dakota44

Dumb question I guess..but I'm paranoid after the lawyer experience.

Is the Biographical information specific only to me..and a copy each for wife and daughters files? Or is there supposed to be one specific for each of their Biographical information?

Noorah101

As for you and your wife, I believe the I-130 requires a G-325A from each of you (you and your wife, separately). The I-485 requires another G-325A from your wife, but not from you. The instructions for each petition tells you exactly how many G-325A's are required. Treat each petition as a separate entity.

I am not sure about the kids, if they need their own. Do the kids each have separate I-130's? We don't have kids involved in our immigration scenario, so can't help you with that one.

Rene

dakota44

Yes..the kids have I-130's and I-485's

now you see...the lawyer had all the G-325A's filled with my biographical info. He had no biographical info on any G-325A for my wife or either of the girls.

dakota44

So IF, and that's a big if..lol..I am understanding correctly.....

I will need G-325A's with my wifes biographical info as well as G-325A's with the girls info...and of course ones with my info.

dakota44

OK..the instructions for I-130 speak to G325's for Me and for my wife, but does not mention children.. begs the question.

and I-485 seems to require it for the person on that particular I-485..and between the ages of 14 and 79.

Those seem to be the only forms that ask for them. I am guessing that I attachc a copy of mine and my wifes to her I-130

A copy of mine to the girls I-130

A copy of the wifes to her I-485

A copy of the girls info to the I-485 (it does not seem to ask for mine again)

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Follow the instructions. Why are you giving extra unneeded copies?

Matthew Udall

If we are talking about an I-130 and I-485 filed together, at the same time for the international spouse, I generally submit 1 G-325A for each spouse with the package (not 2 G-325As for the international spouse and 1 G-325A for the USC spouse).

dakota44

Thank you. Much appreciated. I posted a question about photos on another thread. I am a bundle of questions, I'm afraid.

Matthew Udall

No problem. Please note that my answer addresses the G-325A question you had about the petition and application for your spouse. I didn't get into the part of your question about the kid's cases. Good luck.

By the way, I don't think senility necessarily accompanies Parkinson’s (but since I'm not a doctor, I could be wrong). Granted, sometimes a Parkinson's sufferer will also suffer from dementia since it often comes on late in life. I know.... my father had it (and so did his Mother) and eventually died due to an ailment that came along in his weakened state. The Parkinson's itself usually doesn't kill someone; instead it incapacitates a person and then something comes along they can't fight off (like a robust person would be able to do).

Did your attorney have any (or much) experience in immigration law before attempting to help you? I too feel sorry for the guy, and wouldn’t wish Parkinson’s on anyone.

dakota44

I feel sorry for him too. I mean, when I realized it on our first meeting, I gave him the benefit of the doubt..because that's me. I could never pass judgment based on something like that. Did I have reservations? Sure, but put them aside. I know that the physical impairment does not necessarily imply mental also. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with his secretary (it's a secretary for the office building, as he does not seem to have a legal secretary) explaining all the problems, and she was actually amazed that I was being so calm and not ranting. If the man had merely been an incompetent boor, it would be different...but he has a problem beyond his control...and has been in Immigration Law for some time (his specialty) apparently..so one assumes he was at one point much better at it than he is now.

My Grandfather had it as well. So there is always the possibility it will rear it's head with me.

Bottom line, however, is that all the empathy in the world for him is of no good to my family in this situation. I finished tallying up the errors today, and they averaged about 4 per page, every page, of all the forms. Serious errors. And he failed to even prepare some forms, like the Biographical info for spouse and daughters. I feel bad for him, but I need to think about my family. I only hope he can accept what he has done and reach a reasonable agreement with me about some refund of fees paid for basically nothing.

Now he is in the hospital and having surgery tomorrow for damage to his hip from his fall yesterday. Poor bugger.

Matthew Udall

If he’s at a point where he’s becoming physically impaired, he just might have an assistant doing the job of filling out the forms for him (but of course, this is speculation as I don’t know the attorney or know anything about his physical/mental condition or his office staffing).

Yes, it seems there were an awful lot of mistakes made on the forms (according to your telling of the tale), which again makes me wonder if someone else helped him with the forms. I can’t imagine a seasoned immigration lawyer missing some of the things you described (typo’s are one thing, but missing forms is quite another).

When I do a set of forms and send them to a client, I specifically ask them to read over each and every form and if they spot a typo, to please let me know so I can fix it when the signed forms come back to my office. It’s a pretty rare event (a typo). I have a questionnaire I have the clients send to me, so I don’t rely on getting that important biographic information via a phone call (don’t know what you did with your attorney) and you would probably be surprised at how often a client lists inaccurate spellings or other data on the questionnaire… that happens far more frequently than a typo on my part and most typos are easily fixed with an ink line drawn through the incorrect information and the correct information written near the incorrect information.

So if he (or someone helping him) did a poor job on the forms, you looked it over and spotted it. That’s the way it should work (although I do agree that there seems to be an inordinate amount of typos).

