ATTORNEY ADVERTISING NOTICE. This San Antonio immigration attorney profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys’ editorial team. It was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed prior to publication by the firm profiled. All outcomes, credentials, and recognitions described below are attributed to their sources. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter. This article is for general information only and is not legal advice; reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship.

A San Antonio Immigration Attorney Practice That Also Reaches Into Arizona

Inside Eric M. Bernal & Associates, the San Antonio immigration attorney practice founded in 2007 that dedicates roughly 95% of its docket to immigration law and the other 5% to the criminal defense matters that frequently intersect with it — including one specific, serious staff-conduct complaint this profile does not leave out.

BY THE AWESOME ATTORNEYS EDITORIAL TEAM · SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS · AUGUST 2026

ERIC M. BERNAL & ASSOCIATES — AT A GLANCE

Sources: ericmbernallaw.com (firm website), Super Lawyers, Avvo, Experience.com reviews. Compiled August 2026.

ORIGIN

A San Antonio Immigration Attorney Practice Spanning Two States

Eric Miguel Bernal earned his J.D. from St. Mary’s University School of Law and has been licensed in Texas since 2010, according to his State Bar of Texas record; the firm itself was founded in 2007, meaning Bernal built the practice while completing his legal education and early career. The firm’s marketing explicitly serves clients “in Texas and Arizona,” a two-state footprint that is unusual among the San Antonio boutique immigration practices in this directory, though its only physical office is in San Antonio.

Bernal has been recognized as a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” every year from 2021 through 2025 — a peer-nomination and independent-research process distinct from pay-to-play marketing awards, and worth noting as the strongest independently verified credential available for this attorney.

THE MODEL

Mostly Immigration, With a Criminal Defense Component That Serves It

Eric M. Bernal & Associates operates from a single San Antonio office on Vantage Drive. Per the firm’s own reported breakdown on Experience.com, roughly 95% of its practice is immigration and nationality law, with the remaining 5% in criminal defense — a split the firm frames as intentional, since the criminal defense work exists specifically to protect clients’ immigration status when a criminal charge threatens it, rather than as an unrelated secondary practice area.

PRACTICE

Where This San Antonio Immigration Attorney Concentrates

The firm’s stated focus is deportation and removal defense, particularly for clients with prior criminal convictions complicating their immigration status; complex asylum claims; family-based immigration; naturalization cases requiring waivers due to criminal history or prior removals; work permits; green cards; and immigration court bond hearings. The firm also assists with modifying or clearing prior criminal records where doing so could relieve immigration consequences — a niche, technically demanding service line (“crimmigration” defense) that overlaps meaningfully with its smaller criminal practice.

TRACK RECORD

What Can — and Cannot — Be Verified

As with immigration practice generally, there is no jury-verdict or settlement-figure record to report, and Awesome Attorneys did not have access to USCIS or immigration court case-level data. The firm’s own site does not publish an itemized results table; reviewers describe specific outcomes, including a residency card obtained after a previous attorney “wasted” a client’s money and time, but Awesome Attorneys treats these as client-reported experiences rather than verified case data.

CLIENT VOICE

A Solid Composite, With One Serious Complaint Disclosed

Eric Miguel Bernal carries a 4.05-star rating across 41 verified reviews on Experience.com as of this writing — a meaningful review volume for a firm of this size. Several reviewers praise staff member Laura Carrizales by name for keeping them informed through multi-month immigration processes, and one reviewer credited the firm with turning around a case a previous attorney had mishandled.

One review in that same set is serious and specific enough to require direct disclosure rather than a passing mention: a reviewer alleged that the staff member handling her husband’s immigration paperwork ended up in a relationship with him. Awesome Attorneys could not independently verify this account, and it reflects one reviewer’s allegation rather than a corroborated, multi-reviewer pattern of professional misconduct — the distinction this publication draws between a single disclosable negative and a disqualifying pattern. It is printed here rather than omitted so prospective clients can weigh it themselves.

BEYOND THE PRACTICE

Professional Standing

Bernal is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. His Super Lawyers Rising Star selections span five consecutive years (2021–2025), a consistency that suggests sustained peer regard rather than a one-time listing.

RECOGNITION

No Board Certification to Report

Awesome Attorneys did not find a Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification on record for Eric Miguel Bernal. Consistent with this publication’s standing policy, the words “specialist” and “board certified” are reserved for attorneys with documented, independently verified TBLS certification, and are not used here.

THE FEDERAL IMMIGRATION BACKDROP

What Texas Residents Should Know

Immigration law is federal, not state, law — which is why a San Antonio-based firm can represent clients in Arizona as well as Texas without maintaining a second physical office there. Family-based and employment-based petitions are governed by the Immigration and Nationality Act and adjudicated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, while removal proceedings run through the federal immigration courts operated by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. San Antonio falls within the jurisdiction of the USCIS San Antonio Field Office and the San Antonio Immigration Court, with appeals routing through the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. None of this is legal advice; immigration and criminal-immigration intersection cases are high-stakes enough to warrant review by a licensed attorney based on the specific facts of a case.

AWESOME ATTORNEYS ASSESSMENT

A Focused Crimmigration Practice, With One Account Worth Weighing

Eric M. Bernal & Associates’ clearest strength is its niche: a firm built specifically around the intersection of criminal charges and immigration consequences, an area that requires genuinely different expertise than routine visa processing and that fewer San Antonio firms in this category emphasize. A five-year run of Super Lawyers Rising Star selections and a 41-review base at just above 4 stars both support that the firm has sustained, real client volume. The honest limitation is the one specific, serious allegation disclosed above — it is a single account, not a corroborated pattern, but prospective clients deserve to see it stated plainly rather than find it buried in a review platform this profile could have chosen not to mention. Readers can compare this firm against other San Antonio attorneys in the Awesome Attorneys directory.

This is a firm best suited to clients whose immigration status is complicated by a criminal record or pending charge — a genuinely specialized need — and less suited to clients seeking a routine, low-complexity visa or green card filing with no crimmigration dimension.

METHODOLOGY & SOURCING

This San Antonio immigration attorney profile draws on the firm’s own website (ericmbernallaw.com), Eric Miguel Bernal’s Super Lawyers and State Bar of Texas records, and Experience.com and Avvo reviews as of August 2026. Awesome Attorneys did not have access to USCIS or immigration court case-level data and makes no claim about the firm’s approval rate. Client reviews quoted or summarized reflect individual client experiences, not verified case outcomes, including the one serious allegation disclosed in the Client Voice section above.

PUBLISHER DISCLOSURE & INDEPENDENCE

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Eric M. Bernal & Associates prior to publication, and its inclusion here does not constitute an endorsement. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placements to firms profiled in its directory; sponsorship does not alter the editorial content of an existing profile.