Pay an attorney for the green card process or do it ourselves?
August 6, 2016 10:44 PM Subscribe
Is it worth it to pay for an immigration attorney versus doing the paperwork ourselves?
We want spouse to move to the US. We consulted with a (super nice) immigration attorney. All-in-all the attorney fees will be about $3000 to do the concurrent application of the I-130 and I-485 (marriage and adjustment of spouse's current status), filing, attorney collects all of our documents, preps us for the interview, and apparently comes to the interview with us. (I'm now thinking about asking her if we can cut out coming with us to make things cheaper.)
The filing fees are about $2000 on top of this.
As I understand it from friends, the paperwork is a huge pain in the ass and easy to mess up. Small mistakes can cost you months in waiting. Spouse needs their work authorization fairly quickly. Is $3000 worth avoiding the hassle?
VisaJourney is great, but most folks there are really into doing it yourself. So recommendations to look there are welcome, but not so helpful.
$3000 is a not-insignificant amount of money to us, but it wouldn't be problematic to put it on a credit card and pay it off over ~6 months or so.
We want spouse to move to the US. We consulted with a (super nice) immigration attorney. All-in-all the attorney fees will be about $3000 to do the concurrent application of the I-130 and I-485 (marriage and adjustment of spouse's current status), filing, attorney collects all of our documents, preps us for the interview, and apparently comes to the interview with us. (I'm now thinking about asking her if we can cut out coming with us to make things cheaper.)
The filing fees are about $2000 on top of this.
As I understand it from friends, the paperwork is a huge pain in the ass and easy to mess up. Small mistakes can cost you months in waiting. Spouse needs their work authorization fairly quickly. Is $3000 worth avoiding the hassle?
VisaJourney is great, but most folks there are really into doing it yourself. So recommendations to look there are welcome, but not so helpful.
$3000 is a not-insignificant amount of money to us, but it wouldn't be problematic to put it on a credit card and pay it off over ~6 months or so.
What country is involved? I'd likely hire a lawyer for MENA countries but not for Canada or most of Europe.
posted by llin at 11:50 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by llin at 11:50 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
We've done UK and Australia on our own with no problem but we have an attorney on retainer for my husband's green card application and we've used her to clarify a few things even though we've done the paperwork ourselves. On top of that, I wish we'd had her review our documents, because it turns out my husband didn't have the right long form birth certificate from his country of birth and that's delayed our application at least a month. Since ours is time sensitive, I'm pretty disappointed. If you have all the time in the world it probably doesn't matter, but if you want him green carded by any certain time, it might be worth investigating retainer options for consult/review of the documentation you put together yourself.
The US system is by far the most painful we've encountered out of the three.
posted by olinerd at 1:19 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
The US system is by far the most painful we've encountered out of the three.
posted by olinerd at 1:19 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
llin's question is a very relevant one.
We took the fiance visa route, which is slightly different to the spousal visa route, but the amount of paperwork is pretty similar (I think you only need one interview though? We had two - one for the visa and one for adjustment of status after we married to get my green card). We didn't use an attorney because (a) I'm from the UK which is considered a "low risk of immigration fraud" country, (b) we are both native English speakers and have only ever lived in English-speaking countries, so there were no hassles with obtaining or translating documents, and (c) ultimately the biggest pain was collecting the documents, and that's something you'll need to do anyway, with or without an attorney (a US-based attorney may not be much help trying to get a birth certificate from Syria or a police report from Mongolia, for instance. Having said that, if you find an attorney that specializes in immigration cases from your spouse's country, that would be helpful!). Filling in the forms, and putting a simple cover sheet together with tabs for the different sections in our submissions? That was the easy part.
Same for the interviews, actually. My first interview, at the US embassy in the UK, took a little longer than normal as I've visited a lot of MENA countries (and North Korea), and the interviewer was new (he actually asked whether my fiance had ever visited me in the UK, when he was standing right beside me), but I got the visa approved the same day. Our adjustment of status interview in the US was a breeze - 5 minutes of basic questions and checking paperwork ("utility bills? They're under tab 6"), 5 minutes of reviewing our photos and asking questions about our wedding and our guests, and 10 minutes of our interviewer showing us photos of his recent trip to Crater Lake (we were taking a road trip to visit a friend of my husband's in Lake Tahoe the following week, so he took it upon himself to plan our route for us, which was lovely - as soon as he got his phone out to show us photos, we both immediately relaxed!).
