I fully expect to be flamed, baited etc. Most likely have this thread taken down but here goes. So I read with interest the the article titled, ' Before I Say I Do....' on the home page of the website. It is very informative but I would just add this one statement. You do not need a lawyer or any other third party to file your immigration paperwork to come to the USA. It is IMHO the single most lucrative scam operated on potential immigrants. If you can fill out Swansea DVLC paperwork you can do your own immigrant paperwork. It really is not that difficult. Why do you think there are so many people vying for your business???

I did my own with irregularities and some very interesting stories along the way but paid precisely zero. Yes zero, to attorneys, third parties etc. I obtained my citizenship in the minimum time possible at the time.

Granted there are exceptions and cases where they are needed but I truly believe in the vast majority of cases this is not so.

Now why you would too come here that is a completely different story......?
The immigration paperwork alone should tell you what type of system you are voluntarily entering. As they say Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware

I see no reason for any of those things to happen, it seems to me most on here do not use legal advice. It is an option for those with complex cases and the nervous. No harm in saying that many people do it themselves without issue.

I don't see where the article says you need a lawyer.

It looks like you are reading the legal disclaimer as a suggestion to get legal advice. It pretty much just means don't sue the writers/site if your legal situation means the rest of the article doesn't apply to you for that reason.

He who represents himself has a fool for a client.

You are correct in that you don't need a lawyer to do this but it does make it much easier and, if issues arise, a lawyer is the best person to get legal advice from and I see the cost as part of an investment in your own future.

I fail to see how, for a straight forward case, it could possibly make it easier, how can adding a third party in the mix make it easier? For many cases it is fill form and mail for a few iterations.

I agree whole-heartedly. If you have a very, very cut-n-dry situation - you have no criminal convictions, overstays, deportations, bounces, visa rejections, etc - you don't need a lawyer to complete the paperwork for a K1 or CR1 visa. In fact, this is somewhat the reason for the founding of this forum. For people who have been there done that, to pass on their knowledge. We filed all the paperwork from K1 visa to N-400 all on our own without the need for a lawyer.

However, even the most cut and dried of cases sometimes hit snags if paperwork is lost, or you didn't get that RFE or interview letter because it was sent to the wrong/old address, and then it would be recommended to consult an attorney to understand the best way forward.

But, and a big but, if you are the kind of person that cannot follow instructions, researching, or get easily stressed out filling in applications and gathering and organizing paperwork, then you would be best suited to paying a lawyer for all of those services. Btw, my comments really only pertain to the marriage-based visa applications. Other types of visa applications can be infinitely more complicated, and really do need a lawyer to navigate those waters.

Guess I must be a fool then - I never even thought of using a lawyer.

Took me 3 weeks from filing in Singapore to arriving in the US and 3 further weeks for my green card to arrive in the mail. I really don't see where an attorney could have made that any quicker or easier.

Granted not all cases are equal, but one persons investment is another persons money pit......

Seeing the questions asked on how to complete the forms, it would appear that a great many could use the services of an attorney or good immigration paralegal.

Well this fool made it all the way from I-130 to N-400 without lining a lawyers pockets at $x00 per hour. Anyone one with common sense and a straightforward case can do the same.

If you have complications, well you may want to but plenty on here have resolved those themselves. Would you want to hire a lawyer who posts to an immigration web site suggesting the use of a K-3 visa in London.

The author's advice is dubious, anyway. She's an American immigration attorney working out of London.....and she's got the K3 visa as a viable option FFS! Anyone who understands marriage immigration will tell you this visa is a waste of time that takes just as long as an immigrant visa but consumes more paperwork and more fees.

It's not the first crappy piece by an attorney published in this part of the site. Hopefully she paid for it. If not, editorial control is sorely lacking.

If you say so.

In any case yours appears to be a particulalrly easy case: for many people that isn't so and the time scales are usually much longer and/or issues arise for which there is no substitute for suitable legal advice.

You (and others) may crow about how clever you are (smug doesn't become anyone) for not hiring a lawyer but for many others that is simply not an option, regardless of how easy the forms are to fill out (I do agree that they are fairly straightforward).

Like taxes, it all depends on personal circumstances.

Usually, it probably isn't needed, but if you've got anything off the beaten track - arrests, denied visas etc, then perhaps it is needed.

Sometimes, you just don't have a choice, such as work based ones as the company deals with it.

Sometimes you'd be stupid to do it yourself because you are paying for the experience to put your case forward and not just to fill in some forms such as asylum, O1 or H1B's where you don't have a degree.

Sometimes it's just handy, if you're moving around alot and might miss notices, to have someone retained to have a copy of your process sent to.

You've got to decide for yourself.

No one is suggesting that no one hire legal advice, if it works for you then that clearly is the way forward.

I think, many on here would like to point out to those starting on the journey, that if they are thinking that they will be comfortable without legal advice, then they should feel under no pressure to get some, that for most cases there are no gotchas waiting to surprise the applicant.

I know for my personality, I would have been double checking any lawyers advice, and probably would have caused myself more complications and stress.

Who is smug or crowing? Just because someone quotes a timeline that disagrees with your assertion that they'd be a fool to handle their immigration themselves, all of a sudden you get the arsey face on?

I was merely pointing out that its quite possible to get here without paying pots of money to attorneys - lots of people do it. If that makes them fools, (or smug) in your book, then so be it.