Immigration Lawyer speeds up Process

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

Lawyers do not speed up the process.

[cdneh 3,112]

We started with one, not knowing any better. Within a week I found VJ, and was amazed at the misinformation, coming from the lawyer! I think by the time he submitted the paperwork for the K1, I could have had it in their hands myself nearly 2 months earlier.

Once he'd been paid, he became difficult to contact as well. Would never speak to me, or answer my emails, just my now husband. Couldn't even get him to cc me.

We got yanked out of the queue at NVC for AP, and this lawyer told my husband he must have misunderstood them on the phone. That the phone people are so messed up they wouldn't know anyway. Not to worry, that didn't mean a thing, we were already on our way to the consulate. Um...no. Eight weeks later we finally were, and we did email him to tell him. No answer. Once we got the NOA2 out of him, we dropped him. For all he knows I am still sitting in AKL waiting, for he never did a followup in spite of his assurances he would be there 'every step of the way, and time night or day" Ya, right.

If you haven't got any major incidents in your past you worry may haunt you and if all is straightforward, I'd recommend using the resources here, and giving the legal guy the pass. No one cares more about your case than you do yourselves.

[sdrohani 0]

agree u pay one and still do most of the work

[corvusheart 163]

I am an autistic and have a lot of trouble understanding government forms or knowing how to do any of it period.

[Davesings 30]

We originally used a lawyer and regretted it hugely.

Anybody know if it's a bad idea to stop representation in the middle of the K1 process?

Edited November 17, 2013 by Davesings

[JayJayH 546]

I am an autistic and have a lot of trouble understanding government forms or knowing how to do any of it period.

The decision of whether or not to use a lawyer for this process is solely up to you and your fiancée. A lawyer most likely won't hurt the process, but a lawyer cannot speed up the process either. What an ethical and experienced lawyer can do is make sure things are done right, and give you peace of mind.

If you feel that you have some difficulty understanding government forms, I would absolutely recommend hiring a lawyer for the process. I would suggest that you talk to at least a couple of lawyers, and go for the one you feel the most comfortable with.

Good luck on your visa journey!

Edited November 17, 2013 by Yang-Ja

[Mari26 19]

For what I have read.... My 2 cents:

We were originally going to hire a lawyer. After some research, we decided not. I read cases where they actually make the process more complicated than, or give you miss information. I have sen cases where couples get RFEs because their lawyer misinformed them. And the most common, people who mentioned that their lawyers where nice and supporting until they payed the firm, after the barely replied to their emails and wouldn't help them.

This probably is NOT everyone's case, but I rather not take my chances.

Now regarding the government forms.... I honestly don't think anyone really understands them, so don't think you are the only one. We sent our package on Oct 28th and I am feeling very confident about it. xD

This site has EVERYTHING you need, on the guides, the flowcharts and even forms/letters examples for a reference.

If you have ANY questions, you can always come here and as the VJ community, I am sure everyone is more than willing to help. If you need anything feel free to PM me.

-Mari-

[sebbiesmd 1]

So my fiancee from England and I went to go pursue a immigration lawyer, he agreed to take us on as clients and we are starting the paperwork for the K-1 fiancee visa. He says the process will take 6-8 months. He's the boss and owner of the Law Firm. Has anyone else gone with a immigration attorney? If so, what was your experiences?

NO don't waste your mont- read the blogs, make sure you do everything correctly and ask for advise you will be fine. We got a lawyer and she abandonded us when we needed her the most. Her fee($2500!!!) only covered the "forms" i had to do everything myself.

[Pinkrlion 2,724]

So my fiancee from England and I went to go pursue a immigration lawyer, he agreed to take us on as clients and we are starting the paperwork for the K-1 fiancee visa. He says the process will take 6-8 months. He's the boss and owner of the Law Firm. Has anyone else gone with a immigration attorney? If so, what was your experiences?

A lawyer has no authority in adjudication process, the timeframe has not been 6-8 months in the past 6 months.

[Avery Cates 1,141]

I am an autistic and have a lot of trouble understanding government forms or knowing how to do any of it period.

A parent or someone else who can help you might be a good first stop as opposed to a lawyer.

Even your fiance can help, he can just ask you the information that he needs for the forms, fill them out electronically, and then send them through email when done for you to submit.

Edited November 18, 2013 by Avery Cates

[marriott574 13]

We hired a lawyer, he was great, only cost 750$, he streamlined the how process for us to the interview, we had nothing to worry about. No RFE and he explained what was happening every step of the way. We then did not use him for AOS as it looked straight forward, we screwed up and got an RFE.

If is very difficult to speculate whether the lawyer was worth it. Our K1 came through quicker then others at the same time of application, but that can not be directly attributed to him. All in all 750$ is very small amount of money for peace of mind, and if it made the process quicker then he was worth every penny.

Immigration is a intimidating process. Getting it wrong will cost you time. Read the guides, if it does not seem to daunting then go it alone, if it scares you then call a lawyer.

We used Sergey Basyuk, http://www.bklawllp.com/attorneys-2/sergey-basyuk/

He was great.