For us, the most stressful parts were (1) getting all the right documents together, and (2) the interminable waiting for our applications to be processed. I'm not sure an attorney would have helped much with that. (If you go with an attorney, the timelines on VisaJourney will help you manage your expectations and give you other people to commiserate with while you're waiting...) BUT if your spouse comes from a non-English speaking country, or a country which Homeland Security (rightly or wrongly) is more suspicious about, then an attorney may be helpful.
Good luck and best wishes for your life together!
posted by finding.perdita at 1:25 AM on August 7, 2016
We took the fiance visa route, which is slightly different to the spousal visa route, but the amount of paperwork is pretty similar (I think you only need one interview though? We had two - one for the visa and one for adjustment of status after we married to get my green card). We didn't use an attorney because (a) I'm from the UK which is considered a "low risk of immigration fraud" country, (b) we are both native English speakers and have only ever lived in English-speaking countries, so there were no hassles with obtaining or translating documents, and (c) ultimately the biggest pain was collecting the documents, and that's something you'll need to do anyway, with or without an attorney (a US-based attorney may not be much help trying to get a birth certificate from Syria or a police report from Mongolia, for instance. Having said that, if you find an attorney that specializes in immigration cases from your spouse's country, that would be helpful!). Filling in the forms, and putting a simple cover sheet together with tabs for the different sections in our submissions? That was the easy part.
Same for the interviews, actually. My first interview, at the US embassy in the UK, took a little longer than normal as I've visited a lot of MENA countries (and North Korea), and the interviewer was new (he actually asked whether my fiance had ever visited me in the UK, when he was standing right beside me), but I got the visa approved the same day. Our adjustment of status interview in the US was a breeze - 5 minutes of basic questions and checking paperwork ("utility bills? They're under tab 6"), 5 minutes of reviewing our photos and asking questions about our wedding and our guests, and 10 minutes of our interviewer showing us photos of his recent trip to Crater Lake (we were taking a road trip to visit a friend of my husband's in Lake Tahoe the following week, so he took it upon himself to plan our route for us, which was lovely - as soon as he got his phone out to show us photos, we both immediately relaxed!).
For us, the most stressful parts were (1) getting all the right documents together, and (2) the interminable waiting for our applications to be processed. I'm not sure an attorney would have helped much with that. (If you go with an attorney, the timelines on VisaJourney will help you manage your expectations and give you other people to commiserate with while you're waiting...) BUT if your spouse comes from a non-English speaking country, or a country which Homeland Security (rightly or wrongly) is more suspicious about, then an attorney may be helpful.
Good luck and best wishes for your life together!
posted by finding.perdita at 1:25 AM on August 7, 2016
We just did this (applied for my husband's green card after our marriage, used an attorney, fees were about the same) and it was absolutely worth it for us. Our attorney was great and took us through the whole process, reviewed all of our documents, filled out and filed the paperwork, told us what to gather as "evidence" and reviewed all that, did a practice interview with us and then came to the actual interview.
The main benefit was just her experience and her ability to clear up any ambiguities - since immigration is her specialty, she knew exactly what we needed, was up on any recent changes in the system, had been to loads of interviews so she knew what questions they would ask and what documents they would review, etc. I actually did two UK visa applications for myself when living there several years ago and I remember how stressful it was whenever something on the form was confusing - not having anyone to ask apart from calling the UKBA helpline or googling. And that was a simpler system than the US.
I also think it was great to have someone advising us on the ins and outs of our particular situation - I think we had a pretty straightforward application but there were still little things like, my husband was on a work visa but changed jobs halfway through the process and, we wanted to travel outside the country between our application and our interview (not a problem, he got advance parole) and, he had held a J-1 visa in the past... individual things like that. We just laid all that out when meeting with the attorney and she was able to tell us what to do.
Anecdotally, I know three other couples who went through the same process. Two used lawyers from the outset, one did it themselves but ended up filing some incorrect paperwork and having a huge delay / having to refile, so got a lawyer involved at that point.
This is probably one of those questions where you won't get a lot of people saying they regret their choice, so I will say, I don't think we NEEDED a lawyer. We could have filed ourselves. When I say it was worth it, I mean that it was worth our time, our peace of mind, and to minimize the risk of any mistakes or delays.
Anyway, there's one opinion. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the process...and good luck :)
posted by cpatterson at 4:45 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
The main benefit was just her experience and her ability to clear up any ambiguities - since immigration is her specialty, she knew exactly what we needed, was up on any recent changes in the system, had been to loads of interviews so she knew what questions they would ask and what documents they would review, etc. I actually did two UK visa applications for myself when living there several years ago and I remember how stressful it was whenever something on the form was confusing - not having anyone to ask apart from calling the UKBA helpline or googling. And that was a simpler system than the US.
I also think it was great to have someone advising us on the ins and outs of our particular situation - I think we had a pretty straightforward application but there were still little things like, my husband was on a work visa but changed jobs halfway through the process and, we wanted to travel outside the country between our application and our interview (not a problem, he got advance parole) and, he had held a J-1 visa in the past... individual things like that. We just laid all that out when meeting with the attorney and she was able to tell us what to do.
Anecdotally, I know three other couples who went through the same process. Two used lawyers from the outset, one did it themselves but ended up filing some incorrect paperwork and having a huge delay / having to refile, so got a lawyer involved at that point.
This is probably one of those questions where you won't get a lot of people saying they regret their choice, so I will say, I don't think we NEEDED a lawyer. We could have filed ourselves. When I say it was worth it, I mean that it was worth our time, our peace of mind, and to minimize the risk of any mistakes or delays.
Anyway, there's one opinion. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the process...and good luck :)
posted by cpatterson at 4:45 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
We were extremely fortunate in that my husband's company lawyers helped us with our paperwork and it was a huge help. We didn't spend a lot of time meeting with them in person - I don't think I ever did, but knowing that the paperwork was in order made it much less stressful.
We did the interviews on our own and that wasn't hard. We had been together for a long time and were able to produce years worth of photos together, on vacation, and with each other's families. They liked seeing the mixing-of-families photos. So we just... acted married and talked happily about our life together and that was about it.
I think lawyer for the paperwork, interviews on your own might be a good way to keep a lid on costs, especially if the lawyer thinks you have a pretty solid case.
posted by telepanda at 5:15 AM on August 7, 2016
We did the interviews on our own and that wasn't hard. We had been together for a long time and were able to produce years worth of photos together, on vacation, and with each other's families. They liked seeing the mixing-of-families photos. So we just... acted married and talked happily about our life together and that was about it.
I think lawyer for the paperwork, interviews on your own might be a good way to keep a lid on costs, especially if the lawyer thinks you have a pretty solid case.
posted by telepanda at 5:15 AM on August 7, 2016
I've tried it both ways- DIY and lawyer, both Arab husbands. The first one ended up deported 'voluntarily' and the second is here and got his citizenship right on time with zero hassle. I'll let you figure out which husband splurged for a lawyer.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 5:44 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by PorcineWithMe at 5:44 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yeah, where you are and where hubby is matters.
But the parts of the process that occur after your hubs is more-or-less-safely in the US? AOS, removal of conditions if needed, naturalization? That stuff you can absolutely do yourself *IF* you're willing to be very careful and detail-oriented, at least as long as your hubby's case isn't complicated by previous immigration issues, criminal conviction, etc.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:05 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
But the parts of the process that occur after your hubs is more-or-less-safely in the US? AOS, removal of conditions if needed, naturalization? That stuff you can absolutely do yourself *IF* you're willing to be very careful and detail-oriented, at least as long as your hubby's case isn't complicated by previous immigration issues, criminal conviction, etc.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:05 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
I would think that not having the attorney at the interview would only save you a couple of billed hours, which isn't chicken feed but would not make much proportional difference.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:08 AM on August 7, 2016
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:08 AM on August 7, 2016
I did all of the work for my wife's green card; she was on an H1B in the US when we were married. It was a clear, straightforward process, and I can't see how an attorney could have saved me time, either in filling out the application or in getting the green card. An attorney coming to the interview would have been extreme overkill. There were a couple of questions about how we met and that was about it.
