Good attorney for ROC?

[Lemonslice 5,002]

23 hours ago, jess100 said:

We have decided to use a lawyer for this step, given the political climate.  Can anyone recommend a good attorney with experience in ROC?  We have been fooled in the past because our lawyer had experience in asylum cases but not what we were doing.   It made everything worse....So it would be best if the lawyer has lots of experience with ROC.

I fully realize this is pretty straightforward, and we don't have to have a lawyer, and can do this ourselves.  We are choosing not to do that.

 

 

 

By choosing "not to do that", you have to realize that you might be complicating your situation.  

Are you still married and living together?  If so, I think you should prepare your application and file on your own - having it reviewed by a lawyer before dropping it in the mail if it makes you more comfortable. Then, research the best lawyer you can afford and keep their contact details in case your case is not approved.  ROC is long, but it's not complicated and you can file again should it be refused. 

[Sukie 1,477]

On 9/8/2018 at 10:29 AM, jess100 said:

We have decided to use a lawyer for this step, given the political climate.  Can anyone recommend a good attorney with experience in ROC?  We have been fooled in the past because our lawyer had experience in asylum cases but not what we were doing.   It made everything worse....So it would be best if the lawyer has lots of experience with ROC.

I fully realize this is pretty straightforward, and we don't have to have a lawyer, and can do this ourselves.  We are choosing not to do that.

 

 

 

Jess, I understand what you mean about "the political climate".  We chose to use an attorney for the I-130/CR-1 process because of the political climate.  We are a same-sex couple and we submitted our forms the day after DOMA was repealed.  We were scared to do it on our own because we knew we were one of the first couples to go through the process.  Even though we had a VERY clean application, we were still nervous.  So I get that part.

 

We had one small hiccup that was not the attorney's fault.  We almost had a very BIG hiccup where I had to teach the attorney the correct thing.  In fact, the lead attorney at the firm we used laughingly offered me a job after we got through.

 

We did ALL the rest on our own, with absolutely NO problems.  Again - we had a ton of evidence, were clean-as-a-whistle, and now my spouse is a US Citizen.

 

If you are nervous, then yes, for your emotional sake, go the attorney route.  But do be aware that YOU are the one who pays more attention to detail, and who collects ALL the data, and really does all the work.  And while you might feel hiring an attorney will take some of the risk away - in truth - it may add MORE risk.  I know that those who have had a BAD experience are more vocal here than those who had a good experience.

 

My advice?  Search Visa Journey for people in your geographical area who used an attorney, and get a recommendation from someone who had a good experience doing ROC. 

 

You know we will all help you here on VJ. 

 

Best of luck.

 

Sukie in NY

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

Hi- it all depends on where you live. We have used a lawyer during this whole process and it has been WONDERFUL. And our case is pretty straight forward-no kids, never been married, no criminal record etc.

 

They are are are nonprofit group of Catholic nuns that helps out those navigating the immigration system. They charge PEANUTS. Cmon now- who wouldn’t want catholic nuns as lawyers- they aren’t going to screw you!

 

So many people bad mouth lawyers on this site- I mean I see some give horrid guidance and are only in it for the money-but in our situation we have been EXTREMELY lucky and gone through this process so far without doubt or stress. We are also lucky that this group exists in CT. I suggest you look in your area to see if there are good nonprofit groups that do this.

 

i will also add that by looking on this website and following it for quite some time I do feel I could have done the process myself in its entirety (from k1 to roc) but with the lawyer I have had no stress, no doubts -extremely smooth process and never had interview for AOS like so many people receive. I feel confident our applications have always had MORE than sufficient evidence.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Luckycuds

[xillini 71]

I favors of having lawyers as well. I read some reviews and found a lawyer when I did AOS in 2016. It was also affordable (1000$) because he was specifically specializing in family-immigration. Although many lawyers specialize in employment immigration, the lawyer I had had 10+ years of family immigration, specifically marriage AOS (to be fair, though, other family immigration category like parents, brother/sisters/daughters/sons of USC are cut and dry, meaning that all USCIS needs to verify is just to see if they are related). So I was quite comfortable, and the lawyer had my ethnicity background, so we had similar expectations. (I later noticed that some attorney charges 3000-4000$ for marriage green card, and my reaction was WTH?!) 

 

While I have to agree that many cases dont require lawyers assistance, it is the best to follow the lawyer's route. Especially when it comes to days of uncertainty, and given the nature of immigration itself is "All Big Ifs", if possible, having lawyers is the best shield. Immigration matters must be approached as conservative as possible because the burden of proof for eligible immigration benefits, shall always on immigration, not on government (that is what INA code of Federal law says so in preambles...) 

[Crazy Cat 42,683]

7 minutes ago, xillini said:

Especially when it comes to days of uncertainty, and given the nature of immigration itself is "All Big Ifs", if possible, having lawyers is the best shield.

That's odd...because the faulty advice of my attorney cost us an extra 3 months of waiting......having an attorney wasn't "the best shield".  In fact, for a straight forward case, an attorney will do nothing other than transfer the information YOU provide to a set of forms and put them in the mail....for a couple thousand bucks....