Immigration attorney needed ?

[LarryC 0]

I am interested in peoples opinion on whether a Immigration Attorney is needed, or if used would speed up the process. My Fiance is in Hunan China, and that consulate seems to have very long lead times for interviews. I have been reading the support material on this site and generally understand the process, though this is all new to me.

Is it worth the ~$2500 for a Lawyer to make sure things are correct ? Do they know any tricks to speed things up ?

LarryC

[bora bora 1]

Don't expect anyone to tell you yes because you can do it better yourself - for free - with less hassle and www.visajourney.com

[joeyjoey 1]

I am interested in peoples opinion on whether a Immigration Attorney is needed, or if used would speed up the process. My Fiance is in Hunan China, and that consulate seems to have very long lead times for interviews. I have been reading the support material on this site and generally understand the process, though this is all new to me.

Is it worth the ~$2500 for a Lawyer to make sure things are correct ? Do they know any tricks to speed things up ?

LarryC

If you meet the qualifications to file a K-1, and you don't have a "complicated situation", I'd suggest you file it yourself. The process costs $170. And your Lawyer wants $2,500+ ? The difference is $2,330! You could buy her ring with that! The Lawyer cannot make the process go any faster. And you will never get 7/24 access to information like here at VisaJourney.

[akim oda 0]

my opinion is do it yourself, as the others have said. VJ is the best site around and you will have all your questions answered, from others that have gone throuhg it. The lawyer has experience, in the sense as filling paperwork for other people. But until you have gone through the process yourself, do you really gain the knowledge. So trust the more experienced on the site. You will be more then fine. Wishing you all the luck.

[YuAndDan 153]

A lawyer cannot make Guangzhou process a case any faster than they do they are an extremely busy consulate.

Look at the timelines. I started the process late July and expect an interview sometime late February early march (9 months) start to finish.

If you case is fairly simple then a lawyer wont be needed.

A few things to consider, ask your fiance if is a member of CPC, if is or has been, this is something to consider a lawyer, this causes a delay in the process to get a waiver. I have seen many people overcome this on Candle For Love.

http://www.candleforlove.com/

[payxibka 10,048]

I am interested in peoples opinion on whether a Immigration Attorney is needed, or if used would speed up the process. My Fiance is in Hunan China, and that consulate seems to have very long lead times for interviews. I have been reading the support material on this site and generally understand the process, though this is all new to me.

Is it worth the ~$2500 for a Lawyer to make sure things are correct ? Do they know any tricks to speed things up ?

LarryC

No amount of tips or techniques will speed you past the USCIS. Attorneys cannot speed up a uncomplicated straight forward case.

[MDSMIF 0]

Just from my experience, I would say no they cannot. Dont waste you money. There are other alternatives to 'expensive' lawyers. The best option is do it yourself, unless you have complicated case. Wish you luck.

[Aymerlu 3]

If your case is a straight forward case without anything unusual, you can really just do it by yourself. An attorney won't speed anything up either, although I did talk to a few before I started the visa process that said they could.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I am interested in peoples opinion on whether a Immigration Attorney is needed, or if used would speed up the process. My Fiance is in Hunan China, and that consulate seems to have very long lead times for interviews. I have been reading the support material on this site and generally understand the process, though this is all new to me.

Is it worth the ~$2500 for a Lawyer to make sure things are correct ? Do they know any tricks to speed things up ?

LarryC

Hiring an attorney is completely up to you. For the most part, since I have been visiting and a member of this site, attorney's tend to either mess up or slow the process. For sure there are good attorney's out there who haven't, but if you have not hired an attorney as of yet, consider following the guides here on VJ and doing your petition yourself.

It is not nearly as daunting as it appears, and until your case gets complicated, say by a denial of visa after interview, and an attorney is truly called for, the initial filing is something easily done by yourself, eliminating costs, a middle man, and keeping your case in your own control. Again, there are quite a number of fellow VJ'ers with attorney horror stories.

Check out the guides here, decide for yourself what you are most comfortable with.

Good luck on your journey!

Edited December 16, 2006 by ready4ONE

[lostinblue 1,989]

A lawyer cannot make Guangzhou process a case any faster than they do they are an extremely busy consulate.

Look at the timelines. I started the process late July and expect an interview sometime late February early march (9 months) start to finish.

If you case is fairly simple then a lawyer wont be needed.

A few things to consider, ask your fiance if is a member of CPC, if is or has been, this is something to consider a lawyer, this causes a delay in the process to get a waiver. I have seen many people overcome this on Candle For Love.

http://www.candleforlove.com/

I also am a member of candle. It is a very good forum in dealing with the chinese situation. It covers more than just the visa part. Much of it is dealing with the day to day trials of being involved with a chinese SO.

