Im hiring an attorney.

[GinoNiña 182]

8 minutes ago, MarJhi said:

So you have already filed for K1 and got your NOA1 2 weeks ago? 

 

I'll just say do what makes you feel comfortable an do your research. Find a lawyer near you that you feel confident in and if you can find one who has experience with the Philippines. If you feel hiring an attorney is right for you and you certainly have the income to afford the cost then have at it.

 

Good luck

The problem is I dont have a feeling at the moment. I am all numbed up due to this backlog #######. But thanks for your comment. Good and Bad comments are welcome

Also I dont want to use my feeling as a base for hiring an attorney. I use the real time result courtesy of VJ and at USCIS website. 

Edited April 12, 2022 by GinoNiña
added more information

[Scott-Ilyn 81]

I am in agreement with all other replies to your topic.  I don't believe that attorney will do any better job than you would do by filling out the paperwork on your own.  I also don't think an attorney will help speed up the process at all.  We were all numb at one point with length of time that the immigration process takes.  My Filipina wife and I were lucky because she was working abroad in Hong Kong.  There is very little back log in Hong Kong.  So, our K1 process took a little over a year.  As @Crazy Cat points out.  The spousal visa is far superior but it didn't work for us because the circumstances surrounding covid.  I wish you the best.

[GinoNiña 182]

Signing off for now. thanks for all the feedback....

[RO_AH 1,659]

8 hours ago, GinoNiña said:

Must have knowledge of Philippine law

Philippine law has nothing to do with US immigration 😉

[Steve2022 41]

I'd forget the attorney and hire an agency that is not an attorney, such as RapidVisa or CitizenPath or Boundless (which now owns Rapidvisa).  There may be other similar ones. I think there is some sort of a paid service here on VJ.  The agencies have a lot more collective experience than a single attorney and however many paralegals they have actually doing the work.  I had been talking to an attorney and getting wildly different advice than RapidVisa agents had been giving me.  The RapidVisa agents were not always consistent, and I'd get different answers from different agents, but 2/3 of them seemed pretty knowledgeable.  In the end, I decided that RapidVisa was more correct, and I figured the attorney was either making stuff up and/or didn't know what she was doing.  She probably spends most of her time trying to help people stay in the USA who overstayed their visas, not helping people immigrate legally.  Whoever helps you, you had better check everything yourself.  RapidVisa made the I-130 and some other parts much easier, and for a stupidly low price.  Since Boundless bought them, they don't seem as good on the chat advice.  It feels more like they are just copy and pasting all the answers.  Maybe I'm just conversing with an AI now, I can't actually tell.   But I'd buy the service again just for the headache/stress that it saved me on various parts of the application.  Otherwise I would have had to read the application instructions VERY CAREFULLY and stress out about how to interpret those instructions correctly, without any experience.   Instead I just answered Rapidvisa's questions, and they filled out the form correctly for me.  It was approved in 7 months.  However they made a mistake on the NVC uploads.  They did not upload all of my tax documents correctly, and it cost me 3 months.  But for the price, I can't really complain.  They did give me a lot of good advice.  Just double check everything.   I wish I had found the resource of VJ sooner.  I have gotten a lot of good info here, too. 

Edited April 13, 2022 by Steve2022
typos and to remove profanity

[Steve2022 41]

Also I forgot to mention that RapidVisa will also meet with the immigrant to have a prep session before the interview.  They only do this as far as I know for the Philippines, because most of their agents are based in Manila or Cebu.  I am not paid to make an advertisement for RapidVisa, this is just what I learned during the process. 

[Timona 4,207]

Rapid Visa has had another of bad reputation here 

 

2 hours ago, Steve2022 said:

Also I forgot to mention that RapidVisa will also meet with the immigrant to have a prep session before the interview.  They only do this as far as I know for the Philippines, because most of their agents are based in Manila or Cebu.  I am not paid to make an advertisement for RapidVisa, this is just what I learned during the process. 

 

[Crazy Cat 41,851]

Platinum Immigration Services (VJ partner) is who I would seriously consider.  Mike is really an expert.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Crazy Cat

[GinoNiña 182]

3 hours ago, Steve2022 said:

Also I forgot to mention that RapidVisa will also meet with the immigrant to have a prep session before the interview.  They only do this as far as I know for the Philippines, because most of their agents are based in Manila or Cebu.  I am not paid to make an advertisement for RapidVisa, this is just what I learned during the process. 