Many people think that all an attorney does is the front end job of filling out the forms when in fact there is a lot more to it than that. One notable thing is being there to resolve CIS and/or Consulate screw-ups as they occur, and nobody knows if that is going to happen on the date they submit their paperwork. So, he may have come in handy for you later on… but only time will tell.

For me, I don’t have an assistant and do every bit of work on every single case. Answer every phone call, write every letter, etc. I have a small boutique practice in that regard and I like it that way. I get to know my clients facts/history very thoroughly (and of course, typos are thus reduced to a minimum) and enjoy working “with” them while their case is processed through the system.

Good luck with your case.

Oh, and I hope you don’t get hit with Parkinson’s as well. I think the window of symptoms showing is typically between 40 and 50 (but I could be wrong). I’m always on the alert for any signs, but none have ever presented. I actually arranged for the researchers from the Udall Center for Parkinson’s Research at Duke University to fly out to collect DNA samples from my family, and they also collected DNA from all of the relatives in Arizona (some cases of Parkinson’s there as well). I come from a Mormon family background (I don’t practice it, but that’s beside the point) and we have the genealogy going way, way back; so this gave the researchers a lot of great data to work with. I’ve heard reports that in my particular family’s case it seems to be passed through the Mother. Since my Mother doesn’t have Parkinson’s in her family tree, that’s good news for me, but not the best news for the children of my two sisters (also, I’m the youngest and none of my siblings have shown signs of it either).

dakota44

Very glad your family seems free of Parkinsosn. Wonderful feeling I am sure

As for the lawyer...no assistant. I sat in his office for two hours on a Saturday while he struggled with the keyboard and me having to dictate to him from forms I had hand prepared. He did all of these forms himself.

to show the degree of error..this is actual just for the I-130's

my birthdate wrong
my stepdaughters birthdates wrong (2 errors in one)
my wifes full name wrong
place of marriage for me..wrong
place of marriage for my wife, he put nothing
put my wifes last name under "other names used"
total 7 serious errors

for one step daughter

my birthdate wrong
place of marriage wrong
on this one he left out my divorce info (2- so 2 errors in one)
her I-94 number wrong
he checked "yes" for "ever been under immigration proceedings"
neglected to check the box for my citizenship
under section D: 1: my wifes name wrong
8 errors

other step daughters I-130

my birthdate wrong
place of marriage wrong
partial missing info for my divorce
under Section D: 1: wifes name wrong, wrong daughters name
4 errors

As you can see...a few are repititious, but others are not.
that's 19 errors just on the I-130's

There are 7 more on the I-485's
5 more on each I-864
and then of course the missing I-325A's and the multiple errors on I-325's for me.

I would love to be able to blame it on a secretary, but it wasn't a secretary or assistant who did it. And even if it had been, I would be shocked that it would be submitted to me without first being reviewed for errors.


I seriously sympathize with the man, but this was just too much. If we run into problems at a later date, I will certainly examine retaining a new Attorney at that time. I would have been thrilled if this had been a smooth attorney/client situation, but it has not.

Matthew Udall

Thanks for your first comment. I breathed a bit easier when hearing the report from Duke.

OK, you were with him when he did the forms in his office. Didn’t he print them right then and there and have you take a look at them? If not and he sent them to you later, you reviewed them and caught the errors, right? That’s the way it works (but again, I agree with you that there sure seem to have been a lot of errors). Who else but you or your spouse would be in the position to review the information? If he had your hand written forms, then yes, he could have looked at that too to spot any inconsistencies.

I suppose there are attorneys out there who are willing to jump into a case that has already been filed but that encounters a CIS and/or Consulate screw up. I get asked to do that for a DIY’er from time to time, however I usually don’t take those jobs as I would have to review each and every document, all the evidence, and get to know the client’s unique facts “before” rendering my opinion as to the posture of the case and what may have been done incorrectly from the outset by the DIY’er (and I'm just as responsible for a case I jump into, as I am for a case "I" prepare and submit). And of course, I do charge a fee to perform that work. So most of the time the client would end up paying me more than if they came to me at the outset to represent them all the way through the process at my flat rate fee.

Oh, and just as a matter of practice I always prefer to submit typed forms instead of handwritten forms. With handwriting, I believe the odds are greater that a human being on the other end (CIS and/or Consulate) will mistake a letter or numeral for something else and thus increases the odds of addresses, names, dates of birth, etc., getting messed up (one of those CIS and/or Consulate screw-ups I mentioned).

Again, good luck with your case.

fatbrit

Like trawling NGs looking for UPL?

Happy New Year, Matt baby!

Noorah101

It occurs to me that the "missing" G-325A's could be due to somewhere in the instructions which say something to the effect of *unless already provided*. I don't have the instructions in front of me, but I seem to recall that if you have multiple petitions/applications, you don't need to keep repeating the G-325A's...but I don't know exactly how that works. We went ahead and provided separate G-325A's wherever one was required, even if we had already done one for another petition/application.

Rene