Are there any stats here that show whether or not using a lawyer speeds up the visa process? Has anyone ever done a poll or something?

A lawyer cannot speed up a case. If one is dreadful at filling out forms and reading instructions, or if there is a complication to a case, you may want to consider one. Other than that, you may be paying a very expensive secretary.

If your visa process is relatively uncomplicated (no arrests, no past issues with the US regarding visa problems, overstays etc) then the whole process is collecting information, filling out forms and sending them to the correct address with the correct amount of money. Having a lawyer sign that he filled the papers out for you doesn't seem to speed anything along. And, there have been several instances on this board where lawyers have messed things up, and delayed the process (I think this happened to Jackie if I can remember correctly).

I've heard more bad than good about using lawyers. Lawyers don't have a magic wand and cannot speed things up. If that were the case we'd all be using them. I work for lawyers and could've used their services for free but I did not. I can read and understand the petitions so why not do it myself? Like rahma said..if your case is pretty basic then a lawyer isn't really necessary.

It happened to Icey also.

I wonder if those here that sent their petitions to the wrong place or forgot to sign a form or didn't realize they needed certain information think that their time would have been shortened if they had hired someone knowlegeable to look over their petition before sending it in.

Noone can answer for you whether you need a lawyer or not. Just because they did not, doesn't translate that others should not. Each person has their own aptitude and ability for submitting the paperwork. What one person finds easy, the next may not.

Translation:

I didn't use a lawyer and you shouldn't either = I'm willing to risk your future with my advice.


Read the guides...ask questions...fill out the forms... then decide if you are more comfortable with a lawyer looking over what you have done and helping you submit it.

You don't often hear stories about where a lawyer was helpful or averted a delay, because satisfaction doesn't compel speaking out.

I am the kind of person who likes to do that stuff myself cause I don't trust anyone else to do that for me. It's a tough call. A lawyer can fill out every form perfectly, then they can forget to send a check. You could forget to send a check too though. It really is not hard though and I personally would reccomend doing it yourself. Don't forget we will be here to help you and with everyone here combined we have a lot of knowledge and will be able to offer advice and answers... for free!

Good luck,
Sarah

I used a lawyer in filing my K1. We were completely stress-free believing in his abilities. We did not do very much research as again, we were comfortable with his expertise. Only after he was refused at the interview did we realize that our lawyer did not have that much familiarity with petitions involving arab men. He had no idea what AR/AP/221(g) was. That was enough for us! We fired him and we took over.

I want to repeat. Our K1 was ULTRA STRESS FREE because we handed the cause over to our lawyer. I may have checked our online status once or twice the whole time! If you want someone to back you, again, look into having a lawyer help with your petition, but again, speeding up the case is not one of the outcomes.

Incidently I joined VJ the day of our 1st K1 interview, after the fact of course, utterly unprepared for the situation we were in.

A lawyer also doesn't have as much personally invested in your case as you do. Sure we're humans and we can make mistakes but I'll tell you that I checked and rechecked the contents of my I-130 and I-129F packages before I sent them out. I made sure nothing was forgotten. Will a lawyer or his secretary do that for you? Who knows. Do you want to take that chance? I wouldn't. As far as sending it to a wrong address..a lawyer's secretary could very well do the same thing. That's why if you're doing it yourself you research the process and ask questions before you do anything.

Thanks. I'm not afraid of filling out complicated forms since I'm a CPA but I was just curious if lawyers had a special "in" somehow that made things go a wee bit quicker. Guess I have my answer then!

I just want to add that before beginning this process, I spoke to many ppl in another forum who were already in the process or had done it before. I was majorly panicked at filing my own papers b/c I'm horrible w/ paperwork & I loathe it (LOATHE IT!!!). I wanted to hire an attorney. Well, my good friends said "If you have the money to blow, go for it, but no one **NO ONE** cares abt your case as much as you do. You can do this and we can help you." They also turned me on to VJ Well, here we are... almost have my sweetie here - no help from an attorney. It *is* possible - even for those mortified of paperwork .
Thanks girls... you know who you are that helped me along the way - particularly in the early stages!
Noura

I know my case was different as I wasn't filing from a ME country BUT we almost hired a lawyer too - even had a consultation. He knew our WHOLE case and never even MENTIONED DCF...which through Australia is pretty commonplace....

Good thing I found this site or I would have wasted many months, and thousands of dollars.

