The outcome of your immigration case can make all the difference for you and your family. Typically, immigration proceedings are very complex and require the guidance of a criminal attorney to walk you through them and increase the possibility of a favorable outcome. Nonetheless, finding the best attorney for your case is not a piece of cake. You need to be sure you are working with a legal expert who is not overcharging, making false promises, and being incompetent. Even if you have a reliable recommendation, you should check to ensure they are competent, hardworking, and honest experts ready to earn you a positive outcome in the case.
Whether you are making a visa application, facing deportation, or seeking immigration benefits, you want to work with the right attorney. This blog provides you with the guidance you need when finding an immigration attorney for your case.
Obtain Recommendations and Referrals from Friends and Relatives
If you seek immigration services for the first time, you have probably never worked with an immigration attorney. Nonetheless, you have friends and coworkers who have worked with these attorneys before. Therefore, you can begin your search for an excellent immigration attorney by asking these people to recommend or refer you to legal experts in this practice area. When taking referrals and recommendations, ensure that you take them from foreigners residing in the U.S. who had positive experiences or outcomes in their cases after working with particular attorneys. The advantage with referrals is that you obtain first-hand information from individuals who have been former clients of an attorney. That way, if the attorney offers poor services, you can skip them and move on to the next.
Alternatively, you can ask your criminal or family attorney to refer you to a few immigration legal experts they are aware of. Luckily, attorneys have a strong network of sister legal experts and can easily guide you to the right immigration attorney.
Reach Out to a Bar Association
It is rare to find a practicing attorney who is not a member of a local, state, or national bar association member. Many attorneys join these associations to network, stay updated with continuing education programs, acquire new customers, and obtain practice materials. You will find attorneys from all practice areas in these associations, which means it is only right to consider contacting them for a few names and contacts of immigration attorneys in your area.
Some bar associations even focus on particular practice areas like immigration. So, if you are lucky to find a bar association for immigration, it will be a great place to find an attorney. An example of an association whose practice area is immigration is the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
A bar association like AILA offers referral services to prospective clients and simplifies their search for an immigration legal professional. Therefore, when looking for a Visa or green card, you can easily contact to narrow down your search and save time.
Visit the Internet
Today, it is easy to find an immigration legal expert from the comfort of your living room. All you need is a computer, smartphone and internet connection. So, if you do not have friends, relatives, or an attorney who can refer you to an immigration legal expert or cannot obtain a referral from a bar association, the next stop should be the internet.
Also, the internet could be fruitful when you have already obtained several referrals or recommendations. With a few names, you can take your research online and confirm whether other former clients of your referral have positive feedback regarding the legal services they obtained.
Again, your immigration needs might differ from those of your family member or friend who recommended a particular attorney. And because many legal practices today have websites and online presence, you can look up their profile online to see whether their practice area is what you are looking for. When looking for an attorney to stop your deportation, you want to find a legal professional whose profile indicates this as their practice area. You do not want to find an attorney who deals with asylum when fighting deportation because they might lack experience in your area of need. This could negatively impact your case’s outcome, resulting in the deportation you are trying to avoid.
During your online search for an attorney, ensure to check their credentials and ensure they have a valid practice license. A legal license is an indication that the attorney meets the state requirements and criteria for the practice, meaning you will be in safe hands. Again, you want to check if the attorney has any complaints against them in the recent past from clients because of misconduct. Luckily, the California Supreme Court provides this information to the public through their website, enabling you to see if there are legitimate complaints against the legal professional you are considering for the job.
Also, you want to check the reviews of the attorney you are considering for your case. After the close of an issue, most clients will go online to the law firm’s or attorney’s website to share their experience in the hands of an immigration attorney. Therefore, you want to review these reviews and determine what previous clients have to say about the practice. Attorneys cannot guarantee positive outcomes in all immigration cases, so you are likely to find one or two negative reviews from clients who were not satisfied by the results of their immigration matters. However, multiple negative reviews are a red flag and indicate that hiring the same attorney will result in the same outcome.
On the other hand, all positive reviews on a website should tell you something is wrong. Although you expect negative reviews, you should consider an attorney with more positive reviews than the negative ones for the job. Besides, you can avoid biased reviews by visiting neutral review websites where the law firm or attorney does not influence customer feedback. You should note this because hiring an attorney based on biased reviews could mislead you and jeopardize your immigration case.
Be Aware of Visa Consultants “Notary” or Petition Preparers Providing Legal Services
When hiring an immigration attorney, you are likely to come across notaries or immigration consultants who are not licensed to practice law but claim legal services. In the US, the role of a notary is not to practice law but rather to witness the signing of legal documents.
Would you take your vehicle to a doctor when it develops mechanical problems?
The answer is no. You should apply the same logic when finding an immigration attorney. You cannot go to a visa consultant or other non-lawyer claiming to practice immigration law.
Unfortunately, you will find non-lawyers offering immigration services to unsuspecting clients. Many people fall for these traps because hiring an immigration attorney is expensive. As a result, someone might encourage you to hire a notary or visa consultant instead of an attorney to avoid the hefty legal fees. A notary or paralegal might have little knowledge about immigration, but this does not mean they are competent enough to handle your case.
You must understand that attorneys completed school and passed the bar exam, ensuring they have all the necessary legal knowledge to practice. Also, attorneys hold a license from their respective bar associations and are regulated by the government. Additionally, these legal professionals are insured by the government, meaning if something goes wrong, you can go after them and obtain compensation from their insurance policy.
