Didn't submit a letter of intent

[positive girl:) 1]

Question page 3 of Form I- 129F Part D. Penalties certification and petitioners signature:

Your Certification: I am legally able to and intend to marry my alien fiance within 90 days of her arrival in the United states. I certify under penalty of perjury under the laws of USA that the foregoing is true and correct.......

with the signature of the petitioner, date and number... will this not qualify as letter of intent?

do we really need to submit a separate and an original letter of intent from both parties (Petitioner and benificiary)? thank you

Edited February 19, 2012 by positive girl:)

[BesosforMexico 13]

IMHO, it depends completely on the attorney you use. I'm having a fantastic experience with my attorney, and I'm only paying about $2,600 for him to help me through the entire process, from collecting evidence through AOS. It sounds like the problem isn't that people are using immigration attorneys, but more directly the problem is that they're expecting the fact that they have an attorney to take the place of being informed about the process and about the reputation of the specific attorney that they hire. So along with the advice of contacting your state's Bar Association to find out how to go about recouping your money, you might do some checking into lawyers' reputations (even interview a few of them--after learning enough about the visa process to know what questions to ask--before deciding which to use), and ask the state Bar Association if you could have your fees transferred to the new attorney. Just a thought. Best of luck!

Ummmm, I never expected my attorney to take the place of me being informed, and quite frankly I WAS asking the correct questions several times.... she told me at least 4 times I did not need it. Obviously I thought I did or I wouldn't hacve continued asking. I don't know if you meant that directly to me or if you were stating thats generally what happens but I am a very well educated person and I think I have done a great job throughout the process thus far

[VanessaTony 3,567]

From my attorney yesterday

" We have always filed an I-130 petition with the I-485 application once the applicant for the K1 is inside the U.S, to provide a more thorough application. We have done this in every case, and have never received an I-130 returned as unnecessary. (Believe it or not, the USCIS will often reject and return filing fees when a petition is not needed). We have followed this procedure as a safety net."

Okay she is correct... You CAN file an I-130 if you want to but then your I-485 is processed based on the I-130 and NOT your K1. Of course it's not returned. USCIS isn't doing anything wrong by accepting it and the fee. They will only return forms and fees if they can't accept it. For instance come AOS time you can send the EAD and AP fee waived. People HAVE had their cases rejected if they sent one fee that included amounts for the EAD and AP or received cheques back if they sent separate cheques for each document.

If you file and I-130 you will be GUARANTEED an interview (with AOSing based on a K1 your interview can be waived just like mine and others were) and you WILL be spending $420 on paperwork you don't need. You will also have to gather relationship evidence to file with the i-130 which again isn't needed with the K1 unless you have an interview. Have a read of the I-130 paperwork and everything required on that form you will be filing unnecessarily. You CAN but as a K1 you don't HAVE to.

So yes, she's right. People have been fine filing and I-130 but it isn't NEEDED and she's wasting your time and money by sending something that is quite obviously not required. The problem isn't that it would mean a denial or anything, it's making you pay for something you don't need just so she can collect the legal fees for it. She's basically stealing your money by giving you a service you don't need but telling you you DO need it.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

The $5000 did include all fees associated to filing (not that that makes it much better) including translation fee for his major documents, translation affadavits, and of course the filing fees as well as expedited mailing fees.

Still YES she was way over priced, YES i could have done it myself... but I made the decision her services were worth my money at the time.

Okay so the $5000 included all fees? So the medical? Police check? and visa application fee were included in the $5K? It's around $1000 for all those fees. She got $4000 in legal fees or maybe 2-3 hours work TOTAL (your fiance will do the same amount of work himself waiting at the medical and interview).

They usually use an application to fill out the paperwork. They fill in the program with your info. The forms are already on the system so they select which ones they want printed and the program inserts your info into the fields. The attorney will read the forms to double check it "looks pretty", they'll get their assistant to photocopy supporting documents and a copies for their file. Then they'll mail it out.

They'll receive your NOA1, photocopy it and send you a copy. They'll get your NOA2, copy it and send you a copy. How are they paying the fees for the medical? Are they giving your fiance a check and if so... how? Then your fiance attends the medical himself, pays the travel fees to get there. Pays for his police check (he's gotta sign it) and waits for his interview. Do they pay his travel fees to the interview or accommodation fees if he travel from some distance away? Unlikely so he'll pay for all that. Attend the interview and await his visa.

So you see, there's really nothing she's doing that you couldn't do, and none of that is worth $3.5K-4K.

[BesosforMexico 13]

Okay so the $5000 included all fees? So the medical? Police check? and visa application fee were included in the $5K? It's around $1000 for all those fees. She got $4000 in legal fees or maybe 2-3 hours work TOTAL (your fiance will do the same amount of work himself waiting at the medical and interview).

They usually use an application to fill out the paperwork. They fill in the program with your info. The forms are already on the system so they select which ones they want printed and the program inserts your info into the fields. The attorney will read the forms to double check it "looks pretty", they'll get their assistant to photocopy supporting documents and a copies for their file. Then they'll mail it out.