My fiance just passed her interview this week and we started in late march and had IMBRA to contend with at its begining stages so all cases were slowed down due to this new law. So you are talking on the average 9 months give or take a few depending on where you live in dealing with the service centers(China's timeframe). Vermont for whatever reason is the fastest. Much of the leg work you will do for your lawyer , He will look at the file and send you a nice bill for all your work. My first lawyer charged me 5000 and I had a horror story in dealing with him. That was for a k-1 visa many years ago. If you desire to spend many hours at these forums and you have a straight forward case (no overstays communist party situations ect.) then you can save yourself a ton of money. Your lawyer can go to europe on vacation or you can take another trip to China. YOUR call. From what I can gather is a lawyer will not speed things up and if you read some stories here it actually slowed down the process. It depends if you can find a good one .,The biggest thing you need to recognize is at interview time the Visa officer is looking for fraud and and by showing a loving relationship and being able to back it up with the needed paperwork . Phone bills, letters e-mails. . Having the ability to communicate is required that time. You need to be correct in filling out the forms but along with that is proof of this loving relationship. And no lawyer can give you that.

[Turboguy 6]

A lawyer will generally slow things down and increase your chances of an RFE

The reasons for the slowdown are this.

If you do it yourself you send the paperwork in. If you do it with a lawyer you send him the paperwork. It sits on his desk until he gets to it, then he sends it in. If there is an RFE doing it direct they write you and tell you what they need. If you use a lawyer they write him, then he writes you, then you send it to him then he sends it in.

If there are problems which are frequent he has all your stuff.

With my first fiancee, a friend of mine and I started the K-1 process on the same day. He used a lawyer. I didn't. I picked up a month on him. He had lawyer nightmares.

I am not sure why there are more RFE's with lawyers. The only explaination I have is that they do so many they get careless.

If you have complications then a lawyer might be in order. The funny part is I have heard of lawyers not wanting to take cases with complications because they don't want to loose thier 100% success rate. Someone was talking about needing an IMBRA waver and having trouble finding a lawyer who would touch it. Good luck

Edited December 17, 2006 by Turboguy

[Barry2005 0]

I don't regret getting help from a lawyer. You always have the chance to look over the documents so if there is any mistakes then you both can share the blame. Its good to have an extra set of eyes looking at everything too and someone to call if you have questions. In many ways you are paying for their experience and advice on how to handle everything.

If you want to save money do it yourself. I guess the worst that can happen is a RFE and that is a small amount of time to pay instead of money.

That price is high. I paid $1400.

[MPGGPM 0]

I don't regret getting help from a lawyer. You always have the chance to look over the documents so if there is any mistakes then you both can share the blame. Its good to have an extra set of eyes looking at everything too and someone to call if you have questions. In many ways you are paying for their experience and advice on how to handle everything.

If you want to save money do it yourself. I guess the worst that can happen is a RFE and that is a small amount of time to pay instead of money.

That price is high. I paid $1400.

As far as what I've read, a lawyer won't speed up the process as others have said. If you are looking for just that, then I wouldn't advise you to hire one.

That being said, I disagree with much of what has been written in this thread. I have a lawyer for my I-130...............we have had NO RFE's, and so far, things have gone very smoothly. To me, it was worth the price I paid ($2,000.....which was less than my plasma TV cost me ).

I don't think anyone can truly advise a person as to whether they need a lawyer or not. During this process, complications may arise that you don't know about, which could change things. As much as many people on this forum have had no problems with their applications when they didn't hire a lawyer, I have also read many people who have had many problems arise when they filed the applications themselves, which may never have happened had they hired a lawyer in the first place.

I feel it's unfortunate that too many people who have had bad experiences with lawyers are more motivated to post on this forum, than the ones who have had good experiences with their lawyer. It skews things and gives the impression that most lawyers are incompetent. In my opinion.....the profession is NO different than any other. You have good lawyers, and bad ones....just like you have good doctors/bad doctors...good teachers/bad teachers.......etc...etc...

I have been very happy to this point with my lawyer. I can't say anything negative in my experience with her. Perhaps if I had done it on my own, things would have gone just as smooth....then again...maybe they wouldn't have.

All I know is, since I have hired her....this process has gone as smooth as can be...and for me and my wife, it has been well worth the $2,000 we paid.

I would sit down , think about your case, talk about it with your significant other.........and make a decision that's right for you both.

Good luck.

[Barry2005 0]

Also if you look at the RFE thread most are mistakes a lawyer would catch.

[s2convt 0]

A lawyer won't be able to spead things up, but they can prevent unessary RFE's. IF you go the lawyer route, make sure you get a referral. I have an immigration attorney from our local church completing the process. I was only charged $570.00 and he was referred by our priest. $2500 is a RIP OFF.