Hi guys,

My wife and I applied for an F4 visa back in August 2006, with my US citizen brother acting as our sponsor. We are at the stage where we will soon be required to begin submitting forms. But do we do this ourselves or employ the services of an immigration lawyer? I’m interested to hear the views of anyone who has gone through the process on their own, or chose to use a lawyer, pros and cons, costs, etc. I suppose ultimately the reason I’m asking this question is because having waited so many years to realise our dream I’d hate to jeopardise our application by making a mistake on one of the forms or not follow procedure properly, when a lawyer would hopefully dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. Any thoughts most appreciated.
Many thanks
Jonathan

Thanks for all the replies guys. We’re going It alone. I think we’re organised and methodical enough to do this ourselves!

I have had a petitioner use lawyers for my employment based L1a and GC. And have engaged them for H1b applications and extensions.

I agree with others if you are not going for an employment based or other special skills visa you are mostly form filing and all the facts are already known to you about yourself. I have often seen a short survey that is then translated back to the actual forms.

From my own experience where the lawyers add the most value is:
- knowing the criteria for visas and helping select the most appropriate for an employee.
- having the templates / experience of what documentation is required beyond the USCIS forms. A good one knows what USCIS is currently looking for because they make frequent applications and deal with RFE’s and can update their templates accordingly. However even here they still need the actual details only the employer and employee can provide.
- knowing what processing times look like etc. but you can also get that information online.

As others have noted if there are issues with an applicant for any visa type they can add a lot of value based on their experience.

In terms filing forms yourself, gather all your documents. Make a list of what you have and what you are missing.

If you are filling forms online, print them for final review, and pay attention to things like required date formats. e.g. MM.DD.YYYY vs. the UK’s DD.MM.YYYY anywhere a format is not specified I use this format to avoid a mistake: DD MMM YYYY, e.g. 12 JAN 2019.

Each USCIS form I have completed has a separate PDF with notes, print it and read it. If you are unsure of something google it / ask here.

Don’t fill the forms by hand, get the right software / browser to type the forms if possible and even better if you can save in an editable format.

If you have to send evidence make sure it’s all organized, add a reference to each page and then a cover letter that lists what’s attached and how many pages each is. Don’t do double sided printing, so they don’t miss a page. Don’t staple documents together or put them in binders as they may not see and miss a page when scanning it all in. If you are sending copies make sure they are all nice flat pages for the same reasons and try to send as Letter not A4, as that’s the standard here. Just secure them all with a single clip.

Even if you are submitting online print forms and review again the next day with “fresh eyes” before sending, if possible have someone else review them as well.