How to choose the best immigration attorney in the USA

License

It is necessary to ask to see the license, even if this person convincingly says that he is a lawyer. You can check the license on the American Bar Association website.

No real lawyer will resist your desire to see his documents.

Only crooks will start to “keep their mouths shut.” Once we were approached by a certain Rosanna with a proposal to cooperate. When we asked about the license, she started all sorts of twists and turns, and when we dug deeper, we found out that she is an immigration fraudster. That is, if a simple question about the license, you start telling instead about where they worked, what they were sick with, and why they got divorced, you can be sure – you’re dealing with a fraudster. But even if everything is okay with the license, it’s still no guarantee that the person is a good specialist. Because among lawyers, as well as among people of other professions, there are incompetent or morally not very clean. But it also happens that the lawyer for all their qualities wonderful – and professional, and honest, but you personally do not like him. I would say that a certain X-factor comes into play here, your intuition.

So the choice of a lawyer is first of all your feelings.

In my time I met with five (!) lawyers before I chose “my” one. I chose only when I felt intuitively that I trusted this person. Each one I paid between $150 and $300 for the first consultation. And I’m still convinced it was the right investment because a lot of things in your life depend on an attorney. Immigration is a life-changing venture. What do I, as an immigrant, pay attention to? Organization I really like it when a lawyer is well organized. What does this manifest itself in? Clearly scheduled times for your conversation, clear payment arrangements, and overall all communication is coherent.

There are, of course, talented attorneys who have a messy office.

But they don’t suit me because they have no organized interaction with their team, documents get lost, get mixed up, deadlines are delayed, and so on. Signs of this disorganization can be seen already in your correspondence and verbal communication. Statistics of wins and losses When I was looking for a lawyer, I asked everyone about statistics – how many cases they had, like mine, how many cases they won, lost, and why. The questions, of course, are very straightforward, and some people may be embarrassed to ask this, but after all, you’re paying money! And besides, your entire immigration process depends on this person. So you rightly want the lawyer not to learn from your case, not to experiment, and all this in advance went through and kicked the bumps with someone else. If a lawyer has many, many different cases and many other people in the office, that might mean he’s a recent graduate from law school and is grabbing at everything without saying no to anyone. And the lawyer I chose dealt narrowly with weavers and rejected 70% of the people who came to him. He communicated with them, realized he couldn’t win their case, and turned them down. He said he cared a lot that he won 95% of the cases and won the other five after appeals.

So when he agreed to take my case, I already knew it was going to win.

So you have to be clear about what you want from your lawyer – experience in a narrow specialty or that he is able to do something innovative. Or it’s important to you how prestigious his education is. Some people care whether it’s a man or a woman. Russian-speaking or non-Russian-speaking.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the notion that all Brooklyn lawyers are crooks is wrong.

There are enough crooks among Americans, too. In addition, if you need the lawyer to know and explain how things are in your home country (for example, the asylum case), in this case the choice is obvious. Attitude towards you Some people like an authoritarian style. That’s neither bad nor good, it just doesn’t work for me. Again, you should feel comfortable cooperating with this person. Don’t go along with other people’s recommendations. That’s very wrong. Why? No two people and cases are the same.

If a lawyer helped your friend, it doesn’t mean he will help you.

First, your friend might have a very different case. Second, the lawyer’s communication style may not work for you. Third, sometimes lawyers pay former clients for each new person they bring in, although this is considered illegal and unethical in the United States. Free and Paid Consultations Many of our immigrants believe that the first consultation should be free. There are attorneys who consult for free the first time, and there are attorneys who consult for a fee. Both are right in their own way. I believe that you should pay, because the lawyer should be paid for his time. That’s why not only lawyers don’t take free consultations very seriously, but you yourself as well.

That’s human nature: if you haven’t put your resources into something, you don’t appreciate it.

And immigration is a very serious thing, and it should be taken with full responsibility. The cost of a mistake is too high, so it is better to pay for the first consultation. Good luck in choosing a lawyer!