There are a wide variety of immigration attorneys offering legal services. There are also quite a number of unlicensed "legal assistants" offering help. Finally, there is the do-it-yourself crowd. It often is difficult to know what assistance is required and how to obtain competent legal assistance at a reasonable cost.

Consider the facts:

The USCIS (formerly, the "INS") and U.S. State Department both believe that roughly half of all international marriages with Americans are sham marriages. Immigration officers will often trust the sincerity of the U.S. citizen, but will easily doubt the intentions of the foreigner. This is because officers are trained to assume that every foreigner desires to immigrate to the U.S. and obtain a green card in some manner. If marrying an American will meet that goal, then a foreigner will marry. The fact that a foreigner comes from a highly developed region like London or Singapore does not matter much because of how immigration officers are trained to think and act.

Immigration officers are paid to work quickly and find problems. If an immigration officer does not find problems and simply approves all cases before him, then that officer is not doing a good job and will be called to account for himself. Also, if the officer is not moving quickly through the stack of cases, they will be called to account.

What this amounts to is a great deal of effort undertaken by immigration officers to move fast while at the same time scrutinize each visa application and reject filings for any "legitimate" reason, including minor procedural errors. In a normal case, if you make any mistakes or omissions in your filing for the K visa, however minor they may seem to you, it will delay the visa's approval and thus your fiancee or foreign bride getting to the U.S. by many months. Cases filed for Canadians and British citizens become good targets since Canadians and Brits tend to be less careful, making it easier for an immigration officer to find errors and issues.

Our managing attorney, Allan Lolly, routinely attends meetings with immigration officials at the USCIS Service Centers and various other facilities. We stay current on policies and practices. The forms are a starting point for us, but we go beyond to give each immigration agent along the way exactly what he or she needs to do the job and move the case along. We have literally many hundreds of cases pending at Service Centers at any given time, so we stay current. Immigration officers are typically familiar with our work. Although we do not generally ask for or receive any favors from immigration officers (without good cause), if an immigration officer sees another case of ours that is well prepared with everything in order and ready to go, that case will tend to get approved more quickly during review. This carries through all the way to the Consulate interview. When we do things right, the entire process is more manageable and there is less stress and tension for you and for your loved one all the way through the interview itself.

Who Should I Hire?

There are many who decide to go it alone. This is risky behavior given the immigration bureaucracy and how things work. Immigration is not an automated system. It is not a vending machine: insert papers here and pick up visa there. One person will be lucky and come out o.k. while another with a similar case will run into a host of problems. Still others cause so much damage working on their own that we can no longer help and the foreigner is no longer able to immigrate to the U.S. Our office would much rather file the case correctly from the start and manage the case through to completion than come onto a problem case and "fix things." Clean up work often takes more time and effort than if we simply handled the case ourselves from the beginning.

Hiring someone to help with your immigration matters is much like hiring a car mechanic to work on your car. Of course, you can get under the hood of your car with the book and start pulling things apart. However, most will simply take their cars to a good car mechanic and have it fixed with accuracy, speed and efficiency. If you do not have enough money to hire a professional, then it makes sense to work on your own. It will take time, energy, elbow grease, and some luck. For those who have some funds and who are in a serious relationship, an experienced immigration attorney goes a long way.

Make sure the professional is licensed. If your case is not handled in a professional manner you can complain against the license. Non-attorney "experts" are unlicensed and unregulated. When a problem occurs you have nowhere to complain and you are left on your own to fix the problem. Moreover, an unlicensed "expert" does not have access to the internal workings within the immigration bureaucracy as does a qualified immigration attorney who is licensed and experienced. When a problem arises, there is not much the non-attorney expert can do and you must go it alone.

There are a host of different types of legal services and wide range of fees. There is a big difference between what "experts" say they can do for you and what they deliver for the fee quote. I have seen ads offering full attorney support on K visas for a few hundred dollars. Stop and think how is that possible? Where is the time and effort? Often, there are hidden fees or lack of services.

Our office has had the same fee structure for more than 18 years. Our law practice has grown each year and so we make profit off of volume and efficiency. We rely on referrals from satisfied clients and from US immigration agencies who speak well of us. We likely handle more cases than any number of competitors combined. We like to think it is because we deliver what you would expect of us as your attorneys. Here is one example of a satisfied client:

Of course, the gifts were a real surprise and completely unexpected. We have other testimonials throughout this site. We are also listed with independent rating services: the BBB and RatePoint. Both services have consumer feedback. Our fees are reasonable and depend on the work involved.

If after shopping around you will call us, I will be glad to discuss what you should expect for the amount you pay, the differences between legal services, and how things work. You can then make your own decision what is right. We have seen many companies come and go over the years, so we know our market and believe we can likely craft the best fit for what you need at a fair price.