Opinion on Lawyer vs Document Preparer

[loveacanuck 0]

Hello Again,

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with doument preparer services for K1 visas. We already know we do not want to do this ourselves, as we are bound to muck it up. I have looked into several lawyers, one of which I paid a substantial sum of money to already, only to be given poor and inaccurate advise (not to mention borderline illegal). I found a document preparer online who is a member of the Better Business Bureau, an seems to have lots of positive testimonials. I spoke with him over the phone and he seemed more knowledgable than the attorneys I have spoken to. Plus the fee is substantially less than the over-priced law firms. Just wondering what other people do, we are not made of money, but at the same time, do not want to delay the process if we make an error on our own. Thanks, as always, I really appreciate the input I receive on this forum!

[Renee n Jay 0]

We also spoke to a lawyer and his advice we thought was wrong yet turned out to be correct. We rather have been married and applied for a K3 as apposed to a K1. The wait time is basically the same. We did fill out our paper work ourselves, thanks to all the people at Visa Journey. The forms seem difficult, however thats why you are here. Use the experience the members have and you will not miss a thing. We didn't.

[menina 50]

We also spoke to a lawyer and his advice we thought was wrong yet turned out to be correct. We rather have been married and applied for a K3 as apposed to a K1. The wait time is basically the same. We did fill out our paper work ourselves, thanks to all the people at Visa Journey. The forms seem difficult, however thats why you are here. Use the experience the members have and you will not miss a thing. We didn't.

Honestly, I have seen several people on VJ who had problems with lawyers and document preparation services. I was very worried having no knowledge of this process until my now husband and I decided we wanted to get married, and I started investigating the necessary steps. Even with no knowledge I was able to find the information I needed from the internet including this site. There are sample forms filled out for you to refer to and lots of helpful people that are willing to answer your questions. Unless you have some kind of complication in your case, you should be find doing the paperwork yourself. Just review it a couple of times (or more) to be sure that you signed in all the necessary places and answered all of the questions. As long as you follow the guides on here, you will be in good shape. We completed the process without any RFE (request for additional evidence) and got an approval at the interview. All of this done without the benefit of hiring a lawyer or a document preparation service. If you do decided to go with one of the document services, be careful as some of them just take your money and do nothing. Good luck on your journey!

[Chris Knouse 3]

I used a document preparer and I have been extremely satisfied. The document translation service was well worth it for me and my fiancee. As well his wife is Russian and he is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian so this helps a ton.

When I have questions he is there and his wife is very knowledgeable of the interview process for this particular region.

This is just me, I am not saying all are like this but the one I found has been extremely useful. Total out of pocket was 700.00 ( total for Alla and her son ) plus the 435.00 I-129F. Lawyers are 1800.00 in most cases without forms, translation, and in some cases Ukrainian fiancees were more expensive... go figure.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Hello Again,

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with doument preparer services for K1 visas. We already know we do not want to do this ourselves, as we are bound to muck it up. I have looked into several lawyers, one of which I paid a substantial sum of money to already, only to be given poor and inaccurate advise (not to mention borderline illegal). I found a document preparer online who is a member of the Better Business Bureau, an seems to have lots of positive testimonials. I spoke with him over the phone and he seemed more knowledgable than the attorneys I have spoken to. Plus the fee is substantially less than the over-priced law firms. Just wondering what other people do, we are not made of money, but at the same time, do not want to delay the process if we make an error on our own. Thanks, as always, I really appreciate the input I receive on this forum!

Given in order of the highest likelihood of screwing it up:

1. Let your dog do it. Free!

2. Let your 3 year old niece do with (with a pink crayon). Free!

3. Do it yourself, without bothering to educate yourself how to do it. Free!

4. Let a "paperwork mill" doc prep service do it for you. $

5. Let a hack attorney do it for you. $$

6. Let a professional doc prep service do it for you. $$

7. Let a qualified professional attorney do it for you. $$$$

8. Do it yourself, after educating yourself how to do it. Free!

Any doc prep service or attorney cannot do anything unless you provide them with all of the necessary information, documents, and evidence. They're going to give you a questionnaire to fill out for the information, and a checklist of documents and evidence you need to provide. They're going to transcribe the information from the questionnaire onto the forms, stuff them into an envelope with your evidence, and send them to USCIS, along with a check you provide them.

Everything they are going to ask you to provide is described in detail in the VJ guides. If you decide you can't be bothered to follow the instructions here, and would rather have a service tell you what to do, at least insist that they allow you to review everything before they submit. I think you'll be surprised how many mistakes they make, in spite of you paying them for a "professional" service.