Jonathan A. Bartell - Independence, OH

Overview

Jonathan has been practicing law for more than 20 years but his interest in immigration law began years before he attended law school at Case Western Reserve University. After graduating from Ithaca College in 1993, he began a short internship in Phuket, Thailand. Prior to finishing his internship Jonathan secured a position working for a non-profit agency affiliated with the United Nations High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR). For the next two years he worked with Laotian Highlanders, Cambodians and Vietnamese in a refugee camp located in central Thailand preparing them for life in the United States. Those that lived in the Phanat Nikhom Refugee Camp had been there for many years and waiting to resettle in the U.S. These individuals had been recruited by our CIA to fight the communists during the Vietnam War Era and the Secret War in Laos. While working inside the camp U.S. Immigration laws changed substantially (1995) and began to negatively impact many families that had been waiting patiently to resettle in the U.S. Finding this change and the negative impact very unfair, Jonathan began to assist some families argue their cases for waivers at the USCIS Office located in the camp. He knew from this point forward that he wanted to dedicate his life to helping those who needed it especially when navigating the complexities of immigration law. Jonathan met his wife while living in Thailand and they have one son who is attending Miami University.

Jonathan focuses on deportation defense, asylum and family based immigration all over the United States and has appeared in almost every immigration court in the country. He also routinely handles criminal matters both state and federal throughout the state of Ohio.

He is admitted to practice in Ohio, the U.S. District Courts for both the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio, the 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals.