HOUSTON, Sept. 14, 2026. A Houston immigration lawyer has been arrested and charged in federal court after prosecutors alleged she collected fees for work visa and employment status cases, then failed to complete required filings while giving some clients paperwork and case numbers that did not belong to them. Alla Karash Nowowiejski, 44, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas on Sept. 2 on one count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements.
Authorities took her into custody this week. She made her initial appearance Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Bennett, pleaded not guilty, and was released on bond. An indictment is a formal accusation, not proof of guilt.
Nowowiejski is presumed innocent unless convicted. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, Nowowiejski accepted payments from clients who hired her to help establish or adjust their work status and apply for work visas. Prosecutors allege she never submitted some applications or submitted them only in part.
The office said the indictment further alleges she provided clients with false documents or reference numbers tied to active immigration cases that were unrelated to those clients. Prosecutors say she used those documents and numbers to make clients believe immigration authorities were processing their applications. The federal charging document focuses on two clients, identified only by initials and described as having sought her help in 2024. News reports summarizing the indictment say prosecutors also allege Nowowiejski caused one client to mail vaccination records to U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services that the agency had not required. She is further accused of submitting medical records for the clients while claiming USCIS had requested that information, and of submitting records that prosecutors say contained materially false statements. The indictment does not publicly identify the clients by name or state how much they paid. Those two cases form the basis of the current federal charges.
Local investigators have described a wider pattern. Harris County Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen’s office said it initiated the criminal inquiry in September 2024 and later determined that more than 100 people may have paid Nowowiejski for immigration work that was not completed. Officials have said some clients may not yet realize there is a problem with their cases.
Authorities have not publicly reconciled that larger figure with the two clients named in the indictment, and they have not disclosed a total dollar amount tied to the criminal case. The investigation was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, with assistance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Harris County Constable’s Office, Precinct 1.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Carter is assigned to prosecute the case. If convicted, Nowowiejski faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 fine on the mail fraud count. The false statements charge carries a separate potential penalty of up to five years in prison and a $100,000 fine, according to reporting based on the statutory ranges.
No trial date has been announced. The criminal case arrives against a backdrop of earlier civil litigation that is separate from the indictment. In 2023, Audubon Engineering Operations sued Nowowiejski in Harris County, alleging gross negligence and legal malpractice after hiring her for immigration work involving five employees. The company alleged it paid more than $109,000 and later concluded required paperwork had not been filed as represented.
Court records described in later news coverage say the company obtained a default judgment in 2024 after Nowowiejski did not respond. Those civil claims have not been tried on the merits in the federal criminal case and should not be treated as a criminal finding. State Bar of Texas records, as reported after the arrest, list Nowowiejski as ineligible to practice law in Texas. Coverage has tied that status to unpaid bar dues rather than a completed disciplinary trial on the new charges.
She was admitted to practice in Texas in 2009 after graduating from Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law and later specialized in business immigration work. Reporting has also described her as a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Russia. Prosecutors have not said whether additional federal counts will be filed as the investigation continues. Constable Rosen has asked anyone who believes they were affected to contact Precinct 1, saying the office serves victims regardless of immigration status.
For clients who relied on an attorney to file time sensitive visa petitions, missed deadlines can carry serious consequences, which is why investigators have urged people who hired Nowowiejski to independently check the status of their cases with immigration authorities. The case remains at an early stage. The government must prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Nowowiejski has entered a not guilty plea and, as of the latest public reporting, no defense attorney had been listed on the docket.
