Hiring a Lawyer for K3?

[quicker_silver 0]

Hi,

I just got married this summer. My wife lives in Syria (Middle East). I am in medical school and being really busy I decided to hire a lawyer. After talking to couple of lawyers I found on the internet, I found that the cost to hire without goverment filing fees ranged between $500 up to $1400 (and one $1800 including helping in green card papers when spouse arrive to US)...

*1- From my readings, the process seems to take a lot of time and is tedious, so is it worth it to hire a lawyer?

*2- Anyone knows the reasonable cost for one (being a student this is important)?

*3- Any tips on how to decide which lawyer to hire? Some sounded pretty confidant, others sounded more knowledgeable about how to go about this (e.g. one told me depending on how I130 is going we can decide to file F129 or not, is that an intelligent advice or the lawyer does not know much??)

4- Is it better to hire a lawyer from the same background (Syrian/middle eastern) or deals primarily with applications for Syria/middle east?

5-Is the K3 visa really faster than the CR/IR one?

I really appreciate your help.

oh one more question

Is it better if the lawyer from the same state (close to where I live)?

thanks

[sau 0]

HELLO,

G IVE ME SOME PART OF IT AND I WILL HELP YOU IN THE PROCESS..............

AM GOING THROUGH THE SAME PROCESS SO I KNOW HOW IT WORKS............

Edited August 23, 2007 by sau

[radsr2002 0]

I hired a lawyer.

Both my I130 and 129F are approved; we filed the I130 at the end of last December and the 129f about 3 weeks later.

Price on the other hand varies greatly. I got quotes from $10,000 on down. Average seemed about $5,000.

But I found a local immigration attorney that has worked magic and is very open and not stingy with his talk time.

He charged me $1250.00 plus all filing fees. He did all the mailings of the forms at no extra cost to me.

I do not know your location but here is his link.

http://www.jaballasimmigrationlaw.com/

While no real studies have been done to show weather a lawyer is more effective or not.

I do know when I thought I had everything. He sent me back to get more. Sometimes I thought he was a bit to picky,

But, the fact is that both the I130(august 27) & 129F(sept 5th) are approved and dates are set for both interveiws.

I felt better knowing he had reveiwed each form and had put his Signature on the forms.

In my mind, I felt at least they knew that if they droped the ball, an attorney was over looking the case.

Now all the stated above is my own opinion and not said to belittle any 1 here at this wonderful forum.

They have done a outstanding job here and I have read and read thru the posts here for information.

It has been a great help to keep me on track with questions that I posed to my attorney!!!

Either way you chose...

I wish you lots of luck and may your love be eternal

Rick

[gogo 6]

to answer your queston you should just read up on the guides here, and do it yourself.. You will be more up-to-date on everything that is going on and won't get tricked.. now, I can explain the I-130 and I-129F better probably than a lawyer.. the only thing that makes you probably want to hire one is "TIME".. if you don't have any... but it is still worth it to learn about the whole process yourself.. just like using a computer... I can tell you that you need an expensive graphics card to run IE (8800 GTX SLI, like what I have)... but that will be me cheating you out of money because you understand and have comptuer knowledge.. so it's the same thing here.. better to have more knowledge and not let anyone trick you.. just take a few hours and read through the steps needed to apply for I-130 and I-129F visas...

Edited August 23, 2007 by gogo

[isleta521 5]

Quicksilver,

Congrats on your wedding. If your case is straightforward with no visa overstays or she has no criminal record, then your case can be done without a lawyer and you can save the $$ for a trip to visit her. You still have to fill out all the forms and you can get a ton of information on this website that will help you do it. We had used a lawyer (for a K1 visa) and it was a waste of money and time. Yes, time because you will find that once you have a lawyer that your petition will be in line with many and the priority that you put on your petition will not necessarily be the priority that the attorney will have as he / she will have many other clients. If you do get a lawyer, be careful and shop around.

Good luck.

[MissStacey 1]

Until I found VJ- I was clueless about immigration- as was my husband.

VJ has been an incredible and resourceful tool for me. I have learned everything I need to know right here.

I'm not saying not to hire a lawyer- that is your option. We have come along quite nicely without one.

Mel did have a consult with an Immigration Lawyer- in our case he wasn't very helpful. It was a waste of money for the consult fee.

[Krikit 1,165]

*1- From my readings, the process seems to take a lot of time and is tedious, so is it worth it to hire a lawyer?

Congratulations on your wedding. Just a comment.... I do not wish to influence your decision one way or another, however, whether you hire a lawyer or not, you will still have to provide the majority of the required information. Your lawyer is not going to have the answers and documents without your input so he/she is really not taking care of the bulk of the work..... you are.

Good luck in your process.

