To lawyer up or not to lawyer up!

[robec]

Hi there! I'm very new to this site.... I recently arrived in America and I will be going through the whole 'Adjustment of Status' soon.
I was just wondering what peoples thoughts are on going through a lawyer or not? We have a very straightforward case in my opinion. I am a Belgian-Canadian citizen and my husband is American. Have been dating for 2 years and have proof of this. Got married in June, no convictions of anything, no laws were ever broken....
The lawyers we talk to of course say to not go at this alone but is it really necessary? What do you people of this good forum think after having gone through the process?

Of course it's a bit daunting to start this process without a lawyer but we are smart people and all we would be doing is filling in the applications according to the instructions, no?
I would really appreciate any advice on this matter.... maybe start all of the applications myself but if I run into too many questions, then lawyer up?

I've been reading through this forum and there really is a lot of valuable information on here so thank you you for sharing your experiences!
Kind regards,
Rebecca

[Enub4]

Read the forum, read the forms and you can decide later.

If your case is simple, and you have time to read a lot, then you can do it without lawyer. This forums could be helpful. As you said, if you feel overwhelmed then you can ask a lawyer to do it.

There are many threads with great information. Good luck.

[bobm445]

Hi there! I'm very new to this site.... I recently arrived in America and I will be going through the whole 'Adjustment of Status' soon.
I was just wondering what peoples thoughts are on going through a lawyer or not? We have a very straightforward case in my opinion. I am a Belgian-Canadian citizen and my husband is American. Have been dating for 2 years and have proof of this. Got married in June, no convictions of anything, no laws were ever broken....
The lawyers we talk to of course say to not go at this alone but is it really necessary? What do you people of this good forum think after having gone through the process?

Of course it's a bit daunting to start this process without a lawyer but we are smart people and all we would be doing is filling in the applications according to the instructions, no?
I would really appreciate any advice on this matter.... maybe start all of the applications myself but if I run into too many questions, then lawyer up?

I've been reading through this forum and there really is a lot of valuable information on here so thank you you for sharing your experiences!
Kind regards,
Rebecca

one question, what kind of visa did you arrive in America on?

[robec]

one question, what kind of visa did you arrive in America on?

I entered on an ESTA.... the Visa Waiver Program.

[Spaniard88]

Hi there! I'm very new to this site.... I recently arrived in America and I will be going through the whole 'Adjustment of Status' soon.
I was just wondering what peoples thoughts are on going through a lawyer or not? We have a very straightforward case in my opinion. I am a Belgian-Canadian citizen and my husband is American. Have been dating for 2 years and have proof of this. Got married in June, no convictions of anything, no laws were ever broken....
The lawyers we talk to of course say to not go at this alone but is it really necessary? What do you people of this good forum think after having gone through the process?

Of course it's a bit daunting to start this process without a lawyer but we are smart people and all we would be doing is filling in the applications according to the instructions, no?
I would really appreciate any advice on this matter.... maybe start all of the applications myself but if I run into too many questions, then lawyer up?

I've been reading through this forum and there really is a lot of valuable information on here so thank you you for sharing your experiences!
Kind regards,
Rebecca

You can probably do it without a Lawyer but make sure you read about every specific detail of the application. Anything that is incorrect or inaccurate will result in a rejected application.

In case you decide to play safe and have lawyer don't settle for the cheapest or first option you see.
I have seen many many cases that resulted in failure due to bad attorneys.
There are many attorneys in this country but not all of them are specialized in immigration. This is very important

[Teto00]

i paid 1,800 dollars for a lawyer that only took care of filling the paperwork. After he received the check and everything was delivered, he was USELESS. Our case did not have any complications unlike other cases i have read so i feel I could have done this all on my own with a lot of research.

[jpecht]

You can probably do it without a Lawyer but make sure you read about every specific detail of the application. Anything that is incorrect or inaccurate will result in a rejected application.

In case you decide to play safe and have lawyer don't settle for the cheapest or first option you see.
I have seen many many cases that resulted in failure due to bad attorneys.
There are many attorneys in this country but not all of them are specialized in immigration. This is very important

I did ours without an immigration attorney. It's a lot of time, work and research (on these boards, etc.), but you can do it as long as you are very careful about following the instructions on the various forms (and there are a LOT of instructions). I'm actually an attorney (non-immigration though) and found it all to be a bit confusing. But if your case doesn't have any complexities, it seems very do-able. Although if we get an RFE on our application - I guess my spouse knows who to blame

[onendaft]

Hello there,

We did the whole paperwork by ourselves without a lawyer. The only form we had real problem was I864 (needed a joint sponsor) and at that time we decided to do hourly lawyer so she could answer all our questions (which was very useful). But again, it happened only because we had a weird/complicated situation with all sponsor papers. Plus in where i live lawyers charge around 5000$ for the whole process (nothing to compare for that one hour we paid).
Otherwise, all questions you might have you will be able to find online for sure. I remember i had concerns about probably every page for every form (should i put this or that instead?), but it turned out that google is very helpful for everything (that's how i found this forum, and just use a search in here and it has so many different experiences).
Start filling all forms and you will see if it easy enough or not.

[kaiodama]

I used the website SimpleCitizen.com and paid a flat fee $249. You just fill up everything in their website and scan all the docs and upload and they take care of the rest!

Ps. Already went to the interview. No RFE at any point.. will use their services again to remove conditions

[robec]

Thank you so much for all of your answers!! This forum has already proved very useful. We have decided to start with all paperwork ourselves and see how far we get. I have a lot of time since I am not allowed to work. In an ideal world we would have simply had enough money to have an immigration lawyer do all of this for us but alas.... we are already at the very minimum for the affidavit of support. That is the one that worries me most.

But again, thank you all for your input!!

- - - Updated - - -

I used the website SimpleCitizen.com and paid a flat fee $249. You just fill up everything in their website and scan all the docs and upload and they take care of the rest!

Ps. Already went to the interview. No RFE at any point.. will use their services again to remove conditions

I'm gonna have a look at that.... thank you!

- - - Updated - - -

Hello there,

We did the whole paperwork by ourselves without a lawyer. The only form we had real problem was I864 (needed a joint sponsor) and at that time we decided to do hourly lawyer so she could answer all our questions (which was very useful). But again, it happened only because we had a weird/complicated situation with all sponsor papers. Plus in where i live lawyers charge around 5000$ for the whole process (nothing to compare for that one hour we paid).
Otherwise, all questions you might have you will be able to find online for sure. I remember i had concerns about probably every page for every form (should i put this or that instead?), but it turned out that google is very helpful for everything (that's how i found this forum, and just use a search in here and it has so many different experiences).
Start filling all forms and you will see if it easy enough or not.

I really like that idea of hourly lawyer! Just gather all of my questions and do it all within an hour or two!

- - - Updated - - -

I did ours without an immigration attorney. It's a lot of time, work and research (on these boards, etc.), but you can do it as long as you are very careful about following the instructions on the various forms (and there are a LOT of instructions). I'm actually an attorney (non-immigration though) and found it all to be a bit confusing. But if your case doesn't have any complexities, it seems very do-able. Although if we get an RFE on our application - I guess my spouse knows who to blame

Haha yes! Good thing I have a lot of time on my hands