Would you hire a lawyer for your CR-1 visa?

[kooliz 0]

Hi all,

New to the forum, obviously. I've been reading tons of threads and cannot seem to find an answer to this question. I am a Canadian citizen who decided to get married to my American girlfriend on a whim after a long visit. Now we have to file for the CR-1 process (I-130, 485, 765, 131, 864 etc.) and wondering if we should hire a lawyer in an advisory capacity to look over all the paperwork. Are VJ's guides good enough that we can do this on our own? Any suggestions, feedback would be greatly appreciated!

-Kooliz

[Darnell 8,478]

I-485 never filed for cR-1 visa -

so

maybe you want to review the Guides section again?

as to any opine on Attorney,

I'll remind you this is a D I Y Immigrate to USA web portal,

with an emphasis on 'Y' actually 'D'-ing.

With all that said - Hey !

Welcome Aboard - spend some time in the Guides Section here [best studied on a PC - as handphone web browsers SUCK for real research here]

[Sparkles2013 9]

Hi Kooliz,

I am also canadian and recently married my American

We have a straight forward case (no kids, no arrests, no financial issues, no deportations) and decided to go for it without an expensive lawyer (this process will cost enough as is!) The guide here on VJ have been fantastic, and so far we have had our I-130 approved with no RFE, our case is now at the NVC.

I would say you can absolutely do this on your own. just TAKE YOUR TIME, read things twice and if you don't understand something ask around here for help! We even used a youtube guide to help put together our I-130 package.

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1 here is a great place to get started!

Good luck!

Edited June 25, 2014 by Sparkles2013

[BBCC 16]

Hi all,

New to the forum, obviously. I've been reading tons of threads and cannot seem to find an answer to this question. I am a Canadian citizen who decided to get married to my American girlfriend on a whim after a long visit. Now we have to file for the CR-1 process (I-130, 485, 765, 131, 864 etc.) and wondering if we should hire a lawyer in an advisory capacity to look over all the paperwork. Are VJ's guides good enough that we can do this on our own? Any suggestions, feedback would be greatly appreciated!

-Kooliz

We filed from Canada without an attorney. The guides on this site are great for doing it yourself.

Usually, people will hire an attorney to assist where there are complicated family issues (divorce, separation, etc) or some prior adverse history with immigration matters.

Good luck!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

From the list of forms, the OP is not doing a CR-1, but doing AOS instead. This is the guide they need: http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide2

I would not hire a lawyer, as I did not hire a lawyer, and never even considered doing so. I did all the forms myself before finding VJ and I got no RFEs. But that's me. You might be different.

Edited June 25, 2014 by Harpa Timsah

[RhettVoe 281]

If you hate money, hire a lawyer - they will charge, on average, $2500, to fill out forms that a 12 year old could.....it should rarely take you more than 90 minutes to complete the forms...2 hours at the outside....now, if you earn $1250 an hour, then you'll break even!

Personally, I would not hire an immigration attorney to clean my cat's litter box, for fear said attorney's physical contact with the box might transmit some disease to my cats! (hint: I think very little of immigration attorneys, as you might have guessed - they are much like TV evangelists...they both promise what they are not empowered to deliver (visas, or a front row seat in heaven), while fleecing the flock (or racking up billable hours in exchange for doing very little)....

[kooliz 0]

You guys are all incredible. Thank you so much for all the responses and guidance. To clarify, I (Canadian) am currently in the US and the lawyer I spoke to said I might have trouble proving that I didn't come to the US on a visitor visa with the intent to marry. Maybe they are just good at freaking people out. I'll be going over the guides (http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide2 being the most pertinent one to us) and filing these forms sooner than later.

Thank you again and I look forward to asking tons of questions.

Cheers

[NikLR 13,220]

They have to prove you had the intent, not you prove you didn't.

~~moved to AOS from visitor, student, or work visa from what visa do I need as OP has a path they are going on already~~

[Mollie09 1,543]

Hi all,

New to the forum, obviously. I've been reading tons of threads and cannot seem to find an answer to this question. I am a Canadian citizen who decided to get married to my American girlfriend on a whim after a long visit. Now we have to file for the CR-1 process (I-130, 485, 765, 131, 864 etc.) and wondering if we should hire a lawyer in an advisory capacity to look over all the paperwork. Are VJ's guides good enough that we can do this on our own? Any suggestions, feedback would be greatly appreciated!

-Kooliz

You'll hear a lot of people here tell you to do it yourself, so I thought I'd provide the viewpoint of someone who didn't. Our case is very straightforward (first marriage, adjusting from valid H1B, no criminal history, no overstays) but we still decided to hire a lawyer. I (the beneficiary) am extremely anxious when it comes to filling out official documents and my husband (the petitioner) is the opposite.

So we paid $2000 for a lawyer to fill out all the forms (I didn't find out what a I-864 was until i joined VJ later), ask me for all relevant documents (I didn't know you could submit evidence when you file - she submitted enough to sail through with no RFE), create her own checklist and remind me of what was missing, get my birth certificate translated, file the paperwork plus some additional documents later, answer all my questions during the process (and there were a lot considering I traveled on H1B while AOS was pending, my husband moved from a different state while we were filling out forms, he's a naturalized citizen, etc.), talk about what to expect from the interview, and she'll be at the interview as well.

All we did was show up, sign, and listen. And pay, of course. I wouldn't have it any other way because as much as VJ is a wonderful resource, I wanted a legal opinion to make sure we did everything right the first time. The forms are tricky, and the consequences for doing it incorrectly can very from a slight delay to something more serious, and I couldn't afford the sheer terror of thinking about it. I also work 60h a week and my husband is an airline pilot, so he's not home every night to do it with me. Having someone else contacting both of us separately for information was an enormous help.

So there you have it - the experience from someone who hired a lawyer.

[Uhoh 10]

We used a lawyer as we had a potential complication. Luckily everything went incredibly smoothly and fast, no RFEs and the interviewing officer approved us on the spot with no requests for other paperwork at the interview. We assume the reasons are: we front loaded, the lawyer knew exactly what to submit, and how to put it all together effectively, and I'm from a low fraud country. Who knows if we would be so successful without a lawyer. But for the peace of mind and the resulting fast and smooth approval, it was really worth the $1.5k.

[Terry J 50]

Two cents from a Canadian who hired a lawyer as our case was not 100% straightforward.

I managed to seriously reduce what the lawyer would normally charge because I completed all of the forms myself and he just reviewed my work and supporting documents My lawyer was pretty impressed at how organized I was.

I had no RFE's, I had no issues at the interview and on the day of the interview the IO was ready to approve me but he was missing my I-130 which we had front-loaded. I just got approved today.

Suffice it to say, even based on your marriage after entry circumstance, you likely don't need a lawyer if you feel competent enough to fill our the forms yourself and take the time to carefully read the guide for each form. That's the key, take your time when completing the forms and making sure you submit all the required documentation.

Best of luck to you in the AOS process!