How much does a lawyer charges for all the DCF procedure?

[craftercool 7]

Hi there VJ members,

Here's the situation, now that my wife and I are ready to start with the Direct Consular Filing we spoke to a lawyer yesterday to ask him what will he need to start and how much this is going to cost and all that stuff.

Basically he said that the DCF will take about a year, and I've read here and in other sites that many people have gone through DCF in 3 or 4 months.

And (here's what terrifies me) he would be charging about 3,000 USD for his work besides all the fees that this process entails. WHAT? I mean, seriously? Do you consider that fair? Is that what lawyer normally charges?

Ok, let's say that the amount is correct and that's the average that lawyers charge for this procedure. I consider it extremely unfair, we're trying to go there and establish a family, get a place to live, pay our taxes, contribute to the community where we live and in order to achieve that we practically need to strip away almost all our savings. Isn't there a public office with lawyers a little bit more humanitarian?

[Kastrs 723]

This is a DIY site, the majority of people do not use any lawyers for this process. Unless you have a very complicated case, I would say you do not need an attorney. I have seen many cases with an attorney actually make the process much longer and more complicated than it needs to be. Try reading the guides on this site to determine if this is something you could do on your own.

Also DCF is usually relatively fast, I would say less than 6 months.

[heo luoi 206]

REally not sure what you mean by 'fair'. Just cause you want to contribute to your community and start a family, and pay taxes and otherwise be upstanding citizens/LPR, really means nothing regarding lawyers fees and 'fairness'. After visiting VJ and researching I canvassed several lawyers across the area, while I was not doing DCF...I would say all the fees I saw were very high and this is on par with that actually a bit better. I'd also be very clear what exactly are you getting for that is that purely their fees, or they paying for the printouts / shipping...etc. All up front? 1/2 n 1/2...etc? I opted to use VJ/DIY and another service to have some additional assistance which was much much more affordable.

Most lawyers will give you pricing/estimates and free consultations so canvass your self. I google'd them and street viewed them and when I saw their offices running out a basement or a dumpster I kinda understood the pricing. But then again its probably easy money for some like the traffic lawyers if you have a standard case and just paperwork so probably can find some more affordable ones.

[craftercool 7]

REally not sure what you mean by 'fair'. Just cause you want to contribute to your community and start a family, and pay taxes and otherwise be upstanding citizens/LPR, really means nothing regarding lawyers fees and 'fairness'. After visiting VJ and researching I canvassed several lawyers across the area, while I was not doing DCF...I would say all the fees I saw were very high and this is on par with that actually a bit better. I'd also be very clear what exactly are you getting for that is that purely their fees, or they paying for the printouts / shipping...etc. All up front? 1/2 n 1/2...etc? I opted to use VJ/DIY and another service to have some additional assistance which was much much more affordable.

Most lawyers will give you pricing/estimates and free consultations so canvass your self. I google'd them and street viewed them and when I saw their offices running out a basement or a dumpster I kinda understood the pricing. But then again its probably easy money for some like the traffic lawyers if you have a standard case and just paperwork so probably can find some more affordable ones.

My case does not requires nothing special, we're already married in the state of Texas, she lives with me in Mexico, pretty standard, no need of asking for pardons or stuff like that.

So ok, this is a DIY site, where can I learn to take my case by myself?

[LionessDeon 2,060]

http://www.visajourney.com/content/dcf

The guides. It may be best to use a PC and not a smart phone.

[mlh 93]

When we spoke to lawyers before we started the process, and we didn't do DCF, but they both quoted around $2500 for just the processing of the paperwork, and yes, then the fees to the government are on top of that. We used a lawyer for the first part (before we found VJ) and they charged us $1000 just for the filing of the petition, and in their long process, actually delayed us by about 6 weeks.

For example, to fill in the forms, they sent us Word documents to populate, which they then transposed to the official government documents. I had to prepare and take all of the evidence to them, and get a money order for the petition fee. From here, I found out I could have just sent a check from me, all the info I provided I could have put in the docs myself, and you have to do the evidence yourself anyway, especially if it's a non-complicated case.

It was going to be another $1500 to do the actual visa application and based on how much we had to call the NVC and go rounds with them on some of our paperwork, I hate to think how much longer the process would have taken having them in the middle of it mediating between us and the NVC. (or how much they would have bothered to actually call and get the info that we needed from the NVC).

And as for the point about being fair, they are attorneys, they can charge what they want, and if people are desperate, or don't know any different, they will pay it.

