Danuta “Danka” Villarreal, J.D.

Associate

 

Board Certified Immigration and Nationality Law

Board Certified – Immigration and Nationality Law

Danka settled in Houston upon immigrating from her native Poland in 1997. Danka taught English As a Second Language at a Houston inner-city school through her first year of law school. She participated in the University of Houston Law Center’s Immigration Clinic and served as articles editor for the Houston Journal of International Law. Since graduating, she has represented numerous U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in a variety of U.S. Immigration and Nationality Law matters. Representative probate cases include foreign language wills and large cross-border estates (with and without U.S. situs assets).

Practice Areas

Admitted

Texas Supreme Court, 2004

Education

University of Houston Law Center, J.D., 2004

Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza, Poland, M.A., 1997 (masters of English Studies & Conference Interpreting)

Member

State Bar of Texas Member, Sections on: Immigration Law; Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law

Texas Bar College

The Texas Probate Law American Inn of Court

Texas Probate System Committee

Houston Bar Association Member, Sections on: Probate, Trust and Estate

Houston Estate and Financial Forum

American Immigration Lawyers Association Member, Houston CBP Working Committee, American Immigration Lawyers Association Texas Chapter

National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild

Representative Matters

Probate proceedings and estate administration, simple and complex, taxable estates, testate and intestate, U.S. and non-U.S. situs assets

Non-immigrant visas: change of status applications and consular processing

Immigrant visas: family- and employment-based petitions, labor certifications (PERM), permanent residence and consular processing of immigrant visas, waivers of inadmissibility

Naturalization and derivative citizenship

Analysis of impact of immigration law issues on estate planning, probate, and family law matters

Publications and Presentations

Danuta Villarreal, To Protect the Defenseless:  The Need For Child-Specific Substantive Standards For Unaccompanied Minor Asylum-Seekers, 26 Hous. J. Int’l L.743 (2004).

Immigration Issues Affecting University Students, University of Houston Law Center Joseph Vail Immigration Workshop, Houston, TX, Apr. 18, 2009.

Employment Based Immigration, Immigration Law for Students Fall 2009 Symposium, Texas Tech University School of Law, Lubbock, TX, Oct. 29, 2009.

A Few Things to Know If One Crosses Over into Immigration Law, 12th Annual Texas Minority Attorney Program, May 2014 (Speaker)

Obtaining “Ancillary” Benefits, State Bar of Texas, 13th Annual Advanced Immigration Law Course, Houston, February 2015 (Co-Author/Speaker).

Employment-based Adjustment:  How to Address Tricky Admissibility Issues, AILA Texas Chapter Spring 2016 Conference, April 2016 (Speaker).

Russell W. Hall and Danuta M. Villarreal, The Fiduciary’s Duty to Insure and the Insurance Agent’s Duty to Advise, presented by Russell W. Hall, Houston Estate and Financial Forum, Nov. 20, 2020.

Languages

  • English
  • Polish
  • Spanish

Honors

  • Order of the Coif
  • Order of the Barons