Lawyer vs. Boundless/SimpleCitizen/etc. vs. DIY

[MarlinCobon 51]

18 hours ago, smpcole said:

All, thank you so much for your detailed and thoughtful comments!

 

We are still leaning towards hiring a lawyer.  The bottom line is that we are simply not comfortable doing it ourselves and would feel better if we had a single person we could go to with all of our questions, who would be with us from start to finish.

 

One thing that I've seen some people mention are "red flags."  What are some examples?  Neither of us has ever been convicted of a crime or anything like that, but we met under somewhat unusual circumstances, and I send my fiance money periodically to help her make ends meet (she's putting herself through university and supporting her unemployed mom).  Do you think either of those things would raise eyebrows at immigration?

We hired a lawyer and he charged us &2500 for the process. $1200 for the beginning of the processes which was to submit to USCIS and $1200 for the NVC (which I ended up submitted because they don't care about the wait, its not their case anyways) and the embassy (no interview yet). At the beginning of the process I didn't know a thing about forms or submitting to USCIS now I know a little but for some reason I would still hire a lawyer because I don't like to stress it. If you don't feel comfortable submitting to uscis hire a lawyer FOR THE FIST PART OF THE PROCESS, educate your self about NVC and embassy process in the forum while your petition is with USCIS and you will realize how easy it is and that can save you half the money. That's what I would of done if I knew, I would still pay for the first part but would of have never paid that second part but I found out about Visa journey after I had signed the contract to pay. God bless you!

[smpcole 3]

3 hours ago, MarlinCobon said:

That's what I would of done if I knew, I would still pay for the first part but would of have never paid that second part but I found out about Visa journey after I had signed the contract to pay. God bless you!

Thanks for the tip!  In your experience, what about the NVC part of the process do you think made it easier than the USCIS part?  Just the fact that NVC is second, so by that time you are more familiar with the immigration process overall?  Or was there something specific about it that made it easier?  God bless you too!  Thank you so much for your help.

[MarlinCobon 51]

19 hours ago, smpcole said:

Thanks for the tip!  In your experience, what about the NVC part of the process do you think made it easier than the USCIS part?  Just the fact that NVC is second, so by that time you are more familiar with the immigration process overall?  Or was there something specific about it that made it easier?  God bless you too!  Thank you so much for your help.

Not sure how the online filing for i30 works, that option wasn't available when we filed so we paper filed and our lawyer gave us a copy of all he sent and it was a good bit. Like I said I don't doubt that I can file now but I guess its just because I have seen how he put it together lol but yeah I have seen a lot of information on Visajourney as well. If you can wait to file you can find exactly what you need to do in the forum, just spent sometime investigating. The NVC is just a piece of cake, our lawyer had us fill out the DS-260 ourselves and its just information that you and your spouse have to figure out anyways, the fees he paid but that's another easy thing, I added my own joint sponsor (easy) and after I seen they weren't moving much I decided to upload the documents myself. It will let you what documents you need to upload where, its just easy so easy.

Edited July 30, 2020 by MarlinCobon