Starting the process! -or- are all lawyers this useless?

[Angel and Gendy 1]

Hi I just found this forum after being frustrated by lawyers and getting conflicting information from each.

It looks like I'll be tackling the paperwork myself and I'll be looking here for a lot of advice!

[Darnell 8,479]

read the guides here, if ya get a chance, quick like

I learned so much when I read the guides..

[Justine+David 218]

Good luck! Be sure to use liberal use of the search function; it has helped me out countless times. I love VJ

[Guitarlo 2]

Hi I just found this forum after being frustrated by lawyers and getting conflicting information from each.

It looks like I'll be tackling the paperwork myself and I'll be looking here for a lot of advice!

Hello and welcome to VJ

Can you please provide more information and details about your situation? Why are the attorneys frustrating and conflicting? I hired one of those online law firms - John Roth and Associates and basically all they did was fill out my forms and I did all the work from there. So, in my experience unless you need an attorney don't hire one. It's ok to hire a paralegal familiar with the immigration to help fill out your forms.

[Angel and Gendy 1]

The search here has already been a great help and I just joined less than an hour ago!

I understand her interview process is a little more strict than some other countries, so we are preparing for that as well!

[Angel and Gendy 1]

Hi I just found this forum after being frustrated by lawyers and getting conflicting information from each.

It looks like I'll be tackling the paperwork myself and I'll be looking here for a lot of advice!

Hello and welcome to VJ

Can you please provide more information and details about your situation? Why are the attorneys frustrating and conflicting? I hired one of those online law firms - John Roth and Associates and basically all they did was fill out my forms and I did all the work from there. So, in my experience unless you need an attorney don't hire one. It's ok to hire a paralegal familiar with the immigration to help fill out your forms.

One lawyer was telling me a list of requirements, and as I researched I found out they were K-3 requirements.

Another just told me to get her here on a tourist visa and marry her when she gets here, and say we met on her visit..

yet another gave me the impression I was wasting his valuable time...

I'll be taking the time to fill out all my profile info here and post some pictures!

Edited December 2, 2009 by Angel and Gendy

[Rito 28]

Another just told me to get her here on a tourist visa and marry her when she gets here, and say we met on her visit..

Wow, that is some horrible advice you got! As I'm sure you found out later, doing this is illegal and can have serious repercussions if found out, including your fiancee not being able to enter the country for years. It's great that you're here instead. I've found the forums and advice invaluable, and definitely didn't feel I needed a lawyer after reading the guides. Good luck!

- Rito

[sara..... 371]

no one can advise you not to hire an attorney......only you know if your situation requires one.

now that is said i will state very clearly i feel after finding vj that i could have done a lot better job and been more effective in our visa journey than our attorney was......he never addressed what i felt was a problem and hired him to address in the petition......it came back to bite us in the butt during interview time.........if i could go back wards in time i would never hire an attorney......wish i had found vj before starting my journey

this is just my opinion

sara

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Yes actually they are that useless, they have no choice.

You need to understand that an attorney will do nothing for you and can do nothing for you. There is nothing they CAN do. It is not a legal process. There are no dep[ositions, no objections, no court rules, no motions, no court appearances...it is not a lawsuit.

YOU will gather all the information and give it to them, they cannot fill out a form without you providing the information...impossible. They have no idea of the name of your fiancee's father or his birthdate. How will they get that? YOU will fill it out ona questionaire they give you. Why not fill it out on the G-325a? They do no thave your birth certificate or evidence you have met in person. So, after you produce all the documents and fill out all the forms, in a different format but all the sae information, the attorney gives it to his clerk who i spaid $12 per hour (no need for a para-legal, a data entry clerk will do) and they type the infomration you gave into an online form. That is if they haven't invested some money into a program that scans and scrapes your info and parses it into the I-129f in about 1 second. They print the forms, make some copies and charge you what? $2000? What a deal. Your fiancee goes to the interview, what does the attorney do? Nothing. Goes golfing. IF you get denied he may or may not be of use (for much more money of course, you think the $2000 includes anything but the clerk filling in the forms?) when your fiancee arrives, the attorney will inform you that for "only" an additional $2000 he will file for the AOS for you. What a guy!

If you need to pay someone to fill in your forms, use a visa service which is cheaper and offers more SERVICE. Attorney defenders will be along to point out that visa services are not licensed or regulated (this is a good thing and results in lower costs for you) and that attorneys have malpractice insurance. Malpracticie insurance protects the attorney from YOU, it does nothing FOR you.

If you need an attorney, you will know it when the time comes, pay them then. Paying them to fill out forms is silly and will get you nothing if you really have a problem as you will then just have to pay more. Keep the form filing fee to yourself and only pay an attorney if and when you need one.

This is the huge falacy of anyone suggesting you hire an attorney from the get-go. The fee they charge is ONLY to fill out forms for a simple application. If you get into some trouble or have problems down the road it will cost you a lot more and it will have nothing to do with how the forms were filled out, isn't possible. The worst you get for mistakes in filling out forms is an RFE, you correct the problem and go on with life.

[thongd4me 69]

Yes actually they are that useless, they have no choice.

You need to understand that an attorney will do nothing for you and can do nothing for you. There is nothing they CAN do. It is not a legal process. There are no dep[ositions, no objections, no court rules, no motions, no court appearances...it is not a lawsuit.

