Specific questions to ask immigration lawyers?

[Breanne 0]

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to get a serious start on my immigration process so that I can move to the States to be with my fiancee. I have a list of numbers for immigration lawyers in Florida (I am in Canada and wish to move to Florida) and I've been strongly recommended to get into contact with a lawyer, so I'm planning on making the call within the week.

Is there anything specific I should be asking the lawyer? Due to being in a same-sex relationship we can't get any fiancee or marriage visa type stuff, and I'm most likely going to end up on a student, and then work, visa and hope that change occurs for the marriage visa in the years to come. Just a general idea of what to say would be great for me to get a framework of how the call will go.

[milimelo 4,477]

Not US citizenship related - moving to general immigration forum.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to get a serious start on my immigration process so that I can move to the States to be with my fiancee. I have a list of numbers for immigration lawyers in Florida (I am in Canada and wish to move to Florida) and I've been strongly recommended to get into contact with a lawyer, so I'm planning on making the call within the week.

Is there anything specific I should be asking the lawyer? Due to being in a same-sex relationship we can't get any fiancee or marriage visa type stuff, and I'm most likely going to end up on a student, and then work, visa and hope that change occurs for the marriage visa in the years to come. Just a general idea of what to say would be great for me to get a framework of how the call will go.

Personally, I recommend seeing the attorneys in person for the initial consultation. You can use email or phone calls, if you wish, to weed out some of the obvious ripoff artists.

Ok, some people like to use the initial consultation to get some free advice. After all, most attorneys don't charge for the first consultation, so why not get as much free info as you can, right? WRONG! The attorney's objective during the initial consultation is to get you to hire them. He/she is not running a charity. This is a business, and they expect to be paid. Unless it's obvious you aren't a potential paying client, they aren't going to solve your problems during the first consultation. In fact, they may tell you that your situation is much more dire than it really is just to convince you that you really need their help.

Think like you are an employer looking to hire an employee (this is not far from the truth), and use the initial consultation as an interview. Ask questions that you already know the answer to, and see if you get answers that are factual and honest. This will require you to do some research in advance. Heck, you can get a lot of information right here at VJ by borrowing from other people's circumstances. In fact, in one of the AOS forums a situation recently came up where someone had worked illegally in the US prior to marrying their US citizen spouse. They asked an attorney (during the initial consultation) if this would cause any problems with their green card application. The attorney said it was a serious problem that would need to be addressed - WRONG ANSWER! Illegal presence or illegal employment is irrelevant to the adjustment of status of an immediate relative of a US citizen. The attorney was either ignorant of the law, or lying in order to get a client. In either case, this would not be an attorney to hire.

Spend some time on the forums. If you're at all interested, spend some time in the "Laws" section of the USCIS website. Put together a little pre-employment test for your potential attorneys. Hire the one who is the most knowledgeable and honest. The knowledge you gather by doing the research will also help you keep tabs on the attorney and make sure they aren't making any mistakes that will cost you time and/or money. Remember that you will always know your case better than the attorney. If you're educated and aware, you will be able to help the attorney AND yourself. The worst thing you can do is to just blindly trust the attorney to do the right thing.

On a personal note, don't hold your breath for the immigration law to change anytime soon regarding same sex couples. While there is a high degree of tolerance for GLBT couples in the US (generally), most people still tend to view marriage from a religious perspective. More states have acted to bar same sex marriage in their state constitutions than those that have legalized same sex marriage, and the trend doesn't seem to be changing. The federal constitution doesn't grant the right to legislate marriage to the federal government, so that right is reserved for each state by default, as it has been since the founding of the country. There is also the Defense Of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which forbids the federal government from recognizing same sex marriage. Until the majority of states move to legalize same sex marriage, I doubt you'll see any effort to overturn DOMA.

I'm not saying it won't happen. I'm not even saying it won't happen in your lifetime. However, I wouldn't expect it to happen in the next 5 or 10 years. Your best bet is to find a different path to immigrate, and then go to a state that allows same sex marriage to get married. This is doable now, without waiting for the federal government to act.

[Breanne 0]

This is all fantastic advice. I know I'll need to be meeting my best potentials in person, it's all good advice for helping get over the nervousness of trying to figure out what are the right questions to ask to not end up getting someone who can't help me the way I need to be without being ripped out.

And yeah, I've definitely abandoned any hope of there being some way to obtain a marriage visa of any type at this point, unfortunately.

[CanAmBride 5]

Be very careful with attorneys. They bill you by the hour and will spend WAY more hours than necessary on your case and bill you TONS of hours for work that you could have done yourself for free.

