Attorney/Paralegal - How Does It work/Your Experience

[hearsay 1]

Dear VJ,

How does the process work when hiring an attorney from the beginning? Meaning, when starting with a new visa application does the attorney/paralegal charge for a specific amount, retainer, etc? How much did it cost? What was included? What was not included in the fees? Does the attorney/paralegal fill out the application for you and then ask you to send the evidence directly to the attorney/paralegal? They compile everything and send it in?

Sorry not sure what to ask; just wondering what the entire attorney/paralegal process is like?

[summersurf 10]

hello,

i dont think you need to hire a lawyer to start to file for your visa petition, its pretty easy and hiring a lawyer would be just spending even buncher of money. I dont know what your situation is, i mean you want to hire a lawyer to do your petition because you are very busy and think will have no time?

You dont have any problem with the immigration, do you? then you should be fine doing it yourself. i was overstayed and banned for 10 years, me and my husband didnt even hire an attorney to file for all the paperworks that we needed, we did it ourselves and everything went so well although the waiting part was the most annoying one.

Only for a consultation with a lawyer for an hour will cost you about 200 bucks, save the money for the forms fee, you'll be amazed that you actually can do it by yourself. Good luck!

[NickD 202]

With work, wanting to spend time on the net with my wife or long phone calls, and seeing that entirely new mess, found the best attorney I could find in the USA. He advised the best way to bring her and her daughter here, now that he was good at, many different ways due to different circumstances. We agreed on a flat fee, I have been dealing with attorneys in my professional, the only way to do that, was $1,500 for the AOS plus expenses, but he was fair on this, a few phone calls and mailing.

But the burden of the work was on our shoulders, did send out a 15 page form we had to fill out accurately, did have to gather all the evidence, but gave us a list, did e-mail us the completed forms for our final approval, and did send us an exact copy of what he send to the USCIS. Expenses came to about 150 bucks, had to do everything twice for my wife and step daughter, so that came to 825 bucks per person. Did guarantee if our applications were rejected for any reason, he would correct that at his expense, course I had to send him a rather large check for all the fees. I was very pleased with his service, all went smooth. When it came to the I-751 and N-400 he said I can do that, but e-mailed him the completed forms and he looked them over making minor suggestions at no charge. Also learned a lot in the process.

His law firm is under contract to a very large USA corporation that deal with all immigration, my wife was working for that corporation, maybe his rates were cheap because that is his major source of income. But he sure knew his stuff.

Some people on this site really got nailed by attorneys and I know exactly where they are coming from, think most of us got nailed at one time or another, make sure you have a contract that spells everything out.

[Ney 0]

Dear VJ,

How does the process work when hiring an attorney from the beginning? Meaning, when starting with a new visa application does the attorney/paralegal charge for a specific amount, retainer, etc? How much did it cost? What was included? What was not included in the fees? Does the attorney/paralegal fill out the application for you and then ask you to send the evidence directly to the attorney/paralegal? They compile everything and send it in?

Sorry not sure what to ask; just wondering what the entire attorney/paralegal process is like?

Hello Waiting4Visas,

I'm fairly new to the K-1 process; my Iranian husband already lived in America when we married over 28 years ago. Our daughter found her love in a magnificent American man. Our son has found his love in an amazing Iranian woman.

We are at the beginning of getting our son's bride to be into America and we are using an attorney to do so.

I know many people here believe an attorney is a complete waste of time and money. I do agree that an attorney is very costly, often unnecessary, and much more time consuming due to involving a third party. However, we personally did it for our own peace of mind. We have had many dealings with immigration over our many years together and have found some processes go smoothly and some do not. To us opting for an attorney to represent our son is a safety net.

We have paid for a package deal ($2500) which includes the k-1 visa process as well as the process for her green card after the wedding. The USCIS fee, the medical, and the embassy fees are not included in the attorney fees. My son gathered all of the initial information for proof of the relationship, and both letters of intent. The attorney filled out all of the paper work and sent it to my son to be signed; my future daughter-in-law was also sent papers to be signed. The final signed paper work made it back to the attorney yesterday and now he will send the package to USCIS for processing.

In our case what backed us up was the slow mailing process from Iran to America, we did not know about the G325 forms and we should have taken them to Dubai and had the papers signed during the engagement process. Of course I didn't find this site until after Dubai.

Good Luck in what ever you choose to do,

Ney

[John24689 0]

Unless you have a special case, I do not recommend an attorney. You can do it yourself. It takes extra time to put all of your information on a form for them to take the information and put it on the USCIS forms. It takes the same amount of time to gather all the information.

I suggest you download the forms and instructions from the USCIS website.

Read the Guides above on VJ.

Start filing out the forms.

Ask questions on here for anything you need to get a better understanding.

Search the forums on VJ and see what others have submitted.

Just my opinion, but I have done everything myself and have not had a problem yet.

Good luck in your decision and good luck in this process.

Let us know what you decide.