Is getting an Immigration Lawyer our best bet?

[Gary and Alla 3,696]

Where do I even start. All of this makes my head spin.

Here are the basics:

I'm American. My boyfriend is British. For almost 2 years we lived in Grand Cayman together. I have recently returned to "set up shop" here in NY. I am hoping that once I begin working and settle in, and we save at least $5,000 dollars that we will apply for the fiancee visa. K-1?

Lee is from the UK, and has been in Cayman for 15 years. He was previously married but his divorce went through over a year ago and we have the documentation.

How many of you went through a lawyer? I feel like it may be our best bet because I just don't want to get denied. I couldn't handle it. Being apart is hard enough!

Thanks for reading and letting me be a spaz. Never in my life did I think I'd be in this situation! Any advice and help is appreciated.

Minerva

Lawyer not needed.

Raed the instructions and guides at this site, ask questions when you don't understand something.

The forms ask you personal information about you and your fiance (there are no visas for boyfriends). The ONLY persons who can answer those questions are you and your fiance. No lawyer has any clue how to answer them. You attach documents that only you have. Make a copy first. Copy machines are much cheaper than attorneys. If you do not have one, buy one, because you will need it.

The petition (I-129f) is about as complicated as a job application for Home Depot or Walmart. Much LESS complicated than a college admission application. No one needs attorneys for those.

The petition is the beginning of the process. fter that comes the visa application, the Adjustment of Status, the Removal of Conditions and Citizenship, not to mention that is JUST the immigration process which is NOTHING compared to actual life with an immigrant (Oh yeah, SS number, DMV, credit establishment, finding work, etc.)

If you need an attorney for the very easiest part, you are in deep shitski (as they say in Ukraine)

This is why you need to start learning this process yourself because it will be your life for the next 4-5 years. There is no where better to learn it than here.

Attorneys will take a large amount of money from you and do nothing you cannot do yourself. In fact you will STILL have to do it yourself, they will just fill in the balnks and make the copies.

There is nothing else they CAN do.

[Minerva n Shadow 0]

If you need an attorney for the very easiest part, you are in deep shitski (as they say in Ukraine)

LOL! That made me laugh. We have decided to not go with a lawyer. The more I read on here and the more I look at the documents and what we will need to provide, we can handle it Very thankful I came across this site.

[Gary and Alla 3,696]

LOL! That made me laugh. We have decided to not go with a lawyer. The more I read on here and the more I look at the documents and what we will need to provide, we can handle it Very thankful I came across this site.

This is a great site, no doubt.

Seriously, one of the most important things you will do is to be knowledgable of this process and the best way to be knowledgeable is to do it yourself. I have been through the entire process for 3 people (Alla and two sons) and the immigration part was like NOTHING. I mean NOTHING. It barely rises to the level of "nuisance". Alla has received a Masters degree since arriving, Sergey received a masters degree and started his doctorate, Pasha had to learn English, excelled in HS and just graduated with honors. He has a scholarship at the University of Houston for Mathmatics. We did not get these things without a LOT of paperwork, homework, study, college applications, grant applications, scholarship applications...ALL more difficult than the immigration forms and about as expensive. College apps cost $50-200 each! They all learned to drive, established credit, got jobs, etc. The college scholarship process was the absolute best paying part time job I ever had. No one will ever pay you what you can gain in the hours spent completeing scholarship and grant applications.

You are going to run into problems at the SS office, the DMV, your bank, your insurance company. It is like everyone gets a brain cramp when you check "no" in the "are you a US citizen" box for anything! Heck, we got two letters from VSAC in one day (Vermont Student Assistance Corp) one of them telling us Alla was approved for a grant...YAY!!!!!!!!! ...the other telling us she was not approved because she was not a citizen. Signed by the same person with the same date! She never changed her name until she became a citizen and she had one of those 26 letter Russian names ending in "...kova" You think there were TWO women wth that name that day?????????? The DMV clerk told Sergey (K-2 child of K-1) that "he had to get married before he could get a drivers license!" Vermont must be the only state that requires a person to be married to get a drivers license! The SS security clerk told him he "needed a new visa, this one is expired" HE HAD A GREEN CARD!!!!!!!!!!!! he only showed the passport as an additional ID. OMG!!!!!!!

You cannot carry a lawyer around in your pocket for the next 4-5 years and this stuff happens all the time. You simply need to know what is happening and how to deal with it. VJ is the best place for that, it is FREE and you will get an answer 24/7 within a few minutes and from someone that actually did this stuff!