For a spouse outside of the US, I agree with previous posters that it depends on where your spouse is from. Canada, I think spending $3K on an attorney is completely unnecessary. Syria, perhaps, but I would want to know what specifically the attorney would do beyond helping you fill out the forms (which again, are straightforward if you are detail-minded).
Finally, your case will be more difficult if there are any red flags, such as you never having lived in spouse's country, or you guys having no joint financial records. If you have red flags, this would increase the potential for an attorney to be of help.
posted by deadweightloss at 8:25 AM on August 7, 2016
For a spouse outside of the US, I agree with previous posters that it depends on where your spouse is from. Canada, I think spending $3K on an attorney is completely unnecessary. Syria, perhaps, but I would want to know what specifically the attorney would do beyond helping you fill out the forms (which again, are straightforward if you are detail-minded).
Finally, your case will be more difficult if there are any red flags, such as you never having lived in spouse's country, or you guys having no joint financial records. If you have red flags, this would increase the potential for an attorney to be of help.
posted by deadweightloss at 8:25 AM on August 7, 2016
I did the fiancé visa and adjustment of status about eight years ago. He was from the UK. Is, still (we are divorced now).
We didn't hire a lawyer and the only problem we had is that we applied just after the fee increase, so TONS of people rushed to submit before then and created a six month backlog we didn't expect.
I'm glad we didn't pay for a lawyer. And I'm REALLY glad we didn't put it on a credit card. I'm surprised no one has mentioned that part. It seems like a really bad idea to run up that much debt on a credit card unless there are complications or your spouse is from a country that is not the UK/EU. Or your credit card is 0% interest or something.
Good luck. Whatever route you choose, this process SUCKS.
posted by guster4lovers at 12:54 PM on August 7, 2016
We didn't hire a lawyer and the only problem we had is that we applied just after the fee increase, so TONS of people rushed to submit before then and created a six month backlog we didn't expect.
I'm glad we didn't pay for a lawyer. And I'm REALLY glad we didn't put it on a credit card. I'm surprised no one has mentioned that part. It seems like a really bad idea to run up that much debt on a credit card unless there are complications or your spouse is from a country that is not the UK/EU. Or your credit card is 0% interest or something.
Good luck. Whatever route you choose, this process SUCKS.
posted by guster4lovers at 12:54 PM on August 7, 2016
I just did it myself when I got a green card based on marriage. There is a lot of paperwork, but nothing confusing. At that time, I had been living in the US on my third type of visa (I had a TN, H1B, and then F1). Even if you have a lawyer, it'll be up to you to gather all of the documents and piece together dates of travel, etc.
$3,000 is a lot of money. Unless you already know of something specific that you'd need a lawyer for, I'd suggest starting to fill out the application yourself, or at least gathering documents and figuring out how you would answer all the questions. If you get through and feel confident, then proceed on your own. If at some point you get scared or nervous enough that $3,000 seems worth it for your peace of mind, call up your lawyer and write a check.
posted by hammurderer at 1:01 PM on August 7, 2016
$3,000 is a lot of money. Unless you already know of something specific that you'd need a lawyer for, I'd suggest starting to fill out the application yourself, or at least gathering documents and figuring out how you would answer all the questions. If you get through and feel confident, then proceed on your own. If at some point you get scared or nervous enough that $3,000 seems worth it for your peace of mind, call up your lawyer and write a check.
posted by hammurderer at 1:01 PM on August 7, 2016
My wife is a Chinese citizen, and we filed all of her immigration paperwork (I-130, DS-230) from China, while living in China. The instructions were clear and easy to follow -- I think I only asked one question on visajourney.
