What are some experiences others have had with using a lawyer? Does it make the process faster?

[noahsmama 6]

For us, it was waste of money. I wish I have found VJ earlier so I would done everything myself and save myself a couple of grands. If you confident that you can do it all by yourself do it. VJ members are very helpful, they are better than lawyers because they personally experienced with things that lawyers may not have.

Edited November 4, 2013 by noahsmama

[LindaC1990 23]

I did it all by myself, sent everything in two weeks and didn't get any RFE.

My friend spent $1500 hired a lawyer, and she got 2 RFEs (one is after her interview), and didn't get her Green Card until almost 8 months after.

She was pissed.

[BastillaShan 30]

I was fully prepared to use a lawyer at the outset of this whole process.

Before we started our K-1 I was going to have my Fiancee come visit me here in the USA for a few weeks, the lawyer I had been bouncing my future K1 plans off of, advised me to be blatantly honest when I wrote her letter of invitation... including the fact that we intended to file for our K1 after she returned to Russia. Apparently that was the red flag that brought us down. on her tourist visit. After that I discovered this place and it really dawned on me that because I had a straight-forward case, a thorough mind and a willingness to investigate and check my work- this was completely doable solo. We did it ourselves, had no RFEs and no problems and had our interview scheduled after 5 months. Any questions or concerns I had were quickly put to rest through this great community.

I don't know what the result would be if I had gotten a lawyer as I'd intended originally, but I'm really glad now, that I didn't. (If nothing else we turned his fee into a week together in Spain over the summer).

[SoCalMark 49]

At the very most if you feel uncomfortable, I have heard great reviews and personal raves from http://rapidvisa.com (At least when it came to the Philippines) They have an office in Manila too.

[Dan from MI 23]

Interesting that you asked. Before I even knew which way I was going to go - K1 or get marry and file CR-1- I went to a immigration center that I was able to find informations about which route to take. (That was before I discovered VJ)

The lady I talked to used to work at a law office and even thought she was not a lawyer- she did all the filing for the lawyers for their clients for their immigration process. She saw how much I knew and the type of questions I asked. She simply said to me, unless you have a criminal record or did something illegal like overstay a visa- you can do it and don't waste time and money with a lawyer.

If you want to get help. Look in your hometown for an immigration center. In my town it is called Hispanic Center. Often time they will help you find out what route is best for you or help you file papers and review your papers for free or for very cheap. They even would do the work for you for WAYYYY less than a lawyer.

Really... you don't need a lawyer, us folks on VJs can help you along the way for "FREE"

[Sirdaniel42 86]

If you have no red flags, do it your self!!!!!

And use the money to celebrate when you are together.

[Sheepwalk 12]

Ya, wish I knew VJ before hiring a lawyer.

Most of them will not care about you at all. Just want to make easy money.

They will slow you down.

For example, they will tell you to prepare photos for a form.

They didn't tell me that the background should be white, so I wasted time and money re-taking and re-sending photos to the US.

(Found out about the white background myself).

If you want a peace of mind, it won't come from lawyers but from you yourself making sure everything is right.

And it's faster.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Sorry I tried to reply with the quote!

*I merged the two posts together.*

[Reez and Associat 0]

I just read this thread and thought i should share my experience.

I met my husband last year and we had to get married quite soon as his tourist visa in the US was about to expire (he is a UK citizen). I checked lawyers fees and was sure i woudlnt use one, way too expensive.

However, a friend of mine advised me this consulting firm with which they had their case approved after interview in only 3-4months.

Their rate was extremely affordable compared to lawyer rates (we only paid 1500 $), it can go up to 3000$ MAX depending on your case. They were

extremely professional and fast to react, aslo very sensitive to our case (gay couple). I can leave the email address of the person who took care of our case as I would never thank him enough.

mr@boscoriva.com

Good luck for all the pending cases.

[pnjandmtc1209 9]

I have a lawyer and he was a great help when filing our papers for our CR1 petition

all we had to do is provide him with the correct info and he took care of all the paperwork.

everything else like info pass ect is left for you to take care of. A lawyer is good for someone

who has no idea what to do when it comes to filling out the paperwork in which case I didn't.