YOU will gather all the information and give it to them, they cannot fill out a form without you providing the information...impossible. They have no idea of the name of your fiancee's father or his birthdate. How will they get that? YOU will fill it out ona questionaire they give you. Why not fill it out on the G-325a? They do no thave your birth certificate or evidence you have met in person. So, after you produce all the documents and fill out all the forms, in a different format but all the sae information, the attorney gives it to his clerk who i spaid $12 per hour (no need for a para-legal, a data entry clerk will do) and they type the infomration you gave into an online form. That is if they haven't invested some money into a program that scans and scrapes your info and parses it into the I-129f in about 1 second. They print the forms, make some copies and charge you what? $2000? What a deal. Your fiancee goes to the interview, what does the attorney do? Nothing. Goes golfing. IF you get denied he may or may not be of use (for much more money of course, you think the $2000 includes anything but the clerk filling in the forms?) when your fiancee arrives, the attorney will inform you that for "only" an additional $2000 he will file for the AOS for you. What a guy!

If you need to pay someone to fill in your forms, use a visa service which is cheaper and offers more SERVICE. Attorney defenders will be along to point out that visa services are not licensed or regulated (this is a good thing and results in lower costs for you) and that attorneys have malpractice insurance. Malpracticie insurance protects the attorney from YOU, it does nothing FOR you.

If you need an attorney, you will know it when the time comes, pay them then. Paying them to fill out forms is silly and will get you nothing if you really have a problem as you will then just have to pay more. Keep the form filing fee to yourself and only pay an attorney if and when you need one.

This is the huge falacy of anyone suggesting you hire an attorney from the get-go. The fee they charge is ONLY to fill out forms for a simple application. If you get into some trouble or have problems down the road it will cost you a lot more and it will have nothing to do with how the forms were filled out, isn't possible. The worst you get for mistakes in filling out forms is an RFE, you correct the problem and go on with life.

The only benefit of having an attorney is that the attorney's grounds keeper at his house in the Hamptons just MIGHT get a raise for Christmas if your billable hours provide enough spare cash.

[BishopMnA 0]

Hello Angel and Gendy,

You'll get lots of good advice on VJ. My wife and have saved literally thousands of $ by utilizing the knowledge on this board and doing the K1 / AOS / ROC on our own. I probably wouldn't have even ventured to try it on my own without the help of VJ.

You'll probably be alot like most of us and find the process to be a bit slow, but not necessarily too difficult if your case is basically straight forward. Do a lot of reading on here and ask as many questions as you need, and you'll do well.

Blessings to you both on your visa journey.

[bernardh 0]

We have filled all of our applications or petitions without the hassle of a attorney, there is nothing that they can or will do for you. The best thing to do is to start by reading the instructions for each form you are filling out and double check your work. That has worked for us and we have now reached the naturalization point of this journey. Good luck on your journey.

[rebeccajo 14]

,,,,,,,,,If you need to pay someone to fill in your forms, use a visa service which is cheaper and offers more SERVICE. Attorney defenders will be along to point out that visa services are not licensed or regulated (this is a good thing and results in lower costs for you) and that attorneys have malpractice insurance. Malpracticie insurance protects the attorney from YOU, it does nothing FOR you.

...........This is the huge falacy of anyone suggesting you hire an attorney from the get-go. The fee they charge is ONLY to fill out forms for a simple application. If you get into some trouble or have problems down the road it will cost you a lot more and it will have nothing to do with how the forms were filled out, isn't possible. The worst you get for mistakes in filling out forms is an RFE, you correct the problem and go on with life.

Quote clipped for point specifity.

Also noting I am not an 'attorney defender'. I have however been associated with the profession for over 15 years.

"Unlicensed and Unregulated" insofar as visa consulation services will vary from state to state. Generally speaking though if there is any regulation at all it will be that such a service cannot offer legal advice. If there is licensing it will generally be the same as any other business, meaning you pay the State a fee and they issue a business license. There is no 'standard' a person must pass to call themselves a consultant.

Flip side - even though an attorney must pass the bar in their State, that doesn't necessarily qualify an attorney to offer immigration advice. It's a highly specialized field. Beware the practitioner who tries to collect a fee just because he's got his JD. Ask about his experience in the field.

An attorney should also clearly tell you what his fee is for. It should be disclosed to you if that fee covers the handling of problems with the case. An attorney consult should reveal if there will be problems, so the fee can be negotiated at that time.

And as regards malpractice insurance - yes it covers the attorney. It covers him from being personally wiped out in the event he screws up. Malpractice insurance pays the cost of fees and the judgment a plaintiff would be granted if they have a legitimate claim against the attorney. It may be more difficult to obtain a collectible judgment from a consulting service if they have incorporated themselves effectively.

*edited because some days I can't spell*

Edited December 2, 2009 by rebeccajo

[A and J 4]

I agree this site is amazing and to think we only stumbled across it by accident. Through reading posts on here and following advice from past applicants we found the I-129F process pretty straight forward, just took a bit of time trying to get all the evidence itself together. The forms were fairly easy to fill out if you just read the guides available to you.

Ours is going in the post today, so time will soon tell if we filed it correctly. We can finally begin our journey

I just wish you the best of luck in yours

[Krikit 1,165]

Another just told me to get her here on a tourist visa and marry her when she gets here, and say we met on her visit..

Wow, that is some horrible advice you got! As I'm sure you found out later, doing this is illegal and can have serious repercussions if found out, including your fiancee not being able to enter the country for years.

Not to mention that it's very unlikely that someone from the Philippines would even be granted a tourist visa..... for exactly the reason above..... trying to circumvent the immigration process.