Is an Immigration Lawyer ever needed for a K1 Visa?

[<3 3]

Hello all.

First post and would like to say that I am very fortunate to have found the Visa Journey website. I've learned a lot from this website and followed the guides to personally file the K1 Visa without any assistance. My general question is how many of you are doing the K1 Visa yourself and how many others are paying an Immigration Lawyer?

I know of one instance of a family friend who has an Immigration Lawyer and it seems that their "journey" is taking quite a long time and is going close to 1.5 years and she has yet to personally reside in the U.S. From all accounts, it doesn't seem like the lawyer made things go faster.

Is there a benefit of having a lawyer if we followed the K1 guides posted in this website?

So far, pretty content on doing this process with just the assistance of this site (VisaJourney)but wondered if problems can arise that legal assistance may be necessary as we get further along.

Thanks!

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Usually no, you don't need a lawyer. If you have special circumstances like previous overstay causing a ban, or legal troubles (criminal record) or anything else that might make you inadmissible they're best.

Some people don't have the time to do the paperwork themselves, some people feel safer with a lawyer, some people don't speak English well enough, or understand all the legal terminologies and so they get a lawyer. There's nothing WRONG with a lawyer... but you should always check their references very carefully. Lawyers have been known to make mistakes (a lot actually, usually just typos slowing down the case) so having a lawyer isn't an excuse to sit back and not be involved in the process but it can help some people.

[HeatDeath 430]

+1 above.

The vast majority of people on this website are doing this without a lawyer, and the vast majority of cases do not need a lawyer the vast majority of the time.

Lawyers excel when there is advocacy to be made, when arguments need to be made in some kind of court or tribunal to establish particular facts and debate how the laws apply to those facts. They are also necessary for consultation when the decision of a course of action hinges on subtle interpretations of law and precedent that are not common knowledge.

But for the vast majority of normal employment- or family-based- visa applications, there is no debating, no courts, and no advocacy of any kind. The process is a simple matter of filling out forms correctly, mailing them to the right addresses, and waiting patiently. The correct course of action is almost always obvious from a a brief perusal of the Guides here and on the USCIS website, and no esoteric legal analysis is required. Anybody who can graduate college, and I daresay the vast majority of literate high school students, can do this. It just isn't that hard.

In situations where there are complications, like previous criminal activity or immigration violations, the correct course of action can come to hinge on the application of specific legal precedents, and in those situations I'm the first person to advise someone to "lawyer up". But normal cases consist primarily of filling out and mailing forms, and do not normally need a lawyer, the vast majority of the time.

[<3 3]

Usually no, you don't need a lawyer. If you have special circumstances like previous overstay causing a ban, or legal troubles (criminal record) or anything else that might make you inadmissible they're best.

Some people don't have the time to do the paperwork themselves, some people feel safer with a lawyer, some people don't speak English well enough, or understand all the legal terminologies and so they get a lawyer. There's nothing WRONG with a lawyer... but you should always check their references very carefully. Lawyers have been known to make mistakes (a lot actually, usually just typos slowing down the case) so having a lawyer isn't an excuse to sit back and not be involved in the process but it can help some people.

Thanks for the reply. Considering you've gone far in this process already, I feel pretty good that I can follow directions as our stages go further along. But definitely I give kudos to this site since without it, I probably would have done the bare minimum in my application and not be as thorough as I could be.

[Patricklove 0]

we used a lawyer and thep prepared all the paper work we did not have the stress plus my fiancee would not have wanted to the paper work as much as I would have, therefore we opted for one we are now at the stage of interview and medical they prepared my pack i just have to take it to the interview with my passpot police check and pics. It depends on you as a couple it worked for us hope this helps.

[Theresa0828 65]

Hello all.

First post and would like to say that I am very fortunate to have found the Visa Journey website. I've learned a lot from this website and followed the guides to personally file the K1 Visa without any assistance. My general question is how many of you are doing the K1 Visa yourself and how many others are paying an Immigration Lawyer?