[MHS 0]

I hired an immigration lawyer and he is doing a wonderful job, he charged me $1,500 and he is worth every penny. He always keeps in close contact with me and tells me about any updates he has received and always asks how am I doing and he even calls my husband in Kuwait and informs him on whats going on and also asks how he is doing aswell. He is a great lawyer and I would recommend him to anyone who wants the job done right. His name is Noure Alo. Here is his link. http://www.harrisonalo.com/index.php

[ding 1]

A lawyer is helpful if the beneficiary is having trouble and is taking all your time and causing errors and wasting weeks. Get one in her country I'd say, with bilingual staff. A man in Thailand charges $1,600 with 100% success rate and $ back guarantee. $2,500 for a dual language prenuptial.

ymmv

[neel06 0]

A lawyer can't really do much. HOWEVER, in your case I do suggest that you hire a lawyer.. mainly because your spouse is from the middle east...just in case they harass you. secondly, you will be busy so why not.. third you will be doctor in few years you can afford to ...lol

anyhow, wish you all the best.

[island_princess 2]

If you have the budget, why not?

But honestly, a frequent visit and reading if this forum, you don't need a lawyer. My husband and I once planned of having one, but I convinced him not to, and promised that I'll do all the research. My very first guide is no less than this forum.

Hi,

I just got married this summer. My wife lives in Syria (Middle East). I am in medical school and being really busy I decided to hire a lawyer. After talking to couple of lawyers I found on the internet, I found that the cost to hire without goverment filing fees ranged between $500 up to $1400 (and one $1800 including helping in green card papers when spouse arrive to US)...

*1- From my readings, the process seems to take a lot of time and is tedious, so is it worth it to hire a lawyer?

*2- Anyone knows the reasonable cost for one (being a student this is important)?

*3- Any tips on how to decide which lawyer to hire? Some sounded pretty confidant, others sounded more knowledgeable about how to go about this (e.g. one told me depending on how I130 is going we can decide to file F129 or not, is that an intelligent advice or the lawyer does not know much??)

4- Is it better to hire a lawyer from the same background (Syrian/middle eastern) or deals primarily with applications for Syria/middle east?

5-Is the K3 visa really faster than the CR/IR one?

I really appreciate your help.

oh one more question

Is it better if the lawyer from the same state (close to where I live)?

thanks

[MargotDarko 0]

It is true that spouses from the middle east are more closely looked at. In some cases, a lawyer can help, and sometimes the lawyer cannot help much. You will still be doing the bulk of the work as far as gathering information goes, but as you are busy, if you find a good lawyer and can afford it, I don't think you'd regret it much. If there are any complications (such as if your income does not meet the requirement alone and if there are any past arrests/convinctions), a good lawyer is usually worth the money. I would personally recommend reading the guides here, and then deciding how you feel.

The advice about waiting to see how the I-130 is going before filing the I-129f for the K3 is not very good advice. Unless the I-129f for K3 is filed as soon as possible, it's not going to save you much time. And if he actually said F129 or wrote that down somewhere, I would not hire him. I would want someone who always referred to the full, correct names of the forms.

Edited August 24, 2007 by MargotDarko

[Mari_S 1]

Hey there!

Congratulations on your marriage! Anyways, i too did not have much knowledge on how to file for our K-3 until i was introduced to this site. I am also thinking of hiring a lawyer but you and your wife will basically do all the work and all you have to do is just read on the flowcharts and forums here and you'll learn a lot. Also, if you think your case is pretty straightforward then i suggest just DIY -> saves you a lot of money. Remember you'll still have to pay $1010 for the AOS if your wife enters US with a K-3 visa.

But again, if you want to speed up the process and if you can afford one then why not?!

Good luck on your journey!

[jade2004 0]

my opinion...I was really so nervous about not hiring a lawyer--b/c i had not even a CLUE where to begin--but I found this website...and the people on here are so friendly and often times if you have a question, they will get you an answer back before a lawyer will...in my opinion, most of us have the ability to do the paperwork on our own (with a little help from the other nice people on VJ)....so for me, I am glad that i didn't spend the money to hire a lawyer...but, if you really don't feel comfortable once you start getting the paperwork together it may be worth you hiring a lawyer--just for peace of mind But the others are right also in stating that you and your spouse should also be familiar with the entire visa process yourselves even if you DO decide to go with a lawyer.

Good luck

Jade

[MargotDarko 0]

Hey there!

Congratulations on your marriage! Anyways, i too did not have much knowledge on how to file for our K-3 until i was introduced to this site. I am also thinking of hiring a lawyer but you and your wife will basically do all the work and all you have to do is just read on the flowcharts and forums here and you'll learn a lot. Also, if you think your case is pretty straightforward then i suggest just DIY -> saves you a lot of money. Remember you'll still have to pay $1010 for the AOS if your wife enters US with a K-3 visa.

But again, if you want to speed up the process and if you can afford one then why not?!

Good luck on your journey!

A lawyer cannot speed up the process, unless you mean that filling everything out with someone who knows what they're doing won't take as long as doing it on your own. Petitions and applications filed through a lawyer do not go through faster.