If I knew at first what I know know I could do the paperwork myself. Another good thing about

having a lawyer you can ask any questions you may have by phone or email. My lawyer is

reasonably priced and not even a thousand dollars. So I guess what im trying to say here

it really depends on the person if he/she thinks they can do the paperwork and prepare the

petition themselves. Another thing my lawyer did was prepare my entire petition and sent it

to the NBC. My lawyers email is: eric@deanvisaoffice.com

Edited November 5, 2013 by pnjandmtc1209

[NicholasNissel 2]

Using a lawyer is good if you don't have time for dealing stuffs such as all the paper works.But they definitely don't make the process faster, yet it's good in some cases cause they know the pitful and avoid RFE or long delays.But that is IF you got the correct lawyer.Our petition got approved in just more than a month after filing it to USCIS and yes they don't call the NVC etc but they know exactly what's going on.We paid a very decent amount about 1195 for k1 and k2 easyvisaweb.com check it out if you want.

[trixieanne 0]

I agree to pnjabdmtc1209. We hired also Mr. Eric Dean eric@deanvisaoffice.com to process our papers. My husband found his website through searching in the internet and we just trust him because he gave a reasonable offer to process our K1 and yeah having a lawyer is a good advantage specially having Eric Dean. And now we are on AOS and we hired him again

[raven52 233]

Using an attorney is a waste of money. If you have "severe issues" you ,.,might consider one. What me and my wife did was hire a visa company for just a few hundred dollars, and ""they did everything" and wee sailed right thru the process, THEY DID EVERYTHING, .,,,,,,,,,,,,,. FORMS, APPOINTMENTS, documentation, we just gave them what they asked for.

This was in Cebu, Philippines, and I will not advertise a name.,.,,.do your research.,,it was worth the petty amount of money for them to DO EVERYTHING!""""""

[carton025 38]

FWIW, I considered hiring an attorney - located in Texas, and I live in Georgia.

I read all of the instructions over and over and over again, trying to make sure I dotted all my "i" and crossed all my "t", and guess what? My wife is still not happy..., she got no RFEs and no interviews..., imagine that! She was so looking forward to taking time off from work and traveling to Atlanta, GA for an interview. And, she has her 10-yr GC, imagine that! Oh yeah, just to let you know how intelligent/smart I am..., I can walk and chew gum at the same time, ha!

In other words, if you have the honey - money, then get yourself an attorney! I had the honey - money at the time and my gal talked me out of spending $1800 USD just for the "expectation" that the attorney that I would have hired knew how to "walk and chew gum at the same time" better than me.

Best of luck!

[Raznattybongo 12]

I was wondering if anyone would like to share their experiences of using a Lawyer and doing the process alone. I wanted to know if it is useful to use a lawyer and if it makes the process faster?

Don't try using a lawyer at all, it's absolute waste of money and time, in fact that might even delay your processes, as happening to ours.

No wonder we haven't received our case # yet, after been approved on August 27, our file is still with USCIS, and nothing is our lawyer doing about it, my fiancee and I are still the people making numerous calls to USCIS, NVC and DOS. We have really regretted using a lawyer, all because we thought that will boost up things. We even had RFE, which shouldn't have been the case when a lawyer is used. We have really wasted a lot of money. DON'T USE ANY LAWYER!!!

I was wondering if anyone would like to share their experiences of using a Lawyer and doing the process alone. I wanted to know if it is useful to use a lawyer and if it makes the process faster?

Don't try using a lawyer at all, it's absolute waste of money and time, in fact that might even delay your processes, as happening to ours.

No wonder we haven't received our case # yet, after been approved on August 27, our file is still with USCIS, and nothing is our lawyer doing about it, my fiancee and I are still the people making numerous calls to USCIS, NVC and DOS. We have really regretted using a lawyer, all because we thought that will boost up things. We even had RFE, which shouldn't have been the case when a lawyer is used. We have really wasted a lot of money. DON'T USE ANY LAWYER!!!