I know of one instance of a family friend who has an Immigration Lawyer and it seems that their "journey" is taking quite a long time and is going close to 1.5 years and she has yet to personally reside in the U.S. From all accounts, it doesn't seem like the lawyer made things go faster.

Is there a benefit of having a lawyer if we followed the K1 guides posted in this website?

So far, pretty content on doing this process with just the assistance of this site (VisaJourney)but wondered if problems can arise that legal assistance may be necessary as we get further along.

Thanks!

You do not need one... We have one since my fiancee thought he needs help for the I-129F packet, but it goes downhill after that. The lawyer told my fiancee to print our chat sessions, and yet she did not sent me those... They sent me the necessary papers for the interview and notice that the form I-134 Affidavit of Support was not properly filled out (my name etc.), I have to revised it and send to my fiance and send back to me (Thanks God! we still have time)... During the NOA2 waiting, she did not even tried calling USCIS even if we hit six months plus... So in short, aside from the gathering and sending the I-129F package, she is not much help after that...

[<3 3]

Thanks to all who replied. My fiancé had wanted me to get an immigration lawyer just because her aunts' husband had done so for their k1 visa. Personally to me, I dislike lawyers since they charge fees for such things as a phone conversation and usually let their paralegal do the work. I know this isn't the forum to vent about the legal profession.

I do believe that no lawyer will ever put as much time and care and attention to one's detail as oneself. Of course, I am no expert when it comes to this immigration process and looking at the timeline, there are a whole bunch of hurdles that one must go through so to me, I'm taking it one stage at a time.

[TBoneTX 45,293]

The vast majority of people on this website are doing this without a lawyer, and the vast majority of cases do not need a lawyer the vast majority of the time.

Lawyers excel when there is advocacy to be made, when arguments need to be made in some kind of court or tribunal to establish particular facts and debate how the laws apply to those facts. They are also necessary for consultation when the decision of a course of action hinges on subtle interpretations of law and precedent that are not common knowledge.

But for the vast majority of normal employment- or family-based- visa applications, there is no debating, no courts, and no advocacy of any kind. The process is a simple matter of filling out forms correctly, mailing them to the right addresses, and waiting patiently. The correct course of action is almost always obvious from a a brief perusal of the Guides here and on the USCIS website, and no esoteric legal analysis is required. Anybody who can graduate college, and I daresay the vast majority of literate high school students, can do this. It just isn't that hard.

In situations where there are complications, like previous criminal activity or immigration violations, the correct course of action can come to hinge on the application of specific legal precedents, and in those situations I'm the first person to advise someone to "lawyer up". But normal cases consist primarily of filling out and mailing forms, and do not normally need a lawyer, the vast majority of the time.

+1 here. This post needs to be enshrined in the pantheon of all-time accurate, literate, eminently sensible VJ posts.

[OBX 51]

Usually no, you don't need a lawyer. If you have special circumstances like previous overstay causing a ban, or legal troubles (criminal record) or anything else that might make you inadmissible they're best.

Some people don't have the time to do the paperwork themselves, some people feel safer with a lawyer, some people don't speak English well enough, or understand all the legal terminologies and so they get a lawyer. There's nothing WRONG with a lawyer... but you should always check their references very carefully. Lawyers have been known to make mistakes (a lot actually, usually just typos slowing down the case) so having a lawyer isn't an excuse to sit back and not be involved in the process but it can help some people.

+1 above.

The vast majority of people on this website are doing this without a lawyer, and the vast majority of cases do not need a lawyer the vast majority of the time.

Lawyers excel when there is advocacy to be made, when arguments need to be made in some kind of court or tribunal to establish particular facts and debate how the laws apply to those facts. They are also necessary for consultation when the decision of a course of action hinges on subtle interpretations of law and precedent that are not common knowledge.

