K-1 visa assistance firms

[Nik+Heather 121]

Oh, and believe it or not, this process is supposedly intended to be easy enough for a lay person (not a lawyer) to do by themselves. Honestly, YOU have to dig out your documents. YOU have to figure out where you worked and what their address was. YOU have to call your parents and ask them the name of the specific town they were born in. There is just no getting around doing 90% (or more, depending on how buried stuff is) of the work for this process.

Visa Journey has GREAT, DETAILED guides, and I have seen SO many posts by people who say, "I talked with someone who was supposed to know the process, and they....had the wrong form, told me the wrong address, the wrong requirements, etc.....I'm so glad I had Visa Journey, I KNEW MORE ABOUT THE PROCESS THAN THEY DID!"

There is just no substitution for your own knowledge, and Visa Journey has all the material laid out clearly and in an easy to follow format. As another VJer is fond of saying, "NO ONE is more interested in seeing that your case is handled correctly and promptly than YOU are." You're the best one for the job! The USCIS doesn't care in what order you put your documents (but make sure the money is prominently displayed!), and the guides have a completely comprehensive (tried and true!) checklist, so no worries about anything missing. The links all go to the forms on the USCIS website, so you won't get out of date forms, and all the questions you want to ask for free on the forums.

Anyway, you're still not really going to find any specific recommendations on VJ is my bet - The people active on VJ pretty much used VJ.

[gennyangel 3]

you know what?! we have done it on our own and have went to a helpful site such as VJ for guidance and now where through of the k1 process

[sjr09 155]

If you do not feel comfortable to DIY, then I would recommend a visa service over an attorney. They are usually far more knowledgeable and can offer services like translations and native speaking people to communicate with your fiancee. Many specialize in "regions" and are very familiar with consulate procedures.

I have to confess to being an attorney, but I 100% disagree. Hire a knowledgable immigration attorney. As soon as they provide any helpful service (i.e. advice on how to best fill in your form) the visa service is skating on the edge of violating the law (and maybe crossing it) by unlawfully engaging in the practice of law without a license. One has to question the ethics of someone who would do that. Once you question their ethics, you have to question the quality of service.

A good immigration attorney will be willing to review your forms (at the hourly rate) and will honestly tell you in a consultation whether she/he thinks you really need to retain them. I tell my clients all the time that I am not a cost effective solution to their small problems because I cost too much. You could even ask the attorney to review your documentation and inform them if you have any red flags.

Spot on! 100% visa service is a joke.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

If you do not feel comfortable to DIY, then I would recommend a visa service over an attorney. They are usually far more knowledgeable and can offer services like translations and native speaking people to communicate with your fiancee. Many specialize in "regions" and are very familiar with consulate procedures.

I have to confess to being an attorney, but I 100% disagree. Hire a knowledgable immigration attorney. As soon as they provide any helpful service (i.e. advice on how to best fill in your form) the visa service is skating on the edge of violating the law (and maybe crossing it) by unlawfully engaging in the practice of law without a license. One has to question the ethics of someone who would do that. Once you question their ethics, you have to question the quality of service.

A good immigration attorney will be willing to review your forms (at the hourly rate) and will honestly tell you in a consultation whether she/he thinks you really need to retain them. I tell my clients all the time that I am not a cost effective solution to their small problems because I cost too much. You could even ask the attorney to review your documentation and inform them if you have any red flags.

No surprise you have to disagree.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

If you do not feel comfortable to DIY, then I would recommend a visa service over an attorney. They are usually far more knowledgeable and can offer services like translations and native speaking people to communicate with your fiancee. Many specialize in "regions" and are very familiar with consulate procedures.

I have to confess to being an attorney, but I 100% disagree. Hire a knowledgable immigration attorney. As soon as they provide any helpful service (i.e. advice on how to best fill in your form) the visa service is skating on the edge of violating the law (and maybe crossing it) by unlawfully engaging in the practice of law without a license. One has to question the ethics of someone who would do that. Once you question their ethics, you have to question the quality of service.

A good immigration attorney will be willing to review your forms (at the hourly rate) and will honestly tell you in a consultation whether she/he thinks you really need to retain them. I tell my clients all the time that I am not a cost effective solution to their small problems because I cost too much. You could even ask the attorney to review your documentation and inform them if you have any red flags.

Then I recommend doing it yourself. Anyone reading this has the best available resource available to them for free....VJ.

[Elham 1]

I STRONGLY recommend you to handle your works yourself. You can find answer of your questions here if you faced any probelm... read my story, you'll know why I'm saying that.

