Can i stop using an attorney?

[Jwen 4]

Good day fellow VJers.....

I am the beneficiary as can be seen from my timeline.

My question is having started the I-129F with the use of a lawyer at what stage can we terminate his services?

Background

After submitting and receiving confirmation by USCIS, we received a RFE for something which I believe the lawyer should have picked up initially and have sent in with our application...Also prior to our RFE our application was not sent when i had anticipated it would have because he had failed to ask me to get the Letter of Intent notarized and photos from me and send to him.

I now have some concerns re The I-134 and school for my kids and have been waiting since last week for a response even tho after sending my concerns via email,I followed up by a phone call in which he promised to get back to me...nothing has been forthcoming from him.

I should mention I was never in favour of hiring a lawyer in the first place but as the beneficiary and not the one filing I went ahead with the decision for a peaceful life...Needless to say having already paid $2000 with another $4000 due to the AOS stage I really dont think we are getting value for money.

Finally

So having bored you with all of the above my question is could we pay the other $1000 to him which should get me to the US and be done with the lawyer...Meaning after marriage..could we continue the process ourselves and file for AOS?

My fiancee doesnt like dealing with the forms and all the paperwork required hence the lawyer, but as I will be there after the K1 is approved i could do the rest.

Thanks in advance

[kitthekat 1,317]

You can terminate your lawyer's services anytime. If you feel comfortable handling the paperwork yourself and your case is pretty straightforward, then you should have no problem going forward without a lawyer.

[darin&josh 18]

If you are not confident that your attorney is providing you with the correct advice then I would seriously consider discontinue using them. As kitthekat said, if you are comfortable in handling the paperwork and there are no complications with your case then using the guides here should be all that you need to complete the next steps in the process.

The only thing that you will need to do is update the contact details on your file with USCIS to ensure future correspondence is sent to the petitioner and not your attorney.

Of course, as you indicated in your post, you can also retain their services until you have received your K-1 visa and then go it alone with the AOS.

[Cathi 5,771]

yes

[Boiler 45,673]

Financially it depend on the contract.

[Pinkrlion 2,724]

You are his employer, he can be fired.

[Jwen 4]

Thanks guys,

I will look over the contract to see..

Knowing my fiancee, its best to complete K1 with them.

But i do feel it would be better to use the final $3100 to help offset the cost when we get to AOS than have to pay that plus AOS costs...

[cvek 0]

You can stop working with a lawyer whenever you want. When we filed our i129f we worked with a lawyer and paid good amount but he was not very helpful. We just decided to deal with the rest ourselves and just stopped working with him. A good point: Uscis still wil be contacting your lawyer and updating necessary infos would be smart idea. i dont know how to do that though. good luck