We started with a lawyer who told us our entire case would cost $2,500 in lawyers fees to complete. After the first month, he sent us a bill for $3,000 and we still had a lot of steps left. After I discovered VJ.com, I realized that I could have filled out all of the paperwork and put together my packets myself, and probably done a much better job than a lawyer that didn't even know my husband and me.

Our lawyer also delayed our case for weeks because he was too busy to follow up on questions immediatly and did not inform us in advance of paperwork we would need (certified birth certificates, police reports) which took several weeks to secure.

If you follow the steps laid out on VJ.com, you can save thousands of dollars and lots of time.

[jrmejia 31]

Personally, I recommend seeing the attorneys in person for the initial consultation. You can use email or phone calls, if you wish, to weed out some of the obvious ripoff artists.

Ok, some people like to use the initial consultation to get some free advice. After all, most attorneys don't charge for the first consultation, so why not get as much free info as you can, right? WRONG! The attorney's objective during the initial consultation is to get you to hire them. He/she is not running a charity. This is a business, and they expect to be paid. Unless it's obvious you aren't a potential paying client, they aren't going to solve your problems during the first consultation. In fact, they may tell you that your situation is much more dire than it really is just to convince you that you really need their help.

Think like you are an employer looking to hire an employee (this is not far from the truth), and use the initial consultation as an interview. Ask questions that you already know the answer to, and see if you get answers that are factual and honest. This will require you to do some research in advance. Heck, you can get a lot of information right here at VJ by borrowing from other people's circumstances. In fact, in one of the AOS forums a situation recently came up where someone had worked illegally in the US prior to marrying their US citizen spouse. They asked an attorney (during the initial consultation) if this would cause any problems with their green card application. The attorney said it was a serious problem that would need to be addressed - WRONG ANSWER! Illegal presence or illegal employment is irrelevant to the adjustment of status of an immediate relative of a US citizen. The attorney was either ignorant of the law, or lying in order to get a client. In either case, this would not be an attorney to hire.

Spend some time on the forums. If you're at all interested, spend some time in the "Laws" section of the USCIS website. Put together a little pre-employment test for your potential attorneys. Hire the one who is the most knowledgeable and honest. The knowledge you gather by doing the research will also help you keep tabs on the attorney and make sure they aren't making any mistakes that will cost you time and/or money. Remember that you will always know your case better than the attorney. If you're educated and aware, you will be able to help the attorney AND yourself. The worst thing you can do is to just blindly trust the attorney to do the right thing.

On a personal note, don't hold your breath for the immigration law to change anytime soon regarding same sex couples. While there is a high degree of tolerance for GLBT couples in the US (generally), most people still tend to view marriage from a religious perspective. More states have acted to bar same sex marriage in their state constitutions than those that have legalized same sex marriage, and the trend doesn't seem to be changing. The federal constitution doesn't grant the right to legislate marriage to the federal government, so that right is reserved for each state by default, as it has been since the founding of the country. There is also the Defense Of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which forbids the federal government from recognizing same sex marriage. Until the majority of states move to legalize same sex marriage, I doubt you'll see any effort to overturn DOMA.

I'm not saying it won't happen. I'm not even saying it won't happen in your lifetime. However, I wouldn't expect it to happen in the next 5 or 10 years. Your best bet is to find a different path to immigrate, and then go to a state that allows same sex marriage to get married. This is doable now, without waiting for the federal government to act.

[transer 0]

I'd also strongly suggest getting in touch with Immigration Equality, they're specifically focused on GLBT immigration issues, and have a team of pro bono lawyers. I'm a transman trying to bring my Canadian fiancee into the US, so I've been keeping up with the issues quite a bit lately.

On a personal note, don't hold your breath for the immigration law to change anytime soon regarding same sex couples. While there is a high degree of tolerance for GLBT couples in the US (generally), most people still tend to view marriage from a religious perspective. More states have acted to bar same sex marriage in their state constitutions than those that have legalized same sex marriage, and the trend doesn't seem to be changing. The federal constitution doesn't grant the right to legislate marriage to the federal government, so that right is reserved for each state by default, as it has been since the founding of the country. There is also the Defense Of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which forbids the federal government from recognizing same sex marriage. Until the majority of states move to legalize same sex marriage, I doubt you'll see any effort to overturn DOMA.

I'm not saying it won't happen. I'm not even saying it won't happen in your lifetime. However, I wouldn't expect it to happen in the next 5 or 10 years. Your best bet is to find a different path to immigrate, and then go to a state that allows same sex marriage to get married. This is doable now, without waiting for the federal government to act.

Regarding DOMA specifically - the GLAD case challenging DOMA just might give you a chance to come in on a marriage visa in the not-to-distant future (see here) IF your beloved moves to Massachusetts (or pigs fly, and Florida reverses its position).

Although if you're moving....can she move to Canada? You folks are much more civilized about GLBT issues!