K-1 visa assistance firms

[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:

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

Obviously just a bit ahead of you its not THEY its "I have many friends that are attorneys" sorry good try though better luck next time....

My only error was not noticing someone misposted and I thought it was all from same individual.

[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:

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

It's all good lol.

[pushbrk 12,569]

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.

I read a lot more carefully than you did and you're the one who wrote it. Speaking of service firms you wrote the following.

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.

I agree that simply reviewing already completed forms adds little value unless errors are noticed and corrected. I don't agree that only attorneys can add value or that it would be unethical OR practicing law without a license to actually provide a service that adds value to the process.

If that were true, anything any of us offer in the way of advice would fall in the same category. Ignoring your own statement in bold above, is further evidence of your own lack of integrity. So, let's cut the ####### and get back to an honest discussion.

There are members here who will tell everybody they can do it themselves, others that advise against attorneys and the odd one that will imply anybody but an attorney providing immigration services is breaking the law. All are wrong in one way or the other. Some people can do it themselves but have better things to do with their time than to learn how. Others don't have what it takes to learn and need somebody to hold their hand through the process. Others are only comfortable using an attorney and some have the aptitude, attitude, time and inclination to do it themselves. It's an individual decision.

Whenever you engage any sort of professional service, it's wise to engage in due diligence before hand, then make and live with your decision.

[TBoneTX 44,679]

Pushbrk read and perceived the attorney's cited post just as I did. The insights from pushbrk thereafter are accurate, and it's wise to take note of them.

[brlukath 1]

I will try to ignore the continued attacks at my integrity, which are absolutely baseless. Nor will I address the claim that, if my opinion were correct, all contributors to this forum would be engaging in the unauthorized practice of law, as that idea is hardly what I implied and obviously incorrect--search the ethical rules in your local jurisdiction to learn what the unauthorized practice of law is and that most contributions to a forum like this (including my own) would never qualify.

Below, I respond to pushrk's apparent misunderstandings of my plain words and intent.

I agree that simply reviewing already completed forms adds little value unless errors are noticed and corrected. I don't agree that only attorneys can add value....

I agree with you, which is why I never said only attorneys can add value.

I don't agree ... that it would be unethical OR practicing law without a license to actually provide a service that adds value to the process.

Again, I agree with you, which is why I never said that providing any service that adds value is either unethical or practicing law. I addressed myself ONLY to what I understand to be the OP's situation; i.e. he has ALREADY done all of the work and wants to have someone check it for him.

If the OP’s application is ok substantively, he will have paid a pretty penny for proofreading, which could have been done by a friend (I realize that this is not necessarily true, which is why the OP must evaluate his circumstances for himself). If there is a substantive issue, e.g., the OP has submitted six I-129Fs in the past, the visa service will have two options: (1) tell him about the problem and refer him to a lawyer that can help him solve it, or (2) help him solve the problem by advising him of his legal options and helping him pursue them. (FYI- this is the practice of law.)

In option (1), the service has behaved ethically but, at the end of the day, did not do much for the (now) hypothetical OP, who must find a lawyer who will review the whole case (with the OP paying for what the service already did) and, then, advise the OP on how to solve the problem.

In option (2), the visa service will either step over the line or get really close to stepping into the unauthorized practice of law. At that point, I worry about the quality of the service. It is a simple (and should be an uncontroversial) opinion. There are many individuals who are very qualified to treat medical conditions, even though they are not authorized to practice medicine. Nevertheless, I prefer to be treated by licensed doctors, esp. when I have to pay. I feel the same about legal problems. I tried to express my opinion without the dissertation that this debate has now inspired, but...

You will also note that I have not attempted to convince or advise anyone; rather, I am adding to the "market place of ideas" that this forum claims to be. Any implication that I hope to derail "honest" discussion is asinine; it seems that pushbrk is the one who hopes to prevent people from openly and honestly sharing their opinions by calling them unscrupulous when they do. If the OP agrees with me, great! If he agrees with anyone else, great! I imagine that we all want him to get through this process as quickly, successfully, and inexpensively as possible.

Edited June 19, 2009 by brlukath

[rebeccajo 14]

Don't take it too seriously, brlukath.

Some of the members responding to you have made it well known in this community that they offer either translation services or visa consultation services. None of them are attorneys. As such they are naturally defensive.