[Adil & Jeanne 296]

i paid a lawyer $3000

he told me what paperwork to do for him / i did all the work / he copied and mailed it in / waste of money

later i did pay $300 to an attorney as immigration kept saying " use adjusted gross income if you file easy form to IRS" i don't / I do long form

finally had to have an attorney signature on the I 864 / he filled out the same exact way i had been doing but with his signature, it went thru

i would say unless you run into an issue, don't pay one / you can do all the paperwork yourself

How long have you been in Mexico? Ask VJ'ers as i may be wrong but i believe you should not be outside the US for a long period of time yourself

[Eric & Idalia 56]

My case does not requires nothing special, we're already married in the state of Texas, she lives with me in Mexico, pretty standard, no need of asking for pardons or stuff like that.

So ok, this is a DIY site, where can I learn to take my case by myself?

As someone already said, if your case doesn't have anything complicated as overstays or crimes, you can do it by yourselves.

I had had two visas before my husband started the DCF. The J1 when I was an au pair, and the B1/B2 for tourism. I never committed any crime or work with my tourist visa. Our case was not complicated. So my husband and I did all out process by ourselves using VisaJourney guides and reading the resources provided by the Ciudad Juarez consulate.

My husband was in Mexico as a temporary resident. So he had documents of his legal status in Mexico.

He got Mexico in December 2013, we got married in Saltillo, Mexico in March 2014 and he became a temporary resident in May. He filed the I-130 and our G-325A in USA Monterrey consulate in Oct. We got an email saying it was approved 4 days later. A month and a half later (aprox) we got the same letter on the address we provided as where I was going to be living in USA (Santa Fe, NM) and on where we were living in Saltillo. The letter said I could schedule an interview at any time. So basically by mid November I could have schedule the interview for whenever I needed. It could have taken just about 2-3 months for me to get my immigrant visa, but as we were still waiting for his work permission in Mexico we waited more time.

Here some questions for you:

What is the status of your wife/husband in Mexico? Is she/he Mexican-American or a resident in Mexico?

To do the DCF, you need to proof the American husband or wife has legal status in Mexico not just visiting. He or she should be Mexican-American or resident of Mexico living there 3 or 6 months. Monterrey consulate asked us to proof he had been living in Mexico just for 3 months. As we were living in Saltillo our consulate was the one in Monterrey, but we also asked the one in Ciudad Juarez and there they required him to proof he was living in Mexico for 6 months.

So basically we just spend the money we paid for filing the I-130 form ($420 USD), interview fee ($325 USD), medical and vaccinations fee (about $380 USD I don't remember very well), and trip to Ciudad Juarez (hotel, food and flights about $9,000 MXN). I also spent some money in translations that were not requested.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Eric & Idalia

[craftercool 7]

The letter said I could schedule an interview at any time. So basically by mid November I could have schedule the interview for whenever I needed. It could have taken just about 2-3 months for me to get my immigrant visa, but as we were still waiting for his work permission in Mexico we waited more time.

Here some questions for you:

What is the status of your wife/husband in Mexico? Is she/he Mexican-American or a resident in Mexico?

To do the DCF, you need to proof the American husband or wife has legal status in Mexico not just visiting. He or she should be Mexican-American or resident of Mexico living there 3 or 6 months. Monterrey consulate asked us to proof he had been living in Mexico just for 3 months. As we were living in Saltillo our consulate was the one in Monterrey, but we also asked the one in Ciudad Juarez and there they required him to proof he was living in Mexico for 6 months.

So basically we just spend the money we paid for filing the I-130 form ($420 USD), interview fee ($325 USD), medical and vaccinations fee (about $380 USD I don't remember very well), and trip to Ciudad Juarez (hotel, food and flights about $9,000 MXN). I also spent some money in translations that were not requested.

What? Really that easy? Help me please Did you attended the consulate with an appointment or without it? Which documents did you take there? I called to the consulate in Ciudad Juarez (which is 4 hours from where I live) and a recording said "remember to have in hand your visa and your case number" so I hanged up, I just wanted some info, this is so confusing.

Some people have told me that you just arrive to the consulate with all the needed documents and you start with the procedure, then they contact you for an interview and it goes on until you get your green card. But, is that really how it works?

BTW, in response to your questions, my wife (the US citizen) has lived with me in Mexico the past two years, (without being married), we just went last month to El Paso, TX and we got married there, but she lives here, she has a driver license of the state of Chihuahua, she works and everything.

[craftercool 7]

What is urgent to me to know is if I need an appointment to show up at the Embassy or I just go there with my documents to file the petition?

And which documents do you take there the first time?