Hiring a Lawyer for K3?

[ApprovalPlease 0]

I hired a lawyer for $2500, and then realized I just added another buearacratic layer to the process because I fill out all the forms and send them to her and she takes two to three weeks to look at them. Whats the point, so I fired her got half my money back...and did it all on my own following the guides from VJ. I think I did a better job myself, and felt more confident. Personally the $1250, I lost is for a lesson learned to have confidence in my self and do the paper work on my own.

Good luck. with what ever you decide to do.

[picnictable 0]

No brainer, do it yourself. Its not that difficult:

1. Read the paperwork instructions.

2. Visit visajourney.com

3. Without a lawyer, you can do some/all of Jame's shortcuts.

4. Doing paperwork is good practice, you'll be spending a lot of time doing that in your profession.

[isleta521 5]

I hired a lawyer for $2500, and then realized I just added another buearacratic layer to the process because I fill out all the forms and send them to her and she takes two to three weeks to look at them. Whats the point, so I fired her got half my money back...and did it all on my own following the guides from VJ. I think I did a better job myself, and felt more confident. Personally the $1250, I lost is for a lesson learned to have confidence in my self and do the paper work on my own.

Good luck. with what ever you decide to do.

Exactly what I was trying to say. It took my lawyer almost 3 extra weeks to get me the correct paperwork and then they sent it to the wrong service center which costed me another week. What bugs me is all the forms are online and I could have done it all myself. Many people may have a false sense of security (including myself at the time) when they hire a lawyer thinking that the lawyer is in their best possible interest. But this is only my real personal experience and everyone has different reasons / circumstances for hiring (or not) an attorney.

[quicker_silver 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.

Hi,

thanks for your reply, it is so helpful. My income actually does not meet the requirement, and I think I need a co-sponsor, is this hard to do by myself? Also I have been a student for a while now and never filed any taxes, do you think this could complicate the issue too? I really appreciate your help.

[quicker_silver 0]

thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it. I am actually considering doing it alone since after looking at the flowchart, it does not seem time consuming that much.

My question now if you can please advice me is my income actually does not meet the requirement, and I think I need a co-sponsor, is this hard to do by myself or more importantly could it complicate the issue more? Also I have been a student for a while now and never filed any taxes (only once couple of years ago when I took a year off to work before med school), do you think this could complicate the issue too?

I looked online and the K3 cannot be e-filed, right? Therefore, it also cannot be done by Concurrent Filing?

I really appreciate your help.

[isleta521 5]

thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it. I am actually considering doing it alone since after looking at the flowchart, it does not seem time consuming that much.

My question now if you can please advice me is my income actually does not meet the requirement, and I think I need a co-sponsor, is this hard to do by myself or more importantly could it complicate the issue more? Also I have been a student for a while now and never filed any taxes (only once couple of years ago when I took a year off to work before med school), do you think this could complicate the issue too?

I looked online and the K3 cannot be e-filed, right? Therefore, it also cannot be done by Concurrent Filing?

I really appreciate your help.

Someone else will have better information than me. If you need to, get a co-sponser to make up the difference. There is nothing wrong with that especially if you are a student. I dont know the specifics but having savings, and other monetary items like iras can help I believe. Yes, your taxes should be up to date cause the gov does background checks.

[MargotDarko 0]

thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it. I am actually considering doing it alone since after looking at the flowchart, it does not seem time consuming that much.

My question now if you can please advice me is my income actually does not meet the requirement, and I think I need a co-sponsor, is this hard to do by myself or more importantly could it complicate the issue more? Also I have been a student for a while now and never filed any taxes (only once couple of years ago when I took a year off to work before med school), do you think this could complicate the issue too?

I looked online and the K3 cannot be e-filed, right? Therefore, it also cannot be done by Concurrent Filing?

I really appreciate your help.

It's not as straight forward if you have a joint sponsor for your spouse, but it's certainly not impossible for you to still do on your own.

With the taxes, for the years you didn't make enough money to file, you will need a statement saying that. The IRS can help you with that actually. www.irs.gov is a good site and it's easy to reach a live person on their helpline.

There isn't anything in these processes that can be filed online (except I think the I-864EZ maybe?) I'm not sure what you mean by concurrent filing. If you're talking about tax stuff, you don't have to have all the tax stuff worked out before filing the petitions. That just has to be worked out before the visa interview date. Or if you mean the I-130 and the I-129f - those can be filed at the same time now.

A good thing to get straight about the joint sponsor is the basics on how it works. You're the main sponsor for your spouse and still fill out the I-864 as the spouse (this is for an immigrant visa - I'm not sure on how different the I-134 works for the non-immigrant K3 visa). The joint sponsor can be any US citizen who resides in the US. The joint sponsor is sponsoring your spouse with you, not sponsoring you. The joint sponsor needs to have enough income and/or assets for their own household plus your spouse. You cannot combine your income or assets with the joint sponsor. If they use assets, they need five times the requirement for income, but if you use assets, you only need three times the requirement.

I would definitely recommend reading and posting in the regional folder for your spouse's country. I believe there's a fairly high risk of being put on Administrative Review after the interview, and that's something to be aware of/prepared for. Good luck!