[rmncm 0]

Heck I'll charge you $100 to check and recheck your forms for you! Matter of fact just send me the extra $100 and I promiss to throw it away for you, I PROMISS. Thats what you will be doing when you use a service.

Since I have been a member, I dont know how many prople I have seen come on here with problems with their K1 becasue the visa service or attny screwed them up. Just take your time, read, check,double check, tripple check and send them off.

[JeremyandEvelyn 0]

I tried to use a service for our K-1 ,and it turned out they were just a group of folks looking up the same websites that i was. they knew no more than me. they sent me a pre-addressed package to send our i129f(which they messed up because they couldn't use adobe reader) the package was addressed to the Atlanta field office. I called them to question this, and they said that was right place to send it. Well, of course it wasn't the right place, but that's where I sent it...lost forever. This immigration help service's website was right on th USCIS website homepage! with a little more research on my own I learned all I neede to know. we're waiting on our NAO2 after getting the NAO1 on may 5th. no need to pay anyone to do this. in fact it just makes it take longer.

[MikenKyhen 0]

I have to confess to being an attorney, but I 100% disagree. Hire a knowledgable immigration attorney. As soon as they provide any helpful service (i.e. advice on how to best fill in your form) the visa service is skating on the edge of violating the law (and maybe crossing it) by unlawfully engaging in the practice of law without a license. One has to question the ethics of someone who would do that. Once you question their ethics, you have to question the quality of service.

A good immigration attorney will be willing to review your forms (at the hourly rate) and will honestly tell you in a consultation whether she/he thinks you really need to retain them. I tell my clients all the time that I am not a cost effective solution to their small problems because I cost too much. You could even ask the attorney to review your documentation and inform them if you have any red flags.

Now there's a shocker..An attorney recommending you hire an attorney! LoL..No disrespect intended to brlukath. I have many friends that our attorneys that I would highly recommend..just not in this case.

Edited June 17, 2009 by MikenKyhen

[thepizzadude 26]

I have to confess to being an attorney, but I 100% disagree. Hire a knowledgable immigration attorney. As soon as they provide any helpful service (i.e. advice on how to best fill in your form) the visa service is skating on the edge of violating the law (and maybe crossing it) by unlawfully engaging in the practice of law without a license. One has to question the ethics of someone who would do that. Once you question their ethics, you have to question the quality of service.

A good immigration attorney will be willing to review your forms (at the hourly rate) and will honestly tell you in a consultation whether she/he thinks you really need to retain them. I tell my clients all the time that I am not a cost effective solution to their small problems because I cost too much. You could even ask the attorney to review your documentation and inform them if you have any red flags.

Now there's a shocker..An attorney recommending you hire an attorney! LoL..No disrespect intended to brlukath. I have many friends that our attorneys that I would highly recommend..just not in this case.

There is #1 reason to not hire an attorney....they don't check their work well...THIS attorney edited his own post and still missed this...OUR should have been ARE....

LOLOLOLOL :rofl: :rofl:

[pushbrk 12,569]

I have to confess to being an attorney, but I 100% disagree. Hire a knowledgable immigration attorney. As soon as they provide any helpful service (i.e. advice on how to best fill in your form) the visa service is skating on the edge of violating the law (and maybe crossing it) by unlawfully engaging in the practice of law without a license. One has to question the ethics of someone who would do that. Once you question their ethics, you have to question the quality of service.

A good immigration attorney will be willing to review your forms (at the hourly rate) and will honestly tell you in a consultation whether she/he thinks you really need to retain them. I tell my clients all the time that I am not a cost effective solution to their small problems because I cost too much. You could even ask the attorney to review your documentation and inform them if you have any red flags.

Now there's a shocker..An attorney recommending you hire an attorney! LoL..No disrespect intended to brlukath. I have many friends that our attorneys that I would highly recommend..just not in this case.

There is #1 reason to not hire an attorney....they don't check their work well...THIS attorney edited his own post and still missed this...OUR should have been ARE....

LOLOLOLOL :rofl: :rofl:

Ok, I'm going to use the pizza dude's post to make two points.

1. The attorney didn't make the "our" vs "are" mistake. Somebody replying improperly did.

2. This kind of inattention to detail is one of the reasons SOME people really need to hire a professional to help them through the process.

[pushbrk 12,569]

If you do not feel comfortable to DIY, then I would recommend a visa service over an attorney. They are usually far more knowledgeable and can offer services like translations and native speaking people to communicate with your fiancee. Many specialize in "regions" and are very familiar with consulate procedures.

I have to confess to being an attorney, but I 100% disagree. Hire a knowledgable immigration attorney. As soon as they provide any helpful service (i.e. advice on how to best fill in your form) the visa service is skating on the edge of violating the law (and maybe crossing it) by unlawfully engaging in the practice of law without a license. One has to question the ethics of someone who would do that. Once you question their ethics, you have to question the quality of service.

