Always Hire a Lawyer ?

[SalishSea 18,218]

10 hours ago, MikeMinusWife said:

To me you only get a lawyer involved if and when you hit a snag with the application, but maybe I'm missing something ??

Even then, what do you expect a lawyer to be able to do?  A lawyer can only submit the best info that you can give him/her.  They don't have access to some magical info source.  Everyone is subject to the USCIS/DOS statutes and protocols, regardless of whether there is a lawyer involved, and they do not have an *in* with any component of the immigration system.

[Orangesapples 1,954]

You only need a lawyer if you have some special type of circumstance, such as criminal convictions, illegal crossings or if you need a waiver. Otherwise, a lawyer is a waste of money. I got my K1 visa, then green card without a lawyer and both of my interviews were very easy. Save some money and do it yourself. 

Edited December 19, 2019 by Orangesapples

[LilyJ 1,258]

Unless you have some kind of complication like others have said, a lawyer isn't needed at all. They certainly don't make things faster and can even slow you down. A lawyer doesn't care about your case nearly as much as you do, all they care about really is getting your money, and if you hire them they'll get that money whether you're approved or not. You have this site full of infinite free immigration resources and advice. Save that few k you might have spent on a lawyer, and put it towards a trip to visit your spouse instead

[Cathi 5,795]

Unless you have a complicated case, there is no reason whatsoever to use an attorney.

 

 

My husband and I had many, many red flags, we didn't use an attorney and he was easily approved.

[JeanneAdil 6,693]

Lawyer messed up my application for CR1 so much i was denied / i had to get all the proofs myself (and just recently found out he didn't include boarding passes , etc for my 5 trips) '

i did my own appeal after that and won it

 

in truth you provide the documents to a lawyer (he doesn't gather any of them)

you send them to him

he copies and mails them out

if you can mail yourself,  why a lawyer? as you have done the work

[little immigrant 801]

I'm currently on my fifth petition with immigration and I have never needed a lawyer. 

[Juli. 18]

14 hours ago, missileman said:

We used an attorney and it caused a 3 month delay due to mistakes by his office......there is no speeding up the process........

We too. $3000 dollars and a lot of mistakes.

[user555 196]

16 hours ago, MikeMinusWife said:

"do you have an immigration attorney, it really helps speed things up".

Can the lawyer pull some strings with USCIS? Do they have a special contact in that department that can select your application and move it to the front of the line? Can the lawyer tell USCIS to hurry up when they send the approved application to NVC so it doesn't take a month? How about the interview date at the embassy? Does the lawyer have a magic calendar that has secret appointment slots that aren't available to the rest of the public? If so, the lawyer can speed things up. 

[FeelingYoung66 14]

11 minutes ago, user555 said:

Can the lawyer pull some strings with USCIS? Do they have a special contact in that department that can select your application and move it to the front of the line? Can the lawyer tell USCIS to hurry up when they send the approved application to NVC so it doesn't take a month? How about the interview date at the embassy? Does the lawyer have a magic calendar that has secret appointment slots that aren't available to the rest of the public? If so, the lawyer can speed things up. 

A reputable immigration  attorney will never claim to be able to speed things up. My attorney went out of his way to point this out when we first met him. He even said that it is often counterproductive to even try. What he did offer was his decades of experience in doing this, effective guidance on gathering the required information, and an assurance that everything would be submitted correctly and as speedily as possible in order to maximize our chances of success. This is perhaps what people are talking about when they advise "it really helps speed things up". In our case it certainly did.

[NinaLu 38]

Everyone else already answered but I have two things to add myself.

 

One, we have done k-1 and are now in the AOS process without a lawyer. If you do your research, you will be fine. Keep yourself informed and don't let yourself get comfortable with future steps such as ROC (made that mistake for AOS... not again). It's not that difficult, everything is DIY if you have a straightforward case.

 

Two. I actually know 3 people that are/were in the process of immigration with a lawyer. It only aided one person, whom had a conviction on their record (the US petitioner). For the other two... although they were straightforward cases but from high risk countries, one of them "took 4 years" (!!!! This just screams scam to me) after which his foreign fiancee gave up and broke up with him. The other one, he was told "it will be other 6 months until the case gets a reply".... although they have petitioned 1 year some ago. That seems shady and sounds like the lawyer sent their files late or incorrect and sat on a RFE and the "estimate" sounds like lies.

 

People tend to trust lawyers a bit too much and not every lawyer knows what they are doing. 

[Dashinka 24,871]

As others have stated, lawyers cannot speed anything up.  In fact if one does choose to hire a lawyer and that lawyer suggests they can speed up the process, one should look elsewhere.  Hiring a lawyer is a personal decision by many, and in some cases that are complicated, may be a necessity.  For simple cases, the lawyer, or more than likely, their paralegal, are just filling out the same forms one can do themselves.  The client is still responsible for doing all the legwork such as gathering all the required documents, and if one does hire a lawyer, the client needs to keep a close eye on the lawyer’s work.  In our case, from K1 through AOS, ROC and N400, we did it ourselves, the forms and instructions are simple, and of course VJ was helpful.

 

Good Luck!

[Thunderbolt 173]

14 hours ago, FeelingYoung66 said:

In my own case (K-1 fiancee), having an experienced immigration attorney has helped me. Gave me some piece of mind that things were submitted correctly and has also freed-up my time to do other things. Not cheap.. but would do it again. My 2 cents..

Can you please tell us how they freed up your time? Did the lawyer came to your house and your fiance's house to collect all the documents? Please tell us how the lawyer freed up your time?

 

 

OP - Unless you can't read and can't fill up 10 page form, then yes, get a lawyer. Otherwise do it yourself.

[Crazy Cat 42,547]

11 hours ago, user555 said:

Can the lawyer pull some strings with USCIS? Do they have a special contact in that department that can select your application and move it to the front of the line? Can the lawyer tell USCIS to hurry up when they send the approved application to NVC so it doesn't take a month? How about the interview date at the embassy? Does the lawyer have a magic calendar that has secret appointment slots that aren't available to the rest of the public? If so, the lawyer can speed things up. 

The answer to all your question is simply no........

Edited December 19, 2019 by missileman

[saladboye 166]

You are better off spending that money for a pdf edtior for filling the I-130 forms and to flatten the NVC required docs , reduce size etc.

 

Its like 10/month and just get it for the months you need.

 

its what I did, I bought PDF Editor for mac for $30 for lifetime and called it a day

 

The lawyer is just a middleman , you still have the same wait with the added benefit of middleman....

[igoyougoduke 1,676]

14 hours ago, user555 said:

Can the lawyer pull some strings with USCIS? Do they have a special contact in that department that can select your application and move it to the front of the line? Can the lawyer tell USCIS to hurry up when they send the approved application to NVC so it doesn't take a month? How about the interview date at the embassy? Does the lawyer have a magic calendar that has secret appointment slots that aren't available to the rest of the public? If so, the lawyer can speed things up. 

like guitar string ? probably not

 

Lawyers have no special contact unless they work for USCIS and  than they cant represent you 

 

Lawyers are just over paid business people who went to law school