I consulted with 4 different lawyers before hand and received 2 different answers. One told me I was wasting my time trying to get a visa, it would be never granted. The other 3 said they had 99% to 100% success rates and could guarantee my fiance would be here in less then 6 months from filing. (hahaha... what a knee-slapper)

Moral of this story: Yes, they're providing a service that some cases really demand and I know there are some very good lawyers out there, but so many are just vying for your dollar. We ended up not using one. As Rahma said, if you have extenuating circumstances then I think its a very good investment and you should research your prospective lawyer's experience before deciding, but for those who have a fairly simple case I think its a waste of money unless a person has a wretched times with forms and organization.

I thought that using a lawyer would be more professional and help in the process. I was so wrong.

I paid our lawyer (chokes to this day on that word) $2,000.00. His paralegal sent in the I130, so that was good. But then she sent the I129f for K3 to Nebraska, and not Missouri. By the time I figured out that I was supposed to have a MSC number and not a LIN number, it was 4 months. I called the lawyer and he called me a liar. HIS girl would not have made that mistake. Well, after another month he admitted that she did make a mistake. It took him and his office 6 months more to get it refiled to the correct place.

Now follow this up with 2 RFE's for additional errors. From marriage til visa, 2 agonizing, painful years apart.

My moral of the story is----no one cares about your petition more than you.

Jackie
What do you have when your lawyer is up to his neck in sand? pm me for the answer

Jackie did he at least give you some of your money back?

NO! When Mohammed got here, we went to his office (my husband said 'i put my leg in his azz')

He did not apoligize for the delays, he asked for $1500 additional to file the EAD/AOS!!!!!!!! We said, thanks but no thanks and parted ways that day.

Jackie
(this man actually said after the first year, 'why do you want him here so fast, hes only marrying for a greencard')

Oh man he has some nerve to ask you to pay that much for AOS. Unbelievable.

I don't think using a lawyer is a bad thing at all. Throughout my career I have worked with a few different immigration attorneys for work related visas. They all told me the same thing when I consulted with them regarding my case.

They said there is nothing they can do to help, they would just be filling out forms. Since the interview takes place in another country they can't get involved. So there is never really any presence of an attorney. The only positive thing he said that could come out of it , is that if you use an attorny that comes from a big firm, one that the USCIS is used to dealing with, then you could possible get an approval from the CSC without any RFE's.

He said that the service centers tend to comb through paperwork more carefully when its done by the petioner, which makes sense. I am going to most likely hire an attorney for AOS.

Good Luck

I paid a lawyer $500.00 just to file one little paper...the FOIA. That was back in October of 2005. To this day I haven't gotten anything on it even though our case is now reaffirmed.

Now here is the good part, the point of the FOIA was too find out what the consular's notes are. The consulates are the Department of State. I found out that my lawyer filed it with the Department of Homeland Securities! So when it does come I will get squat for my $500.00!

Needless to say I didn't ask her to help with my rebuttle letter for the Notice of Intent to deny, she probably would have sent that to the consulate.

If by chance you do want to consult a lawyer you might want to consider Mark Ellis. He is very well acquanted with the visa process. I wish I had asked him first.

I totaly agree with Rahma...and with Visa Journey how can you go wrong....
Dorothy

I'm a pre-law student and figure I'll add my two cents here - what the heck.

To specialize in any form of law requires a deep knowledge of that area of law and the jurisdiction in which you will be practicing it and the local application of laws, as well as the precedent for that area. That is what makes the odds of getting a good immigration attorney extremely low. In general, there are very few middle eastern/north african visas coming into any area of the country (there are some areas here where that will not be the norm, but overall it is). Chances are there will not be an attorney in your area that has ever filled a visa for someone in your situation before. Even the best attorney you can choose is likely to be filing for a Moroccan for the first time so will know much less about the precedent for this consulate than you do from coming here to VJ.

IF you decide you need an attorney, don't just go look in the yellow pages for "immigration attorney". Come here and talk to people who have used an attorney and had satisfactory results. Don't get an attorney that is good at getting visas from VietNam or Russia or the Phillipines. Find one who understands the intricacies of getting a visa for an Arab man, preferrably an Egyptian. ONLY under these circumstances would I ever recommend hiring an attorney.

I have a friend who used an attorney and the ways that man messes up her case amaze me. He called her one day and told her she had sent him the wrong birth certificate for her husband! When she went to his office and he handed her the birth certificate, it clearly had his fax number across the top of it. Someone else had sent it to him and he had put it with her file! When she pointed this out to him he didn't even appologize but just gave it to his secretary to go find the right file to put it in.

She filed over 2 years ago, her husband didn't pass his interview, their case was sent back, and she has no idea what is going on. Her attorney is absolutely useless and she paid him $2,700 total now. He sent her an e-mail blaming the visa denial on everything but his own incompetence.

I have other horror stories I could tell, but I think you've gotten a pretty good sample in this thread already.