about lawyers

[anca 0]

I was wondering how many of you used a lawyers services when they were doing the papers for immigration, and if you did, how much did it cost and did it made a difference?

[ktun 0]

We saw a lawyer just for some advice about a particular aspect of an RFE that we received.

Did it make a difference? Probably not, it was more just reassurance, we were going to do what he said anyway, but I guess he clarified things for us.

We used AILA to get a referral to a local lawyer and he charged $50 for an initial consultation. He was a nice man and seemed pretty knowledable about everything. We would probably use him again if we encounter any serious problems in the future.

We didn't use him for any of our forms, and unless your case is very complex or you don't have a minute to spare, it is probably a waste of money to use a lawyer for doing the forms themselves.

Good luck

Kate

[munchkins 0]

We started out to use a lawyer and paid some money, then found some really bad reports about him, basically a bad peice of work and then I was lucky to find this site, so we have done it ourselves with the hlep of this site

[Kez/JWolf 6]

We used a lawyer only because we have one in the family and she did all our paperwork and came with us to interview all for free...

But if we did not have a lawyer in our family we would have maybe checked out the basic info with one then done all the paperwork ourselves..

Kezzie

[Jasman0717 9]

So this mechanial engineer died and went up the to gates of Heaven. St. Peter asked him his name and couldn't find it in the great book so told the engineer he had to go down below.

A couple of weeks later God is reviewing the great book but doesn't see the engineer's name so asks St. Peter about it. St. Peter tells God he couldn't find the engineer's name so deferred him to down below.

God, knowing this to be a mistake, gets on the phone with the and tells him there has been a mistake and the devil will need to send the engineer back to heaven.

The devil tells God, 'No Way!'.

God asks why and the devil proceeds to tell God, 'that engineer has only been here two weeks and he has the air conditioner fixed, the ice machines working and the casinos are all going full tilt'. So God says, 'If you don't send him back to Heaven I am going to sue you'.

And the devil says, 'Where you going to find an attorney'

Get it

Edited March 17, 2006 by jasman0717

[pinac 0]

We used a laywer and thought of it as mental insurance.

If your case is straight forward you probably do not need one as the forms are not that difficult and answers can be found here when you are not sure about something.

With that in mind what a good lawyer should be able to do is to help find out what is going on if/when there is a problem. When we applied for my K-1 we ran into a problem in that they could not find my old immigration file from when I had a green card in the 1970s (we lived here for a few years when I was very young).

It tooks months to resolve, even after getting congressmen and senators involved.

So going into the AOS process we wanted to hire someone who we could call and get answers just in case there was another problem.

It goes without being said, that as we did hire a lawyer this time we had no problems and I was eventually approved in an interview that took less than 10 minutes.

Each case in unique, I would recommend a good lawyer if you can find one. But do you need one? That is up to each person/couple to decide.

[m_and_m20 0]

We used a lawyer.

We completely messed up his app to come to the us, we thought he was going to get a green card right away and we ended up bringing him on a K3 and knew nothing about what it was!

When we realized that he wasnt getting a gc, we called a lawyer to do the AOS process. just cause we had no clue about the immigration process and the USCIS website did little to help me understand. Now if i would have found this site, then things might have gone differently.....

But now i work for my immigration lawyer!

[Autumnal 25]

M and M: that's fabulous - you work for him? I had wondered how many of us turned this experience and knowledge into a job.

My husband and I haven't used a lawyer for the process, although we talked to a few over the phone about the options available to us once we committed to marrying down here. If you are going to go through one, personally, I'd get a recommendation from AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association, iirc) and talk to one or two. Consultations are usually free or very inexpensive.

Personally, I think it's more valuable to fill out the forms and understand, for yourself, what's involved with everything. Doing the forms one by one not only cemented certain dates in my head (day of entry!) but it makes sure that things feel/look correct and you get some sense of accomplishment for filling them out.

As others have said, maybe talk to a lawyer about a very complicated or persnickety situation but if it's a fairly straightforward case, the information provided here and on USCIS' website (with the odd infopass appointment) is probably good.

[Kelvin 0]

We did not use a lawyer. Just hours on end of me reading the internet and working on forms. Though I did consult my company's immigration lawyer on one issue (it is a large international company that needs to move employees from place to place often). He said we were fine and I understood the issue well.

Couldn't have done it without this site.

KZ

[tomica52 0]

We did not use a lawyer. We did have a consultation with one, but it seemed like it was not worth it if the process is straight forward (no complications). As for the price most lawyers in NYC will charge around $3000 + all fees included in the process. Good luck.

Alex