On the other hand, paralegals only know the legal paperwork. If you need to complete immigration forms and complete the necessary paperwork, they are the people for the job. Like attorneys, these individuals go to school, and after completing their studies, they sit for a national exam to become members of the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA). Again, they are regulated by bar associations and are bonded by insurance companies. If you are hurt or suffer a loss because of their mistakes, you can go after them for compensation.
Recall notaries or immigration consultants only witness the signing of legal documents, and they do not necessarily have any legal education. They act as state witnesses to confirm the identity of the party signing a legal document.
However, being a notary or a paralegal does not give these individuals the chance to advertise themselves as immigration attorneys or purport to offer immigration legal services. Sadly, they go ahead to provide these legal services at low prices to appeal to clients who cannot afford to pay for an actual attorney.
Regardless of how appealing the prices of non-lawyers might seem, do not fall for these individuals because you might give them the little money you have, and they run away with it. And when they stay, they might fill out the immigration forms incorrectly without explaining their actions, which could put you in more trouble or force you to commence the process from scratch.
Avoid being duped by these individuals by asking to see the credentials an individual claiming to be an immigration attorney is advertising. Once you have confirmed they have proper credentials and are sure they are accredited, you can check the price of their services. An attorney charging the highest rates in the market does not always guarantee a positive outcome. Therefore, you should be willing to explore other attorneys offering reasonable prices, but this does not mean you go for those offering the lowest prices in the market because you could end up in the hands of notaries providing compromised legal services. Choose accredited attorneys offering reasonable or medium prices in the market and uncompromised immigration legal counsel.
Similarly, you need to understand that it is not easy to know when immigration consultants lie. In most cases, they will tell you to make a down payment and send an attorney to meet you in the immigration court or interview. If you are fortunate enough to have an immigration attorney show up, they will have little or no knowledge of your case before legal representation begins. This will reduce your chances for a favorable outcome.
Therefore, always ensure you meet with your lawyer in person and discuss the case. Also, instead of giving your money to notaries, you can pay the same fee to an attorney directly and guarantee they will serve your best interests.
Reach Out to Potential Immigration Attorneys and Compare their Advice
After you have done your homework and narrowed down your search to a few names, the next step is to talk to these individuals you are interested in hiring. Contacting the attorney via phone or email is advisable because some law firms do not allow text messages. Although most attorneys are busy in court or interviewing their clients, you can speak to their staff in the office.
Always begin by introducing yourself. You can start by mentioning your name and the immigration help you need. Once you have made the introduction, you can inquire from the attorney if the help you need is one of their practice areas. If you require asylum, you want to work with an attorney whose asylum is their practice area.
When you opt to send an email, ensure that it indicates your need, your reason for contacting, and specify the attorney the email is directed to.
Also, you could visit the attorney’s physical address for a face-to-face meeting. Nonetheless, the easiest way to contact an attorney is through the phone with the coronavirus pandemic. You obtain a sense of their services by speaking to the attorney or their staff directly over the phone. The first impression over the phone should help you decide whether the practice is right for you or move on to the next.
Talking to potential attorneys on the phone gives a feel of their personality and work philosophy, which is critical in hiring. Call multiple offices and ask all questions you might have regarding your immigration needs. Some of the questions you can ask the attorney over the phone to decide if they are right for you are:
- What is your practice area?
- How long have you been practicing?
- How many cases like mine have you handled in the past year?
- What has been your success rate in cases like mine?
- How long is my case going to take?
- Will you charge flat rates or hourly rates?
- Will you handle my case in person or assign it to another person?
- Do you give case updates? If yes, how often?
The prospective attorneys' answers to these questions should guide your hiring decision. You should contact many immigration law firms or legal experts and see the responses you obtain. Afterwards, you should compare your answers and follow your gut to decide.
Firstly, you should pick an attorney whose practice matches your immigration needs. You can confirm this by asking the number of years they have been practicing and the number of cases like yours they have handled in the past. For example, when you need help seeking asylum, you want to work with an attorney who has dealt with over ten cases within the last year. Hiring an immigration attorney with 20 years of experience in the market will be pointless when they have only handled one or zero asylum cases.
Similarly, the success rate in the cases they have represented clients in immigration courts is critical. Although you will rarely find an attorney who has won all their cases, you want a legal expert who has won most of their cases and only lost a few. Working with an attorney like that means you have a high chance of obtaining a favorable outcome at the end of the case.
Moreover, you want an opinion on how long your case will take. When you ask this question, you expect a straight answer from an attorney who is used to dealing with issues like those. For instance, if you are applying for a visa, you want to know how long it will take to process it. Some attorneys will have straight answers, while others will be unsure of the duration. Obtain several opinions from many professionals and pick an attorney who seems to understand the visa application process and the average time it will take to process one.
After obtaining answers from different attorneys, compare their opinions and follow your gut to pick the expert you feel most comfortable around. Also, you should be skeptical or doubtful of attorneys who guarantee success in the immigration matter. The outcome of your case depends on the immigration judge’s decision and the Department of Homeland Security. If an attorney promises you a win in your case even without a thorough evaluation of the circumstances, you need to keep off.
Find An Excellent Los Angeles Immigration Attorney Near Me
When you plan to enter the U.S. or have an immigration matter you need to address, it will be in your interest to work closely with an attorney experienced in these cases. A lot is at stake here, and if the case's outcome is not in your favor, your life and that of your family will significantly change. Luckily, the California immigration Attorney is dedicated to helping you with your immigration matter in California. Our attorneys understand the stress of being unsure of your immigration status, which is why we are ready to service your immigration needs. Call us today at 424-789-8809 to discuss your case.