Lawyer vs Do it yourself

[malishka36 0]

We paid a lawyer to submit our paperwork for us (K-1). Seems to be taking them a very long time to do anything with it.

I have no idea if they will refund us the money or not my guess is NOT .. I'm ready to copy everything we sent to the lawyer and send it myself express mail.

[brnidokiegurl 0]

thats the thing, you did gather all the papers and hand to them and by now you could have already mailed it . Did you question their delay

[ilovecookies 0]

it depends how much time and what kind of case you have. ours was straightforward, so we did it ourselves, from k1 to citizenship. this forum helps a lot if you have questions!! my friend used a lawyer, and hasn't gotten rid of him since. they need to go through the lawyer for everything!! and they are paying a lot of money. we have the same case (k1, no complications) but i got approvals without a lawyer.

[Dakine 26]

If the lawyer hasn't mailed your petition yet I'd fire him and do it yourself. If you don't have any strange circumstances a K1 is a piece of cake.

Peeps here will walk you thru it. Plus the guides tell most all.

I fired my lawyer also as he was dragging his heals.

[LuckyDucky 0]

I'm not sure if they will refund a portion of their fees. I guess it depends on their own policy.

Using an attorney can be helpful if there are any snags since they should be familiar with the process and the good ones will have a relationship with the embassy you are going through. It's also good for those who don't like to do their own paperwork or are fearful that they will make a mistake on their application. (However, I've heard plenty of stories of attorneys that screw up, too!)

If they haven't submitted the paperwork to USCIS, then you can certainly do it yourself. Just ensure that they don't send it so you don't have 2 applications submitted. My recommendation is that you contact their office to see why it's taking them so long. It's certainly within your right to do so: that's what you're paying them for!

[malishka36 0]

Thank you so much for the advice. My plan is to fire them ! They have had the completed paper work for 3 weeks.

There is nothing strange about our case at all. In fact my fiance worked for a US company contracted by the Department of Defense. I don't think there will be any issues with his health or with his background. We were going to get married first in Nepal and do a K-3 but I think the K-1 would be faster and less hassle.

With the assitance of this site and all the great people on it.. I'm very confident we can get this done ourselves.

[vickydeutsch 0]

Yes, you can do it yourself!!!!!

[Old Dominion 26]

Thank you so much for the advice. My plan is to fire them ! They have had the completed paper work for 3 weeks.

There is nothing strange about our case at all. In fact my fiance worked for a US company contracted by the Department of Defense. I don't think there will be any issues with his health or with his background. We were going to get married first in Nepal and do a K-3 but I think the K-1 would be faster and less hassle.

With the assitance of this site and all the great people on it.. I'm very confident we can get this done ourselves.

Are you sure your lawyer hasn't already sent the paperwork & fee? No matter how backlogged a lawyer might be (or how lazy) the paperwork should have been sent by the second week. Some lawyers are prompt in sending it, but it takes 3-4 weeks to get an letter of arrival from the USCIS. Then, the lawyer would send you a copy.

Unless folks have horrible complications to deal with, a lawyer is really of no use. The process is easy even if it is a bit time-consuming and requires careful attention to the instructions.

Fire the lawyer if the paperwork hasn't already gone forward, and get your originals back to file yourself. Either way, the lawyer has deposited your lawyer's fee, right?

[richo 0]

We did it ourselves starting K1 process now we're on AOS. As long as you can understand the instructions and read it over and over again. REad the USCIS website and of course VisaJourney.

[Stuart n Courtney 0]

Courtney and I used a lawyer to file for our K1 application. We didn't have any issues for our application and way more than enough evidence to support the relationship however we did not know about VJ before we filed and it ended up costing us a fair amount of money. Only after filing did I find VJ and all the help and experience available on here. Even when filing with the lawyers I have done all the research, all the forms and what seems like most of the hard work so not sure how they justify their large fee's!

I would definitely not have hired a lawyer had I known about VJ prior to submitting the application. People on here are amazing and are so helpful, any questions you have will be answered promptly, most of the time with the question being answered previously so you can often search and find the answer yourself.

1 plus of the lawyers seems to be that we got approved quickly for CSC, I don't know if that is because the lawyers filed for us so maybe they submitted our case in a way that makes it easier for CSC to process. The person processing it wasn't daunted by a large file that's difficult to understand or process. Just a thought tho.

Either way you do it I wish you the best of luck for a speedy approval

Stuart

[malishka36 0]

I wish I would have known about this site before we paid 1K for the lawyer. They have had our money since August. We didn't have the correct type of pix so that held up the paperwork. I found that out ONLY after asking them how the paperwork was going or I would have never known about it. We got the information to them around 9/20. I dont know the exact date. I will ask if they have sent off the paperwork yet. If not they are fired and I will ask for all the paperwork to be sent back to me.

Thank you again and thank you for the good wishes !! Our best wishes to all of you

[LuckyDucky 0]

I wish I would have known about this site before we paid 1K for the lawyer. They have had our money since August. We didn't have the correct type of pix so that held up the paperwork. I found that out ONLY after asking them how the paperwork was going or I would have never known about it. We got the information to them around 9/20. I dont know the exact date. I will ask if they have sent off the paperwork yet. If not they are fired and I will ask for all the paperwork to be sent back to me.

Thank you again and thank you for the good wishes !! Our best wishes to all of you

Hopefully they'll refund you some of the money. If they didn't send it in, I wonder if you can get the money back for failing to do the work?

Best of luck! VJ is definitely a wonderful resource!