Noted with a Big Thank you!!!!

[Steve2022 41]

11 hours ago, GinoNiña said:

Noted with a Big Thank you!!!!

Oh yeah, and they have customer service numbers in Tagalog and Bisaya. 

 

[Steve2022 41]

12 hours ago, Timona said:

Rapid Visa has had another of bad reputation here 

 

 

I don't understand, are you saying they've reportedly done a bad job?   Hmm.  We have not had our interview yet, or met with them in person.   And well, they did make a mistake uploading my tax documents, and it seems many of the agents were not very good.  But a majority seemed to be able to answer my questions.  If not, I'd just open a chat session later and talk to someone else.    But I only paid $600 or so, and the I-130 and other app wizards were well worth that cost.   Just because you use a service doesn't mean you can't double check everything yourself also. 

[Timona 4,207]

7 minutes ago, Steve2022 said:

I don't understand, are you saying they've reportedly done a bad job?   Hmm.  We have not had our interview yet, or met with them in person.   And well, they did make a mistake uploading my tax documents, and it seems many of the agents were not very good.  But a majority seemed to be able to answer my questions.  If not, I'd just open a chat session later and talk to someone else.    But I only paid $600 or so, and the I-130 and other app wizards were well worth that cost.   Just because you use a service doesn't mean you can't double check everything yourself also. 

 

I meant they're bad. 

We've seen complaints from people about them here on VJ 

[GinoNiña 182]

Congratulations on your accomplishments Crazy Cat....

[John & Rose 7,239]

On 4/13/2022 at 6:42 AM, Steve2022 said:

Also I forgot to mention that RapidVisa will also meet with the immigrant to have a prep session before the interview.  They only do this as far as I know for the Philippines, because most of their agents are based in Manila or Cebu.  I am not paid to make an advertisement for RapidVisa, this is just what I learned during the process. 

Alright...enough about Crapidvisa.  They do not meet with anyone.  They have no clue what they are doing.  They are bottom feeders that prey on people that are intimidated with a government process.  They also put people into groups like this to get new clients.

 

They CAUSED my denial.  They admitted they caused my denial.  They said their guarantee is not valid since I signed the petition, not them.  Since then I have been very involved in immigration groups and they are no better than 50/50 with likes and hates.  For Philippines ask them if you can have a joint sponsor.  They will say no.  That is because they do not know or care to know about the process as long as your check clears.  We did a study in December 2019 in a group of 25,000 filers.  70 cases were denied that used agencies and lawyers.  Only one case was denied that was self filed.

 

If you use an agency or lawyer you do so at your own risk but I am one of the 100s of thousands who were screwed by them.  Dont believe me, go to the Better Business Bureau.  Crapidvisa got us an RFE, 221(g) and denial for K-1.  I got married and self filed CR-1 and we had no RFE or 221(g) and we made POE 8 months after filing.  Our K-1 was 11 months just to the interview.

[GinoNiña 182]

4 minutes ago, John & Rose said:

Alright...enough about Crapidvisa.  They do not meet with anyone.  They have no clue what they are doing.  They are bottom feeders that prey on people that are intimidated with a government process.  They also put people into groups like this to get new clients.

 

They CAUSED my denial.  They admitted they caused my denial.  They said their guarantee is not valid since I signed the petition, not them.  Since then I have been very involved in immigration groups and they are no better than 50/50 with likes and hates.  For Philippines ask them if you can have a joint sponsor.  They will say no.  That is because they do not know or care to know about the process as long as your check clears.  We did a study in December 2019 in a group of 25,000 filers.  70 cases were denied that used agencies and lawyers.  Only one case was denied that was self filed.

 

If you use an agency or lawyer you do so at your own risk but I am one of the 100s of thousands who were screwed by them.  Dont believe me, go to the Better Business Bureau.  Crapidvisa got us an RFE, 221(g) and denial for K-1.  I got married and self filed CR-1 and we had no RFE or 221(g) and we made POE 8 months after filing.  Our K-1 was 11 months just to the interview.

Beautiful come back. Thank you