But for the vast majority of normal employment- or family-based- visa applications, there is no debating, no courts, and no advocacy of any kind. The process is a simple matter of filling out forms correctly, mailing them to the right addresses, and waiting patiently. The correct course of action is almost always obvious from a a brief perusal of the Guides here and on the USCIS website, and no esoteric legal analysis is required. Anybody who can graduate college, and I daresay the vast majority of literate high school students, can do this. It just isn't that hard.

In situations where there are complications, like previous criminal activity or immigration violations, the correct course of action can come to hinge on the application of specific legal precedents, and in those situations I'm the first person to advise someone to "lawyer up". But normal cases consist primarily of filling out and mailing forms, and do not normally need a lawyer, the vast majority of the time.

Well said!

[OBX 51]

Usually no, you don't need a lawyer. If you have special circumstances like previous overstay causing a ban, or legal troubles (criminal record) or anything else that might make you inadmissible they're best.

Some people don't have the time to do the paperwork themselves, some people feel safer with a lawyer, some people don't speak English well enough, or understand all the legal terminologies and so they get a lawyer. There's nothing WRONG with a lawyer... but you should always check their references very carefully. Lawyers have been known to make mistakes (a lot actually, usually just typos slowing down the case) so having a lawyer isn't an excuse to sit back and not be involved in the process but it can help some people.

+1 above.

The vast majority of people on this website are doing this without a lawyer, and the vast majority of cases do not need a lawyer the vast majority of the time.

Lawyers excel when there is advocacy to be made, when arguments need to be made in some kind of court or tribunal to establish particular facts and debate how the laws apply to those facts. They are also necessary for consultation when the decision of a course of action hinges on subtle interpretations of law and precedent that are not common knowledge.

But for the vast majority of normal employment- or family-based- visa applications, there is no debating, no courts, and no advocacy of any kind. The process is a simple matter of filling out forms correctly, mailing them to the right addresses, and waiting patiently. The correct course of action is almost always obvious from a a brief perusal of the Guides here and on the USCIS website, and no esoteric legal analysis is required. Anybody who can graduate college, and I daresay the vast majority of literate high school students, can do this. It just isn't that hard.

In situations where there are complications, like previous criminal activity or immigration violations, the correct course of action can come to hinge on the application of specific legal precedents, and in those situations I'm the first person to advise someone to "lawyer up". But normal cases consist primarily of filling out and mailing forms, and do not normally need a lawyer, the vast majority of the time.

Well said!

[TanaJai 0]

Well said!

This may be a stupid question but my Fiancee and I are just starting to file. What do all your acronyms mean at the bottom POE, NCIS, etc....thanks for taking the time to break in a newbie.

[B_J 2,752]

This may be a stupid question but my Fiancee and I are just starting to file. What do all your acronyms mean at the bottom POE, NCIS, etc....thanks for taking the time to break in a newbie.

Rather than tell you what the acronyms mean (since I don't know them all) here's a link.

acronyms

[Snickerz 0]

No you don't need a lawyer - big mistake that we got one since we thought it would be more efficient, more organized about the paperwork and that they'll be helpful about the process, but wrong!

It caused us delays when we we were preparing our documents for the K-1 application due to back & forth correspondences, and it takes them 2 days turnaround time to reply to our emails & queries, was sadly just a waste of money - was $1,200...we only learned about visajourney after hiring the lawyer and we could have just done it ourselves...took us lot of time to research this law firm and their website was convincing

So, anyway we already got our NOA2 via email notice since we signed up at the USCIS website, however until now we haven't received any calls or emails from the lawyers informing us about it

it should have been their responsibility to track our case, but they've been useless...they even didn't get in touch weeks prior to expected arrival time of NOA2 to advise us about gathering police clearance & doing medicals and other prep...if we were not initiative enough or if we haven't known about VJ, we would have never known yet that we got approved hahaha or the process could have taken longer...