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

[MrSuaveh 1]

I considered a lawyer and paid $250 for an hour of time with a 'highly recommend lawyer specializing in immigration'. Looking back I had some pretty basic questions, none of which she could answer. She promised to get back to me and did not. When I followed up with her via email I did not get any reply.

Then I found VJ and discovered that this site has all the resources you need to successfully file for and recieve a K1 Visa! At first it may seem overwhelming but the sample forms that VJ provides and the VERY active and VERY responsive forums will give you all the support you will need to successfully file.

I was glad I did not hire a lawyer because I believe it would SLOW down the process. The reason being is YOU still have to do all the work. You have to fill out the forms, gather the evidence, print the photographs, gather the receipts, etc, etc, etc. Then you have to involve another person who will review it and send it out.

I saved my money and instead purchased a laser printer (you will want to get one IMO, about $150), a three hole punch and other office supplies to assemble the I129F petition and other submissions. There are tasks that will take time, like getting passport photos taken, printing out pictures, ordering tax transcripts, printing out chat and call logs...that is for sure...but I believe doing it myself with help of other on VJ was much faster than involving a lawyer.

[RightClicK 17]

The lawyer i hired made all kind of mistakes and made me get denied at USCIS stage....

[NickD 203]

IF you feel you need an attorney, should only find on listed with the American Board of Immigration Attorneys. Like http://www.aila.org/.

Like anything else and also posted on this board, there are phonies, some with not even a law degree. And unlike other attorneys that can only practice that are licensed in your state. Can find one in any state so it greatly broadens the area, this is federal, not state controlled.

Slightly off topic, but patent attorneys also fit in this category.

Its a racket alright, Wisconsin Board of Attorneys really sucks, the judge appointed his buddies to be guardian ad litems for my kids during my divorce. With outrageous bills, I could request a detailed invoice, kept track of everything, they were billing me for meetings they never had! This crooked board does not cover fees, so I had to pay these crooks. But the judge and his cronies do have black marks listed behind their names. You can check with your state board to see if your attorney had blacks marks against his name.

Did have a flat contract with my own divorce attorney, did have an exception, if any additional expenses, was suppose to notify me first, never did, tried to hit me with an extra $6,000 bill, but got nowhere since I had that contract. Call this experience with dealing with these crooks. And yes, Harvard teaches how to lie in the process of defending a client, they are very good at this.

In my case, my wife to be was the most help, she was the executive assistant to the general manager at Johnson & Johnson and dealing with American consulate in Venezuela all the time. J&J were always shifting people from country to country and used a large American firm for this. But still got the name of the attorney and checked him out, he was very reputable.

But can also add, trying to find an attorney that knows immigration law far superior to those idiots in the USCIS is tantamount to find a needle in a haystack.

This was another problem for me, Bush putting that idiot Emilio Gonzales, a Cuban refugee that can't even speak good English in charge of the newly form USCIS that is under the newly formed Homeland Security. At the time, I could find the old INS forms that were fully comprehensible. Ha, pointed out this out to my attorney, his reply was, if this wasn't such a mess, he wouldn't have a job. Now this guy was honest. It was the American Immigration Lawyers Association that finally got rid of him.

But with over three acting directors of the USCIS, still one hell of a mess.

During out ROC and US citizenship stages, could only ask how in the hell did my wife get her green card in the first place? Talk about redundancy, was a copy and replace operation from information we already supplied, just adding some more evidence. No wonder why my wife commented when she first saw her file that was over three inches thick.

USCIS should read their own paper reduction act. For the rest of us, its a bad joke.

[Karee 4,190]

I hired a lawyer. It delayed the process for 3 months minimum. They didn't have a clue even though they claimed to have handled 1000s of family based visas. I had to correct them at every step thanks to information I received from this website. If I didn't find this website, and stuck with the lawyer, my wife would probably still be sitting in Thailand. She's a US Citizen now, thanks to VJ. I chalked it up to an $1800 lesson learned. Keep in mind you're just another stack of forms to a lawyer.

[bigdog 376]

Against my wife's position I used an attorney for our K1, we did all the work he made $ 1800 and did not know the difference between a marriage dissolution agreement and divorce decree. If you case is straight forward you can and should do your own, we did the AOS and ROC by ourselves. Again this is personal and each case is different.

[Grace & Irfan 6]

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?

I have an immigration lawyer. My lawyer was very helpful in filling all paper work , and helping gather information for proof of relationship . However I have now been in Administrative Processing for one year . My lawyer can not speed the process.

