Firing the lawyer

[cris.luiza 0]

Does anyone know if firing the lawyer will slow down our process?

All corespondence goes to him, but he's a jerk.

Edited May 8, 2008 by cris.luiza

[payxibka 10,047]

Won't slow it down from the USCIS perspective as they don't care if you have representation or not... it may slow it down if you do not receive any communication from them because it is sitting at the lawyers office

[Nutty 2]

It won't slow the government down. However, do make sure file a new CHOICE OF AGENT form to the USCIS, nominating yourself as the agent to receive documents from the NVC or USCIS. This way any correspondence sent by the government will go directly to you instead of the lawyer.

[Catt 6]

Does anyone know if firing the lawyer will slow down our process?

All corespondence goes to him, but he's a jerk.

Cris, Luiza,

If you fire him, also make sure to follow up closely with USCIS (a few times) in the weeks after to make sure that you didn't miss any correspondence. If I were you, i'd even call the RFE line (since you just sent your RFE, so you could just call to ask if they received your info and then add the firing of your lawyer).

Since you just sent back your RFE remarks, your approval might be coming soon, and some folks have gotten the approval by regular mail without seeing any changes online.

Also, if you fire him, make sure you have a paper trace. I'd tell him - in a neutral tone, that makes your letter much stronger - why you are not happy with him (and unless I am mixing up your case with Cornishman's you'd have some reasons, since the lawyer didn't even send in some very necessary documents such as G-325A, this should be 101 for experienced immigration attorneys).

I'd also tell him in writing that you expect any correspondence to be forwarded to you immediately, and put your email and faxnumber in your letter.

Like that, should stuff go wrong (which probably won't happen), you have proof.

Best of luck and i'm sorry you had such bad experiences with your particular lawyer.

Cat

Edited May 8, 2008 by Catt

[Mononoke28 135]

I think the only thing I'd be leery of would be if he kept getting correspondence from the USCIS about your case and didn't let you know about it. That would slow things down for sure.

Diana

[Eric_and_Corinna 0]

Firing our lawyer didn't slow us down at all, if anything, it made us feel more in control of the process. Not sure why you're getting rid of him, but this was the letter I sent our ex-lawyer.

My wife and I have decided that we are no longer in need of your representation during her K Visa application process.

When I signed our fee agreement on June 19th, 2007, you said that you would put forth your “best professional efforts” for us. After our I-129F packet was sent out approximately 50 days after our I-130 NOA1, you assured me that your office would do a better job with our case. Yet your office initiated no communication whatsoever since then. Furthermore, an email that I sent to you on December 28th, 2007 was unanswered until January 14th, 2008, with your explanation that it had somehow went into your spam filter. I found this completely unprofessional, but even more concerning was that further email correspondence to your “xxxx@visamerica” account has also gone unanswered. I understand that you are extremely busy with many cases and that delays may seem minor to your office, but to me, every day I am separated from my wife and infant son is extremely painful. The bottom line is that I can no longer trust your office with the welfare of my family.

On June 19th, I paid you $3,500 to represent us through the I-130/K-3 and AOS process. I believe your office has earned no more than half of this fee in preparing the K-3 forms, and that we are entitled to a refund for the AOS that your office will no longer be performing for us. We would like to collect our I-130 and I-129 F files and any other paperwork that your office has in your possession on Friday, February 15th, 2008. I expect that this will give you sufficient time to make any copies you feel are necessary for your office to keep. If you require any further explanation from us you may reach me at my email address.

There are lots of people here who can help you get thru pretty much any scenario you will encounter. Unless your case has special circumstances, I would get rid of him. You are entitled to any paperwork that he has submitted on your behalf, but I would call your service center to inform them that you are removing your choice of agent as well as sending a new choice of agent form. Legally, he is supposed to forward any correspondance to you from Immigration, but in my case, he waited a long time to do this. Luckily, I had already received the paperwork from USCIS and it seemed to be duplicate.

Good luck!

Oh, and ask for some (or all) of your money back. If he doesn't want to do it, "Fee Arbitration" and "Bar Association" are very strong words to sprinkle into any conversation, as long as you have solid reasons to fire him.

[Dakine 26]

Does anyone know if firing the lawyer will slow down our process?

All corespondence goes to him, but he's a jerk.

Fired mine and probably speeded things up. Jerk sat on RFE for a month while he vacationed without responding. His fault for RFE also!!~!