They'll receive your NOA1, photocopy it and send you a copy. They'll get your NOA2, copy it and send you a copy. How are they paying the fees for the medical? Are they giving your fiance a check and if so... how? Then your fiance attends the medical himself, pays the travel fees to get there. Pays for his police check (he's gotta sign it) and waits for his interview. Do they pay his travel fees to the interview or accommodation fees if he travel from some distance away? Unlikely so he'll pay for all that. Attend the interview and await his visa.

So you see, there's really nothing she's doing that you couldn't do, and none of that is worth $3.5K-4K.

Nope, the first payment was for only the fees associated with submitting, not anything for further steps. I'm paying for the medical, I'm paying for the remainder of the costs. She got a good chunk of my money for nothing.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Nope, the first payment was for only the fees associated with submitting, not anything for further steps. I'm paying for the medical, I'm paying for the remainder of the costs. She got a good chunk of my money for nothing.

Holy. Sh*t. Filing fees were $340. Add photocopying and mailing lets assume $400 total. You paid her $4600 for about 2 hours work. Wow.

[BesosforMexico 13]

Do you think I could turn this into a class action suit against her for requiring her clients in those 500 other cases as well to pay for an I-130 when it is not needed?

[KayDeeCee 4,899]

Then your fiance attends the medical himself, pays the travel fees to get there. Pays for his police check (he's gotta sign it) and waits for his interview.

I completely agree with what you posted. No reason for those fees, and the lawyer is trying to milk her for more outrageous fees for an unnecessary I-130. I just wanted to point out, since the OP's fiance will go through Juarez, that unless her fiance has a criminal record, he will not need to get police records for his interview. At least that is one small fee and hassle they may not have to worry about.

[Orando 57]

Do you think I could turn this into a class action suit against her for requiring her clients in those 500 other cases as well to pay for an I-130 when it is not needed?

I am not an expert on class action lawsuits but I do know that they require a certain amount of people to form the class. Once the requisite number of people have been identified in the class, something has to be filed with the court of jurisdiction to have a Judge certify the class and allow the case to proceed, arguments from both sides are heard at this point. It is also necessary to have a Plaintiff to represent the class.

So, I do not know if this beef with the Attorney and having people file an I-130 unnecessarily would constitute a legit class, your civil attorney friend may be able to advise you, they may also be able to advise you if 500 people is enough to form a class in this case. Then, there is the matter of identifying the 500 clients of hers that she filed an I-130 unnecessarily, then it would be a matter of having them join the class somehow, and then one of them would need to represent the class as lead Plaintiff, it seems that would not be you since you did not file the I-130 and were not damaged.

I am speaking from the experience of being a part of the class who filed against Toyota for the unintended acceleration problems in certain Toyota makes and models. There is a lot of work that goes into this, it cost money, it takes a long time and an Attorney is only going to take the case if there is a legit chance of recovering damages so they can take their percentage of the damages off the top. The Attorney representing the Toyota class is going to make a ton of money, straight of the top of damages collected. Your civil Attorney friend may be able to advise you on this.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Orando

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Do you think I could turn this into a class action suit against her for requiring her clients in those 500 other cases as well to pay for an I-130 when it is not needed?

It would be too hard to find out who those 500 are. I would contact the bar association and ask what you need to do to get her reprimanded for giving incorrect advise. She would then forever have to disclose that she has a mark on her record for incorrectly advising her clients resulting in them spending hundreds of dollars unnecessarily.

The Bar association will be able to give you more advise. You also have every right to give her a bad review online as well.

[LeftCoastLady 441]

Ummmm, I never expected my attorney to take the place of me being informed, and quite frankly I WAS asking the correct questions several times.... she told me at least 4 times I did not need it. Obviously I thought I did or I wouldn't hacve continued asking. I don't know if you meant that directly to me or if you were stating thats generally what happens but I am a very well educated person and I think I have done a great job throughout the process thus far

I don't want to speak for anyone else, but one would have to wonder why you agreed to pay so much money if you did know what was involved in the process. That's a serious chunk of change and it doesn't include the upcoming costs!

At this point, it's probably for the best to finish up with this lawyer and move on. While her behavior is very unprofessional, if she can provide dozens of successful applicants, you would be in for an uphill battle to prove significant malpractice and I doubt you'll gather enough support for a class-action. Plus, you could very well be one of those couples who don't submit the signed LOI and get through the process with no problems.

Consider it a learning experience. And you may want to tell your parents the next time they want you to use an attorney, they should pick up the tab.

[Rufus2012 175]

It does seem clear that the instructions call for a Letter of Intent. I think those that got lucky without them may have just had overworked adjudicators.

It costs you two pieces of paper and 5 minutes for you and your fiance to write the letters. I had my fiance hand write her letter before leaving her country and coming home to file. No RFEs for us. Even if they are debatably required, it seems like very cheap insurance to avoid a few weeks delay from an RFE.