So in my opinion , the lawyer was a waste of money.

[rjm_cmyk 75]

Most people on here would probably advocate(sic) doing it yourself , in part because mostly they have done it themself. I would agree but for the following reasons

1) English is my mother tongue and I can clearly understand both the meaning and intent of the many forms. Some of which take reading a few times even if you are a mother tongue speaker.....

2) I am coming from a low fraud country and have no red flags to worry about e.g criminal records, prior visa rejections or other immigration issues

3) I am comfortable sifting through all the information on both VJ and within the US immigration system

and lastly I am not afraid of asking "dumb" questions on here.

If you do not feel quite so sure about the points I raised then perhaps a lawyer might be best. I would say though that just because you use a lawyer do not assume they will actually be any better at it than you. With the exception of your fee they will not be anywhere near as interested or committed to this process as you.

If you can do it yourself then I would.

[J@L 0]

Hi,

We hired a lawyer before since we were thinking it would speed up our visa process but No it won;t.A lawyer can't do nothing,and it's just a waste of money.So when I files for my AOS me and my hubby just do it ourselves and we made it.

J@L

[aries 0]

Unless your case is complicated , Using a LAWYER is a waste of money and time, a lawyer wont help the process go any faster in any form.

Personally i believe the immigration process and document collation is pretty straightforward if you can avail yourself of forums like Visa Journey, ask questions, do your research and you will find answers on this site and more.

Even if you come from a high fraud country, as long as you follow the instructions pertaining to your country and fill your forms correctly with several documents added, i believe you should be fine

Edited November 5, 2013 by aries

[deeder 1]

in my "opinion" i think lawyers who have been doing this process for a long time have connections. meaning they know who to speak to directly or whatever to have a file pulled and, immediately worked on etc.. its only normal.. The same way if you go shopping ,and you know who in the store always finds discounts for you.. 9 times out of 10 thats who you going to go to~ to save money!! again my "opinion" . We have been going back and forth about getting a lawyer.. even went to a consultation .. where she answered alot of our basic questions there.. so we are undecided at this time about actually hiring someone. for our overstay..I truly dont think our case is that complicated besides a long overstay which .. will be forgiven anyway...

[madtownguy 164]

You cut out the middle man, it is always going to be faster to do it yourself. Both you and a lawyer can make mistakes, the lawyer isn't going to give you a refund if a mistake costs you an extra year of waiting. I don't think lawyers are needed unless you are looking at prison time, it is just filling out paperwork, they just tell you where to sign.

[mezou0028 4]

I used a lawyer to help us with our CR1 application. I have to say other than filling out the paperwork, I don't think it was worth the 6000 dollars I paid. I did all of the follow up legwork, including the daily calls to NVC, contacting the embassy, etc. In fact when I try to ask him questions he gets annoyed with me. Can you imagine? Looking back I would have done the whole thing myself and saved a huge amount of money.

how we can know which service centre ....my wife sent paper work to phoenix az and she got the NOA1 just next 6 days we are confused ????

[NickD 203]

In my case, with a wife to be in Venezuela and her daughter, felt I need help and found very good help at a low price. But this is only half the story when dealing with corrupt countries like Venezuela and Colombia where they use the word notary. Even for simple things like correcting a marriage certificate or a birth certificate with country errors typo's, have to go to a court with a notary, and if you want to have your case heard in court, all of their judges have Miami bank accounts and expect, well lets call that an expedient fee. That is where thousands of dollars really added up fast.

Most expensive was getting that don't give a damn biological father that hasn't seen his daughter in seven years to get his permission for his daughter to leave the country. And the most time consuming as well. And those crooks really love US dollars. But with this out of the way, could finally bring my wife to be and her daughter here. AOS went real smooth, but treated their documents like gold, heck they were gold.

After our interview, asked what's next? Was told the ROC with that I-751 and the N-400 for US citizenship, wrote those down. Next day, downloaded those forms and studied them, Had about two years to study that I-751 and three for the N-400. Had all the time in the world, LOL, so didn't need an attorney.

Biggest thing I learned is that we need evidence, so started compiling that from day one, and keeping track of all our trips abroad. All forms and evidence, anything we received from the USCIS was scanned and stored on a computer. Not one, but three others on my LAN, and even CD"s were burnt.

My attorney strongly suggested I print out a duplicate copy of each of our applications because the USCIS tends to "misplace" applications. He was certainly correct on this, not once, but three times. Sure would hate to go through all that again.

Many on this board wait to the last minute to read and study these forms, and can't remember three or five years back. How do you answer questions like this?