Have you used a Lawyer/Law firm and if so who?

[FarmersWife 0]

Hi all

I thought it may be interesting to find out how many people have used Lawyers & or Law firms and the experiences they have had.

cheers

[william_wallace 8]

Hi all

I thought it may be interesting to find out how many people have used Lawyers & or Law firms and the experiences they have had.

cheers

Thats a good one lol. Many come in here and say there not upto the job. I would name and shame them.

[emerce 0]

I used Brodsky Law Firm out of New York City and I dont know what to think about the experience. The bottom line is that he got the job done but it took FOREVER. We paid him and sent him information in Dec 07 and didnt actually file the paperwork until MARCH. He wasnt very good about answering our emails about complaints that it was taking too long either. At the end of the process he overnighted our forms so we could sign them and he told us to overnight them back so he could submit them and I sent him an email telling him that I was afraid to sent them back because I thought it would take him another two weeks to file. So I just said thank you and sent them to the Chicago Lockbox myself so I knew it would get there. All in all the packet he sent us was well done and professional looking but he was just so slow and so hard to get a hold of. But it cost us no where NEAR what other people pay. We paid less than 500 dollars.

[Carol and Bruno 0]

Hi all

I thought it may be interesting to find out how many people have used Lawyers & or Law firms and the experiences they have had.

cheers

I hired an attorney for my K-1 process, but I will not disclose their names. However, once my fiance is approved at the consulate and has the visa in hand, I will begin a list of those attorneys to stay far away from. My attorney will of course be listed first then all other members can add their own attorney and experience.

I'll just say that my attorney basically charged $1900 for courier service. That was one expensive stamp. The only efficient part of his service was when he took my money. After that, all customer service became non-existent, it's like dealing with the USCIS.

So for all you newbies......HANDLE THIS PROCESS YOURSELF!!! Unless you have a difficult case.

[william_wallace 8]

My fiance is using K1k3visas. They charge $525 for the K1. I felt we didnt really need the lawyer but my fiance dosent have the time as she works 6 days a week and has 3 kids to look after.

Upto now they have been spot on, no complaints yet. Lara sent of the information to them and received it all back within 7 days. There quick replying back and seemed to know what there doing. I aint putting my hopes up about them yet because were still at the early stage. If we get an RFE I will throw a wobbly at them.

[sara..... 371]

we used Cal Knickerbocker look at my time line at the bottom of this post lol.........he rarely returns phone calls and emails once in a while......and yep im sure he looks at this site because the last time we talked to him he said i know it looks like im not doing anything but i am....hahah.......ok what ever im still how many days past?........also i found that he does not seem to know as much about k1 visa as i have learned on this site........i can only hope that IF we ever make it to interview process if there is a problem that he is able to handle it to our benefit........being this far behind at this late date in the process and having to explain our case to him when we call does not give me very much security that he is even trying to do anything with our case......u know the old saying about making sure that ur problematic clients in any business are made happy? i think he missed that in 101 business......other wise he would at least contact us on his own to at least pretend to be doing something......ok thats my rant about my attorney would i hire him again? from what i have seen so far NO

[bokita2 0]

Well, I went to a consultation with an attorney and was thoroughly disappointed. It became quite clear that I knew more about the process than the lawyer. She wasted alot of time writing info down and didn't even know about medical (had to ask her paralegal). Then the moment her hour was up she wanted her money and us out the door. It was at that moment I decided I would handle it on my own.

After all, I knew I would be paying the paralegal to do the work at the attorney's rate.

Unless you have a major legal prob with your case....try doing it yourself.

[william_wallace 8]

Think when I eventually move over to the States, I will become an immigration lawyer. Charge $100 per hour and fill peoples heads with a load of bull$hit. Sounds like a plan lol.

[Team J and B 2]

We used a lawyer, too. $3500 for them to assemble our I-29F and supporting documents. From the day we sent our petition out to my entering the USA was eight months and five days.

I'm now doing my own AOS paperwork and to be honest, the bulk of the work is photocopying. If you are semi-organized and keep your tax assessments for at least the past seven years (like a good citizen should), have your original certificates of anything filed away, and keep your agenda/journal from the past few years, then you're set. Assembling the paperwork should be easy. Sure, it will end up thick and bulky, but trust me, if my lawyer could charge $3500, we were really had. By the way, I have used those day planner things for years now and I never throw them away. When it came time to write down all the dates for EVERYTHING, they came in so handy.

I think I will open up a consulting business strictly for K1 visas, too.

[1HappyGuy 45]

I used Brankey-Smith out of Illinois. I didn't know about VJ then and wanted to make sure it was done properly. They did a fine job but the price was reduced since I was a client of a tour company. I'm now using the advice from VJ exclusively.

You might consider using VJ initially and then paying an immigration attorney to review the paperwork before you submit it. Using an attorney does not speed up the process.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

No lawyers.

Started the process with Google and was gaining piecemeal bits of info til I found VJ quite by accident. At that point I was 100% certain I could do it myself. Being a control freak, I wanted to check and double check every piece of paper rather than trusting somebody else to put it together. I had lots of time to do it and had done other things myself like probate two wills in court without using a lawyer. (I love to save money if there's something I can do myself)

I think the key is to read all over this site. Some people jump into the forums without studying the guides, samples, FAQs, Wiki, etc. There's stuff all over this site and it was very confusing to me at first. So far the process has gone quite smoothly.