A good immigration attorney will be willing to review your forms (at the hourly rate) and will honestly tell you in a consultation whether she/he thinks you really need to retain them. I tell my clients all the time that I am not a cost effective solution to their small problems because I cost too much. You could even ask the attorney to review your documentation and inform them if you have any red flags.

I question the ethics of any attorney who will mislead folks as you have done above. A service is either practicing law or they aren't. If they aren't, there's no ethics problem. Skating on the edge is not unethical but an attorney trying to convince the public it is, definitely crosses the line, IMO.

When it comes to engaging professional services of any kind, do your due diligence

[brlukath 1]

I question the ethics of any attorney who will mislead folks as you have done above. A service is either practicing law or they aren't. If they aren't, there's no ethics problem. Skating on the edge is not unethical but an attorney trying to convince the public it is, definitely crosses the line, IMO.

When it comes to engaging professional services of any kind, do your due diligence

Please read carefully before you criticize my intelligence (thanks for at least defending my grammar pushbrk) or my ethics.

First, I admitted to being an attorney so that the OP could evaluate my advice having been forewarned of my potential bias. That is VERY ethical.

Second, I did not (and do not) recommend that the OP hire a lawyer. Rather, I said that when choosing between a reputable, knowledgeable, lawyer and a visa service, I would choose the lawyer. If the OP were comfortable with the DIY approach, I would recommend the DIY approach.

Finally, I did not state or imply that all (or any particular) visa services are unethical. Rather, I stated that, for someone wishing only to have the paperwork he or she has prepared reviewed, the visa service will not add value (i.e. provide any helpful advice as to how one should best complete his or her application) until that service gets dangerously close to or DOES IN FACT engage in the practice of law without a license, which is illegal. That means if the service doesn’t engage in illegal practices, a client who has already completed all of the forms and gathered all the documentation probably wasted his or her money paying for proof reading that could have been done by a reasonably literate friend.

No one has to agree with me. However, do not impugn my motives or my morals because you disagree with my opinion.

Edited June 17, 2009 by brlukath

[sjr09 155]

I have to confess to being an attorney, but I 100% disagree. Hire a knowledgable immigration attorney. As soon as they provide any helpful service (i.e. advice on how to best fill in your form) the visa service is skating on the edge of violating the law (and maybe crossing it) by unlawfully engaging in the practice of law without a license. One has to question the ethics of someone who would do that. Once you question their ethics, you have to question the quality of service.

A good immigration attorney will be willing to review your forms (at the hourly rate) and will honestly tell you in a consultation whether she/he thinks you really need to retain them. I tell my clients all the time that I am not a cost effective solution to their small problems because I cost too much. You could even ask the attorney to review your documentation and inform them if you have any red flags.

Now there's a shocker..An attorney recommending you hire an attorney! LoL..No disrespect intended to brlukath. I have many friends that our attorneys that I would highly recommend..just not in this case.

There is #1 reason to not hire an attorney....they don't check their work well...THIS attorney edited his own post and still missed this...OUR should have been ARE....

LOLOLOLOL :rofl: :rofl:

And you missed ...they should have been .They! your not so smart after all.

[thepizzadude 26]

I have to confess to being an attorney, but I 100% disagree. Hire a knowledgable immigration attorney. As soon as they provide any helpful service (i.e. advice on how to best fill in your form) the visa service is skating on the edge of violating the law (and maybe crossing it) by unlawfully engaging in the practice of law without a license. One has to question the ethics of someone who would do that. Once you question their ethics, you have to question the quality of service.

A good immigration attorney will be willing to review your forms (at the hourly rate) and will honestly tell you in a consultation whether she/he thinks you really need to retain them. I tell my clients all the time that I am not a cost effective solution to their small problems because I cost too much. You could even ask the attorney to review your documentation and inform them if you have any red flags.

Now there's a shocker..An attorney recommending you hire an attorney! LoL..No disrespect intended to brlukath. I have many friends that our attorneys that I would highly recommend..just not in this case.

There is #1 reason to not hire an attorney....they don't check their work well...THIS attorney edited his own post and still missed this...OUR should have been ARE....

LOLOLOLOL :rofl: :rofl:

Ok, I'm going to use the pizza dude's post to make two points.

1. The attorney didn't make the "our" vs "are" mistake. Somebody replying improperly did.

2. This kind of inattention to detail is one of the reasons SOME people really need to hire a professional to help them through the process.

Ewww nice catch...my bad on that one and apologies to the attorney...but its pizzadude push brk....LOL