did you guys use an immigration lawyer?

[dennybee 0]

hi guys! i just wanna ask if any of you hired an immigration lawyer in processing your K1 visa. and was the lawyer of any help ?....my fiance and i are planning to hire a new lawyer coz our former lawyer isn't at all informing us as to the status of our case. we filed our k1 application last march 2006 at the CSC and until now we haven't received any call or note from the USE in Manila. We are very, very frustrated right now. we've been waiting for more than 7 months now and nothing has happened. how long does it really take before we get a call from the embassy from manila for the medical and the interview....guys please we need your answers coz we feel like we're groping in the dark here.....does it really take more than 7 months before we hear anything from the embassy?

thanks so much! God speed!

dennybee

[leirma_ricky 0]

hi guys! i just wanna ask if any of you hired an immigration lawyer in processing your K1 visa. and was the lawyer of any help ?....my fiance and i are planning to hire a new lawyer coz our former lawyer isn't at all informing us as to the status of our case. we filed our k1 application last march 2006 at the CSC and until now we haven't received any call or note from the USE in Manila. We are very, very frustrated right now. we've been waiting for more than 7 months now and nothing has happened. how long does it really take before we get a call from the embassy from manila for the medical and the interview....guys please we need your answers coz we feel like we're groping in the dark here.....does it really take more than 7 months before we hear anything from the embassy?

thanks so much! God speed!

dennybee

hi! we have almost same case..i DID call to the US EMBASSY IN MANILA..AND THEY TELL ME THAT I NEED TO WAIT 1 TO 6 MONTH AFTER YOUR CASE RECIEVED TO US EMBASSY IN MANILA...BUT THERE ARE SOME POSSIBILITIES THAT THEY MIGHT SEND OR CALL YOU EARLIER THAN THE WAITING PERIOD...IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CASE STATUS TRY TO CALL 19091017878...THATS A CALL CENTER PHILIPPINE NUMBER LET YOUR FIANCEE CALL..ITS 54 PISO PER MINUTE..EXPENSIVE BUT ITS WORTH IT..

[dennybee 0]

Hi! thank you very much for your reply and for the very useful information you've provided. i will certainly tell my fiancee about it....however, will the operator in the call center entertain us eventhough we don't know our case number? the reason for this is our lawyer didn't inform (or doesn't want to inform) us what our case number is. he just told me that our paper is in order and there's nothing to worry about....

and did i get you right that it'll take a couple of months more from the time USE Manila received our papers until the time we get the "go" signal from them?....whew! talk about testing our patience

dennybee

[William33 110]

dennybee,

Your lawyer should be keeping you well informed and providing you copies of relevant documents received.

Since this is not happening, I would kindly demand a full update of your case status and case number. If the lawyer is not responsive, I would hire another.

Has the lawyer at least advised of your NOA-2?

Hi! thank you very much for your reply and for the very useful information you've provided. i will certainly tell my fiancee about it....however, will the operator in the call center entertain us eventhough we don't know our case number? the reason for this is our lawyer didn't inform (or doesn't want to inform) us what our case number is. he just told me that our paper is in order and there's nothing to worry about....

and did i get you right that it'll take a couple of months more from the time USE Manila received our papers until the time we get the "go" signal from them?....whew! talk about testing our patience

dennybee

[joeyjoey 1]

We did not use a Lawyer. For a $170 application and postage, I found it very hard to justify paying $2K or more for a Lawyer to mail my documents for me. After I found this site, it became a no brainer. Our case was pretty straight forward. We did not have any legal issues, no previous K1's filed, previous marriages, divorces or children involved.

If you have he money and you just feel more comfortable hiring an Attorney, then do what makes you feel good. But unless there are some extenuating circumstances, I do not think that you need a Lawyer.

For your case number, look on the back of the check that you wrote to USCIS. There is a 13 character field starting with 3 letters (maybe like "WAC") followed by a 10 digit number. That is your case number.

Go to this site: https://egov.immigration.gov/cris/jsps/index.jsp and set it up to receive email notifications. This way, anytime the case changes, you'll get an email.

[Alhamdulillah 0]

No, we've just been doing it ourselves and with the help of this site.

[Waiting in Vancouver 6]

hi guys! i just wanna ask if any of you hired an immigration lawyer in processing your K1 visa. and was the lawyer of any help ?....my fiance and i are planning to hire a new lawyer coz our former lawyer isn't at all informing us as to the status of our case. we filed our k1 application last march 2006 at the CSC and until now we haven't received any call or note from the USE in Manila. We are very, very frustrated right now. we've been waiting for more than 7 months now and nothing has happened. how long does it really take before we get a call from the embassy from manila for the medical and the interview....guys please we need your answers coz we feel like we're groping in the dark here.....does it really take more than 7 months before we hear anything from the embassy?

thanks so much! God speed!

dennybee

Your Lawyer should definately be sending you copies of any papers they have received from USCIS ... I thought that even if you use a lawyer that all the NOAs from USCIS come to you first ... After all it is you who is petitioning not your lawyer ...