[william_wallace 8]

B)-->

QUOTE(Team J and B @ May 30 2008, 05:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We used a lawyer, too. $3500 for them to assemble our I-29F and supporting documents. From the day we sent our petition out to my entering the USA was eight months and five days.

I'm now doing my own AOS paperwork and to be honest, the bulk of the work is photocopying. If you are semi-organized and keep your tax assessments for at least the past seven years (like a good citizen should), have your original certificates of anything filed away, and keep your agenda/journal from the past few years, then you're set. Assembling the paperwork should be easy. Sure, it will end up thick and bulky, but trust me, if my lawyer could charge $3500, we were really had. By the way, I have used those day planner things for years now and I never throw them away. When it came time to write down all the dates for EVERYTHING, they came in so handy.

I think I will open up a consulting business strictly for K1 visas, too.

Thats a fair amount of coin for the K1. There's no way I would pay that amount for a lawyer. Some of them must sit back and think of there bank account.

[PinayAko 0]

we used Cal Knickerbocker look at my time line at the bottom of this post lol.........he rarely returns phone calls and emails once in a while......and yep im sure he looks at this site because the last time we talked to him he said i know it looks like im not doing anything but i am....hahah.......ok what ever im still how many days past?........also i found that he does not seem to know as much about k1 visa as i have learned on this site........i can only hope that IF we ever make it to interview process if there is a problem that he is able to handle it to our benefit........being this far behind at this late date in the process and having to explain our case to him when we call does not give me very much security that he is even trying to do anything with our case......u know the old saying about making sure that ur problematic clients in any business are made happy? i think he missed that in 101 business......other wise he would at least contact us on his own to at least pretend to be doing something......ok thats my rant about my attorney would i hire him again? from what i have seen so far NO

We hired Cal Knickerbocker too, and as of now im still waiting for my NOA2, Im hoping it wont take us long to get approved. Iam not happy with Cal's service, and i will definitely not want to hire him again..... My fiance thinks he is good lawyer but to me i can already tell he's not....LOL Hope someone can refer a good lawyer, my fiance is planning to hire a lawyer to do our AOS................

[IrieCat 2]

When I was still living in St Lucia and just looking into this whole thing I stressed so much about getting the money to hire a lawyer. I called a lawyer and he gave me some general info (I dont remember who I called) and he really wasnt insistent that I hire him. So I got back to the states.. sat down and really looked into what I was going to have to do. I asked my aunt, who is a bookeeper, to just proof read things before they got sent and if I had questions I would just get her opinion.

I am not really organized when it comes to paperwork etc (I am an artist LOL). I did have a few stressful days but in the end I am very proud of myself and it all worked out fine. Louis will be here in just a couple weeks.

You can really get any questions answered here on VJ.

I really think if I can do it ... anyone can! ** I am like a cheesy infomercial!!**

[lynie 0]

I go with the NO LAWYER philosophy, unless you have a tricky case. Wanna know why? Let me tell you...

I was SO stressed with work and wedding planning and life in general at the time of the K-1 application, I hired one. I don't want to mention the firm name, but it rhymes with Broth & Nassociates... VJ has been more helpful than for my AOS process than the $1800 lawyer was for the K-1, but I didn't find this site until it was too late. If you can be organized and thorough, you can do it yourself.

The lawyer basically acted as a typist (a poor one at that). And they trained people on embassy packets on my case, which cost me over 2 weeks of time with my husband to be while they worked the kinks out - which was so infuriating, it cost me more stress than if I had done it all myself. AND, when I got our Embassy docs filled in from the lawyer, there were multiple typos and errors (I mean, COME ON: "Canada" was misspelled on one form for crying out loud!!!!). And there were inconsistencies I found in our information (like working in one country on one form while he was living in another on another form) - when I pointed them out to the paralegal I was told that it was our fault because it was the information we provided her. So she basically just admitted that all they did was type, and they didn't fulfill the promise made on my retainer agreement to check all information multiple times for any errors or inconsistencies. AAAAARGGGHHHH!! Oh, and I was also told that since they emailed the fillable forms to me - I could just change them myself.

THEN, when I decided at the VERY last minute to meet my fiance for the K-1 interview in Montreal, I called the lawyer's office from the airport to see if they had any advice for me, and I was told that I "likely wouldn't even be admitted into the building." Once again proving how clueless they are... Not one single person at the Embassy, from the security guard to the final officer that approved us - asked me why I was there, or actually, come to think of it, who I was (I guess with all the hand-holding and smooching, they assumed I was his fiance). The first officer we spoke to at the embassy let us know that half the forms we brought, which were provided by our lawyer, were in no way relevant to our case as a K-1. He made the remark - twice - "I hope you didn't pay them a lot!" And the next day, after we were approved, I emailed the lawyer's office to let them know I would be willing to tell them all about my experience so that they could share my knowledge with other clients - and they never contacted me. So, they're fine with providing sub-par service and are banking of people not finding VJ before they sign a retainer.

Whoa, don't get me started on whether or not to hire a lawyer...