When should I get rid of my Attorney?

[pat75 0]

Hello

Should I change immigration attorneys?

Is it always this difficult with other immigration attorneys?

How do we get our money back from an immigration attorney if we feel they are not doing things right?

My wife and I gave all the required papers to an immigration attorney for a K3 visa. It took about 4 to 6 months to put all the papers together. But if we had started the UCSIS part first we wouldn't have had to wait as long.

The first thing that my wife and I didn't like was having an assistant handle our papers. He didn't know anything about law.

Then he kept asking for the same papers we already sent him.

Later he sent the papers to the wrong embassy. A diplomat had to fly them back to Texas and deliver them back to the law firm.

Finally the papers got there but we didn't know there was a backlog so we kept asking him to find out for us. We thought he was following up the wrong way. he did it by email to the first place he sent the papers too. So we emailed the correct embassy and got a reply back after a month that says "We don't have your papers please resubmit them"

We told the assistant and attorney this. And the attorney said "we will check to see if they cashed the check and if not we will resend the papers" My wife and I just want our visa. We don't care who gets it but we want it done right and fast.

I have to send my papers for the USCIS to Jamiaca to get the approval then send the papers to philippines for the interview. This will all take like 6 months or a bit longer. But my friends in kuwait send thre to the embassy there and are able to get thier visa in 2 to 3 months. I don't understand why the process takes so long in other places. Something must be wrong somewhere with the whole process.

Sincerely,

William and Rona McQuillan

[YuAndDan 153]

Most on this site DIY this. You will get many answers and if you search the posts, you will find many posts of how a lawyer just causes problems.

The paperwork for the visa is fairly easy to handle and can be done by your self, only reason to use a lawyer is to handle a complex problems or to overcome a problem brought up by the consualte or USCIS.

Also lawyers LOVE K-3, because the can charge more for the additional paperwork needed for the I-129F filing, and later hope to charge additional fees to adjust status from K-3 to get green-card.

CR-1 is only taking a bit longer than K-3 for Manila, CR-1 results in Green-card, and does not require adjustment of status.

[payxibka 10,044]

But my friends in kuwait send thre to the embassy there and are able to get thier visa in 2 to 3 months. I don't understand why the process takes so long in other places. Something must be wrong somewhere with the whole process.

This is not news to you but your background story is riddled with process errors.... If your story is remotely accurate then it is apparent that your current legal counsel does not understand the process. Before you can choose new counsel or if you decide to go it alone you need to get yourself educated on the proper procedure first.

As an aside, one potential difference between your case and your friends case is highlighted above. This difference makes a big diference in the potential speed of the entire process...

[JasonTrue 0]

My use of an attorney has been mostly positive. I already knew the attorney I'm using due to some business-related things, but since he practices immigration law and has an experienced immigration paralegal, we avoided many small, potentially delay-inducing mistakes in the paperwork. The attorney also pointed out that Japanese "passport photos" Hiromi had prepared were too small for US immigration authorities, so I was able to correct this without having to find out through a Request For Evidence several months later.

I did my own research, and immigration laws and forms have been changing rapidly enough that I was aware of a few things the immigration paralegal hadn't encountered yet, but having a professional definitely has advantages. In retrospect, I might have preferred an attorney who does a higher volume of family immigration cases, as mine focuses more on employment immigration and other non-immigration business/international law.

If you have an attorney who is adequate to excellent, it's worth it.

However, if you get a bad attorney you'll be paying for their mistakes. It's important to use an immigration attorney with strong credentials and/or testimonials.

[Jasman0717 8]

Unless you have a complex situation you can do it all yourself by following the guide here on VJ and asking questions to members if you get stuck. It could save you a bundle in attorney fees.

[pushbrk 12,212]

But my friends in kuwait send thre to the embassy there and are able to get thier visa in 2 to 3 months. I don't understand why the process takes so long in other places. Something must be wrong somewhere with the whole process.

This is not news to you but your background story is riddled with process errors.... If your story is remotely accurate then it is apparent that your current legal counsel does not understand the process. Before you can choose new counsel or if you decide to go it alone you need to get yourself educated on the proper procedure first.

As an aside, one potential difference between your case and your friends case is highlighted above. This difference makes a big diference in the potential speed of the entire process...

Yes, absolutely riddled with errors.

1. Attorney's don't file the initial papers with Embassies. They mail them to USCIS service centers in the US.

2. Diplomats don't fly them back to Texas.

If your attorney told you anything like this, then he's blowing smoke up....