Tidwell Swaim & Associates

Mr. Swaim handled my grandma’s naturalization as well as my aunt’s visa. If you want a straight-​forward/​honest lawyer you have come to the right place. Mr. Swaim is an expert in immigration (the firm only specializes in Immigration law) and he was very patient when explaining our case and processes. I also applaud the ease in getting in touch with the paralegals and Mr. Swaim himself.

I don’t write many reviews, but I want to let you know about my experience with TSA. As background, I needed a permanent residency card for my wife. She was in the country under a legal order, but it was not permanent and could have been revoked at anytime. Also, she could not leave the US and return. Somewhat complicated.
To further complicate our situation, she had a background issue that could have been a problem.
I had friend who was married to a foreign woman who had a similar background issue and had been successful getting a Residency card. I told him about my questions and he strongly recommended David Swaim and his firm.
I had another friend who owns a major accounting firm in Dallas who hires foreign nationals regularly. He always uses TSA.
I live in Austin, but I was convinced that the drive was worth it. We met with Mr. Swaim personally, presented our case and he was very thoughtful, animated and involved and more important, he got to the point. He cited case law that convinced us that our case would be successful and we were assigned a staff attorney and went to work right away. He also provided a translator to assist in the case.
I asked Mr. Swaim how long did he think this case would take. He said 6 — 18 months due to the complexities and the amount of documents that we would need to assemble.
Here was my experience: We were clearly told what to expect and information to assemble. We lived in another city, but emails and phone calls were promptly handled.
A remarkable thing happened: our original staff attorney, who we were very comfortable with, had to leave the firm. We were assigned a man who was even better, in fact he was very helpful and reassuring! Amazingly, as were were getting to the end of our process, he was hired by the Federal Gov’t to be an immigration judge! He was that good!
And the next attorney we were assigned was a younger man, but he was perfect for the process were about to go through. As our interview in San Antonio approached, I drove to Dallas to meet with him and was impressed, I insisted that he fly to San Antonio and go to the interview with us. Of course it cost me more, but it proved invaluable as we were in the interview.
As you may know, the husband and the wife are separated during the interview but your attorney and translator are allowed to be in the room. Sure enough the complication from the past came up and having a representative of the law there was perfect! The interviewer said he was convinced our marriage was legitimate, but that he wanted go over the materials, have us send in a little more info and the case would be cleared in 4 – 6 weeks. He didn’t even interview me. I credit this to the work that TSA and I did in cooperation with one another.
We sent in our information and as you might expect, nothing happened. 6 weeks went by, 8 weeks… I was really upset! But Omar (our staff attorney) was very calm and walk me through the inquiry process. On our second inquiry, it happened… the Card arrived in the mail.
The process was a lot of work, but we could never have done it with out the support of TSA. I highly recommend them!
I am not wealthy… not even close. And the fees weren’t cheap, but they weren’t unreasonable. And in our case, I am certain we would have been refuse a residency card if we had not used TSA. I have never regretted it and again, I recommend that if you need an immigration attorney, give David Swaim a call.
Michael
PS. We received our Residency Card 3 years ago. I have emailed questions and called a number times since with questions about traveling abroad and each time have been answered promptly and accurately.

My case was handled by TSALAW for 5 – 6 years. Being a new immigrant to this country, I did not know my rights and was intimidated with the law and immigration processing.
David Swaim did the bare minimum for my case. He was rude in his communication and most unhelpful — knowing fully well that immigrants are at their lawyer’s mercy. My case never got any traction and David Swaim did not even once call me in 6 years as a decent human being would to discuss my case. And if I called I was summarily dismissed.
Thought I would share so, another hapless soul does not have to deal with TSALAW.