Our situation was very straightforward: We lived together in the same country, we'd been married for more than three years (and had never been married before), and she'd already visited the US on tourist visas a couple of times. For something so widely described as a bureaucratic nightmare, the whole process was surprisingly easy. That being said, I know other people with more complex cases who found it worthwhile to hire an attorney.
posted by bradf at 3:38 PM on August 7, 2016
Our situation was very straightforward: We lived together in the same country, we'd been married for more than three years (and had never been married before), and she'd already visited the US on tourist visas a couple of times. For something so widely described as a bureaucratic nightmare, the whole process was surprisingly easy. That being said, I know other people with more complex cases who found it worthwhile to hire an attorney.
posted by bradf at 3:38 PM on August 7, 2016
DIY'd the whole thing from start to finish with the help of VisaJourney website & a book from Nolo publishers. We where the only people in the waiting room without a lawyer on the big interview day. We were also in & out in about 10 minutes.
The forms themselves are easy enough if you are are patient & systematic & good at paperwork. I'm have nothing more than a high school diploma & managed it fine. Visajourney.com also has some amazing notes on organisation, what exactly to file & info even down to how to best package & present the info you are sending in & mostly helpful (if occasionally judgmental) forums
Even if you get a lawyer you will be doing all the work gathering evidence anyway.
I'd suggest dropping the money on the relevant book & checking out the website to see if you think it is something you'd feel comfortable doing. If not it will help you know what the lawyer is talking about & will help you start getting your evidence in order as the forms are the least of it, the evidence (which again you'll have to gather yourself whatever you end up doing) is the super important part and you can learn what you'll need so you can start getting a nice solid paper trail in order.
Side note we had a great interview despite the lack of lawyer, the interviewer even called us a cute couple apparently based on them seeing us in the waiting room before hand. I was freaking out thinking i'd made a huge mistake not hiring a lawyer & she saw how my husband comforted & reassured me.
posted by wwax at 6:28 PM on August 7, 2016
The forms themselves are easy enough if you are are patient & systematic & good at paperwork. I'm have nothing more than a high school diploma & managed it fine. Visajourney.com also has some amazing notes on organisation, what exactly to file & info even down to how to best package & present the info you are sending in & mostly helpful (if occasionally judgmental) forums
Even if you get a lawyer you will be doing all the work gathering evidence anyway.
I'd suggest dropping the money on the relevant book & checking out the website to see if you think it is something you'd feel comfortable doing. If not it will help you know what the lawyer is talking about & will help you start getting your evidence in order as the forms are the least of it, the evidence (which again you'll have to gather yourself whatever you end up doing) is the super important part and you can learn what you'll need so you can start getting a nice solid paper trail in order.
Side note we had a great interview despite the lack of lawyer, the interviewer even called us a cute couple apparently based on them seeing us in the waiting room before hand. I was freaking out thinking i'd made a huge mistake not hiring a lawyer & she saw how my husband comforted & reassured me.
posted by wwax at 6:28 PM on August 7, 2016
My wife and I did it ourselves with a combo of VisaJourney and the Internet. I do think it depends on the details --- if its a country with high visa fraud or flagged as a state sponsor of terrorism or something, you might benefit from some extra advice.
In our case (K-1 -> green card for my wife from Japan) we had zero issues and got approved quickly and easily. I can't imagine how a lawyer would have helped in our circumstances, but I also suspect I would have looked into one if it had been one of the "problem" countries to immigrate from instead of a low-volume, low-fraud one.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:51 PM on August 8, 2016
In our case (K-1 -> green card for my wife from Japan) we had zero issues and got approved quickly and easily. I can't imagine how a lawyer would have helped in our circumstances, but I also suspect I would have looked into one if it had been one of the "problem" countries to immigrate from instead of a low-volume, low-fraud one.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:51 PM on August 8, 2016
I used a lawyer so I don't know what it's like to go without one, but I would spend that money again in a heartbeat. I wouldn't want to do it by myself.
posted by shesbenevolent at 1:25 PM on August 9, 2016
posted by shesbenevolent at 1:25 PM on August 9, 2016
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When/if you apply for citizenship, that part you can do on your own. Use a lawyer for the green card. Good luck!
posted by jbenben at 11:44 PM on August 6, 2016 [9 favorites]