times it's not accurate."
The danger, as she sees it, is that people who lack subject matter expertise will accept AI outputs uncritically. "If you don't know about the subject that you're asking AI about, you'll tend to believe what it says. You have to know your subject before resorting to AI."
She draws an analogy to calculators, but with an important distinction: "When calculators came, people just punched in numbers. But the calculator gives you an accurate result. With AI, I think it's not there yet. It needs to develop a lot more where one can just rely on it accurately."
Her practical recommendation is to use AI for what it does well: managing volume and streamlining processes. For research and drafting, human expertise remains essential.
Advice for Immigrants Navigating the US Immigration System
Drawing on both her professional experience and her personal journey through the immigration process, Agarwal offers guidance for those pursuing the American dream.
Her first principle is uncompromising: honesty. "You have to be honest with whatever the facts are. Sometimes, yes, maybe not everything was done 100 percent rightly. Maybe there have been some lapses. But just be very honest upfront, because you lie about something today, it's going to come to haunt you tomorrow or day after, and it's not worth it."
This applies whether working with an attorney or attempting to navigate the system independently: "Even if it may feel very scary, just to get that immediate benefit, please do not lie about anything to your attorney or to the government."
Her second recommendation addresses a common pattern she observes: people who try to handle immigration matters on their own, get stuck, and then seek professional help to fix what has gone wrong.
"It's always better to seek expert advice from the beginning rather than do it yourself, mess up your case, then try to go to somebody to get it fixed where it'll take more time and cost even more money. You better do what you are good at. Let other people do what they are good at."
Organization is another critical element. "There are a lot of documents required all the time. From day one, start maintaining your file for whatever documents are required. It just makes it much easier when the time comes to file the case." This is especially true for visa categories requiring evidence of extraordinary ability or national interest contributions, where building a record over time is essential.
Persistence matters, but with an important caveat. "Be persistent in pursuing whatever your goal is. Don't give up easily if you hit obstacles somewhere because chances are a good attorney will be able to find a different method or different route for them to get to the US."
Finally, she urges would-be immigrants to have realistic expectations and timelines. "Sometimes clients come in a rush, like they need it done yesterday, and then for the next six months they don't respond. Clients should start the journey when they're really ready and not when they're just dreaming about it or copying somebody else."
Having a plan matters: "Have their six-month, twelve-month, two-year plan in mind as to what they're planning, what they're thinking. Not just get to the US by hook or by crook. If they just come saying we want to get to the US somehow, that's not really very helpful."
Message to Fellow Immigration Attorneys
For attorneys in the field and those considering entering it, Agarwal returns to the theme that has defined her own practice: empathy.
"We have to show empathy to clients. I've gone through this journey twice, and in all my dealings over the past few years, I’ve realised that empathy is very important for the client. The client is going through a lot, and if it is a family-based matter where the spouse is outside the US trying to get there, or some children are involved, then there's that much more anxiety. You have to really walk on eggshells sometimes."
Beyond emotional intelligence, she emphasizes the importance of continuous learning in a field where the ground is constantly shifting. "One has to be learning continuously, be up to date, do networking."
The WhatsApp groups and listservs she participates in are not just for asking questions. "You can learn a lot just by reading what other people are asking and what others are replying. The landscape is changing so quickly that it's really difficult to keep on top of it. If you think you can sit and read everything, it's very difficult. Your support system should be good, people you can lean on whenever the time comes."
Compliance has become increasingly central to immigration practice, extending the attorney's role beyond filing applications. "Part of immigration is also guiding clients about how to remain compliant. Data transparency and everything. It's good to incorporate that."
Finally, she stresses technological proficiency. "You have to be very tech savvy because there are so many tools, so much digitization happening. Various software for case management, form filling, everything else. You have to decide what your tech stack is going to be. What works for you, something works for a solo practitioner, something for a mid-sized firm, something for a much larger firm."
Moving Forward
At a time when the US immigration landscape is marked by uncertainty and rapid change, Agarwal represents a particular approach to the practice: rooted in personal experience, driven by empathy, and committed to the belief that immigration law is fundamentally about individual lives and the futures people are trying to build.
She is available to represent individuals and corporations for their U.S. immigration needs and also assist other attorneys and law firms on a contract basis. For the clients she will serve, the combination of professional expertise and personal understanding may prove invaluable. After all, she has been where they are. Twice.
Jyoti Agarwal, US Immigration Attorney can be contacted at jyoti@jyotiagarwal.com or via LinkedIn message at http://www.linkedin.com/in/jyotiagarwal-usimmigration
Connect with Jyoti Agarwal