[Jeanna 21]

We didn't use an attorney for our first petition when we actually should have (because we had some extenuating circumstances). If I had paid the $100 for a consultation it would have saved us 10 months of waiting.

The second time we did not either because this time it was straight-forward and it was approved in a timely manner. Make sure you have all your paperwork, double and then triple check for signatures, fees, etc. I promise you are far more vested than any attorney.

Best of luck!

[SparklePony 238]

A parent or someone else who can help you might be a good first stop as opposed to a lawyer.

Even your fiance can help, he can just ask you the information that he needs for the forms, fill them out electronically, and then send them through email when done for you to submit.

I would second this.

I have read so many cases of people using lawyers that only hindered the process instead of helping. They absolutely cannot speed up the process, and can, in fact, slow it down. I've also seen cases of people being given wrong advice by their lawyers because they were not up to date with the most current changes.

I can understand that some have good experiences with lawyers, but it seems like it is such a gamble. With the huge amount of resources on here, I felt very comfortable doing the process on my own. I had read a lot of advice websites from lawyers and law firms that made it sound like the process was daunting and difficult, and that people should really hire a lawyer to ease things up. Now, with all that I have read and learned on here, it feels to me that they only say that to scare you into hiring them. I'm very grateful that I found this place as it gave me so much confidence to tackle the process on my own.

Also, I have seen people post the biggest variety of questions here, from the most basic thing to the most complex, and there is always someone willing to post a reply and help, no matter the question. I give kudos to the more veteran members who answer the same things over and over and over again. There really is so much help here, and between you, your fiance and family members/friends, you can ask anything, even something that might seem so simple and insignificant, and get the right answers.

[sjs87 27]

So my fiancee from England and I went to go pursue a immigration lawyer, he agreed to take us on as clients and we are starting the paperwork for the K-1 fiancee visa. He says the process will take 6-8 months. He's the boss and owner of the Law Firm. Has anyone else gone with a immigration attorney? If so, what was your experiences?

Hi Corvusheart,

We have used an immigration lawyer throughout this process, and I'll share a little bit about our experience.

I do think up until our NOA2 a lawyer helped us, in that she completed all of the paperwork and sent it off to the appropriate service centers to begin the visa processing. Despite this, though, we did have an RFE (request for evidence) which was frustrating, but we still got our NOA2 after only 3 months from our original K1 visa application.

It took about 44 days for our approved file to be sent from the CSC (California Service Center) to the NVC in Vermont, and from the NVC to the US Embassy in Vancouver, another couple of weeks.

For my own peace of mind I am glad to have gone with an immigration lawyer, however (as you will likely discover) you will glean a lot of information and support from other Visa Journey users. In retrospect, I feel confident that we could have gone through this without a lawyer, especially since our case is relatively straight forward. I should mention, though, that I am somewhat of a worry wart who has a lot of questions/concerns about this process, so being able to ask my lawyer these questions on a frequent basis was helpful.

Having said that, I am not sure (to answer your question) whether or not using a lawyer has actually "sped up" the process. We now have our interview date of January 14, 2014 (got moved from January 23, 2014 - so 9 days sooner than originally slotted), which means since our initial application from May 2014, that is nearly 8 months. There are other May filers who have had their interviews already, or will be soon; this all depends on the embassy and their backlogs.

I think your profile says you are from the UK, in which case if you are going to be interviewing through the London Embassy, things seem to not be so backlogged there. Of course things could change by the time you have gone through the bulk of this process.

If I could give one piece of advice when using a lawyer, it is this: you are paying them to do a service, so let them do it. Too often I found myself trying to do things myself out of impatience, causing stress on myself and likely frustrating the lawyer. This is their job, and they should know what they are doing, so trust them. That said, do be your own advocate and don't wait to get answers from them. You are not their only client, so don't expect them to be at your beckoned call or email.

But most importantly, try to enjoy this journey. It has its ups and downs, and you will definitely go through some hard times and perhaps even times of doubt ("I'm not sure I can do this"). But the end result is worth every struggle along the way!

Good luck!

The decision of whether or not to use a lawyer for this process is solely up to you and your fiancée. A lawyer most likely won't hurt the process, but a lawyer cannot speed up the process either. What an ethical and experienced lawyer can do is make sure things are done right, and give you peace of mind.

If you feel that you have some difficulty understanding government forms, I would absolutely recommend hiring a lawyer for the process. I would suggest that you talk to at least a couple of lawyers, and go for the one you feel the most comfortable with.

Good luck on your visa journey!

I agree with Yang-Ja. We interviewed with a couple of lawyers, and went with the one that we felt was a good fit for us. For my own peace of mind, I am glad to have gone through a lawyer because the paperwork, I find, is very confusing. That said, we are probably going to do the Adjustment of Status without a lawyer.

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

I am an autistic and have a lot of trouble understanding government forms or knowing how to do any of it period.

If you need to use a lawyer to help you through the process, maybe have a few consultations with several immigration lawyers before deciding on one. Their prices and your confidence levels in them may vary. Even when using a lawyer, you can still ask any questions you may have here on VJ to make sure your lawyer is on the right track. Reading the guides and flowchart here can help you better understand the process too, even if your lawyer is filling out the forms for you.