You should have had at a minimum your NOA1 stating that USCIS received your case back in March or April at the latest ... Did you write a check to USCIS or how did you make your payment ?? Like someone else stated here if you used a personal check you should be able to find your case number on the back of the check once your bank received it back ...

Have you been told if your I-129f has been approved yet ??

If I were you I would be demanding that you get a copy of any correspondance your Lawyer has from USCIS ... And after you receive that info get a new lawyer .... I hope that your have some proof that your lawyer did indead submitted your papers ...

[ausqueen 0]

hi guys! i just wanna ask if any of you hired an immigration lawyer in processing your K1 visa. and was the lawyer of any help ?....my fiance and i are planning to hire a new lawyer coz our former lawyer isn't at all informing us as to the status of our case. we filed our k1 application last march 2006 at the CSC and until now we haven't received any call or note from the USE in Manila. We are very, very frustrated right now. we've been waiting for more than 7 months now and nothing has happened. how long does it really take before we get a call from the embassy from manila for the medical and the interview....guys please we need your answers coz we feel like we're groping in the dark here.....does it really take more than 7 months before we hear anything from the embassy?

thanks so much! God speed!

dennybee

(Disclaimer... lol... my first ever reply on any forum... please be patient while I learn)

We kept asking our attorney for the case number untill she "gave it up". At least now we can check our status online, even if there is not much to see.

But now... thanks to the advice of people who answered my question the other day about changing attorney... we will simply DISMISS her by informing CSC that she is not our attorney any more. In the same mail we will send RFE info already sent to her. Ok... maybe some "tripple" checking before this is done... but I congratulate all the people who are doing the whole thing on their own... of course, with the help of vj Now I know that it would be far better, and faster, way through this slow, but sweet and exciting process!

Good to have found all you people here!

ausqueen

[payxibka 10,048]

hi guys! i just wanna ask if any of you hired an immigration lawyer in processing your K1 visa. and was the lawyer of any help ?....my fiance and i are planning to hire a new lawyer coz our former lawyer isn't at all informing us as to the status of our case. we filed our k1 application last march 2006 at the CSC and until now we haven't received any call or note from the USE in Manila. We are very, very frustrated right now. we've been waiting for more than 7 months now and nothing has happened. how long does it really take before we get a call from the embassy from manila for the medical and the interview....guys please we need your answers coz we feel like we're groping in the dark here.....does it really take more than 7 months before we hear anything from the embassy?

thanks so much! God speed!

dennybee

For the reasons you describe above is why I would not use a lawyer. He has kept you out of the information loop and you are in the dark. A lawyer should keep his client fully informed and should share all pertinent information with them but for some reason they want to maintain some sort of control over you.

[CanuckmeetsYank 0]

In our case we did use a lawyer. However most of the correspondence comes to myself and my fiance. Usually we have ended up sending copies to her. For our NOA1 the lawyer sent us each a copy of the NOA 1 and copies of all the evidence she sent off with our K1 application so we could see what was happening with your case. From there all other correspondence seems to be coming to us directly and we usually have to send her copies. So far the only thing our lawyer got that we didnt was the IMBRA RFE. My suggestion would be contact the lawyer demand some answers and see what they have done so far on your case. If they arent willing to provide with any information, you might want to seriously consider another lawyer.

[fozzie 41]

I concurr with a lot of the responses so far. We used a lawyer for the K! and although it all went without a hitch, aprt from him being rude, dismissive and not in the least bothered or sympathetic to the cause, i just didn't feel that he earned $1500 of our hard earned money. I went to see him to get copies of everything he filed on our behalf and using that and this fabulous community called visa journey I have filed the AOS without the use of the lawyer. It would have been another $2000!!! A not-for-profit organization will be more useful, helpful and not as expensive. I found one here in New York but by that time I had already completed the AOS forms. I made an appointment and they went through it free of charge.

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team a not-for-profit organization."

David

[Yodrak 7]

dennybee,

I consulted with attornies several times during my wife's immigation process, but did not retain one. I found the consultations to be quite helpful, especially the one during the visa application phase.

Yodrak

hi guys! i just wanna ask if any of you hired an immigration lawyer in processing your K1 visa. and was the lawyer of any help ?....my fiance and i are planning to hire a new lawyer coz our former lawyer isn't at all informing us as to the status of our case. we filed our k1 application last march 2006 at the CSC and until now we haven't received any call or note from the USE in Manila. We are very, very frustrated right now. we've been waiting for more than 7 months now and nothing has happened. how long does it really take before we get a call from the embassy from manila for the medical and the interview....guys please we need your answers coz we feel like we're groping in the dark here.....does it really take more than 7 months before we hear anything from the embassy?

thanks so much! God speed!

dennybee