Selecting the Right Immigration Law Firm

Choosing the right immigration law firm is critically important, and a decision that can not be taken lightly. With so much variety in quality in this field of practice, you need to be highly selective. Ideally, you will want to retain a law firm that possess the following characteristics:

1) Successful experience in your area of concern. Research the law firm’s reputation and the leading attorneys at the firm. Be sure that you find that their clients praise their quality of service, whether it’semployment based or individual/family based cases. If the attorney has been favorably rated by other legal professionals and by attorney rating organizations, it’s a good sign.

2) Personal attention and respect. Some immigration law firms are run on high volume, and turn into infamous “paper mills” where productivity is given greater value over quality. For many types of immigration cases, representation is far more than just asking for a list of documents and filling out forms. Without an active, collaborative approach, and may you risk submitting documents that haven’t been properly reviewed and which are not up to standard. If poor documentation is initially submitted, while USCIS might give you a request for additional evidence to cure some defects, the request for evidence may not necessarily cover all the bases which USCIS may use to deny your case. Lack of personal attention is often a problem experienced when retaining a large law firm. Bigger and more expensive does not mean better. It’s best to retain a boutique immigration firm that handles manageable case loads.

3) Attorneys with membership in the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Although membership by itself does not ensure quality, an immigration attorney who is not a member of AILA lacks essential resources that no immigration attorney should be without, such as case assistance with AILA’s Liaison Department.

4) Licensure. Be sure that the attorneys are licensed. There are consultants who offer legal services to the unsuspecting public in violation of the law. Only a licensed attorney is lawfully permitted to provide legal advice. A consultant is only permitted to fill forms, and not assess the quality of documentation, or present legal arguments in support of your eligibility for immigration benefits. Also, unlike a consultant, an attorney is accountable to the state bar, and has a lot more to lose by being dishonest and providing false hopes.

5) Attorneys that stay current. The attorneys at the law firm should stay on top of current developments in immigration law. For example, on June 1, 2008, the DOL changed processing from Chicago to Atlanta for PERM labor certifications. After this change took place, if an employer sponsoring a worker for a green card placed an internal notice prompting the reader to send information to the Chicago DOL address instead of Atlanta , and the DOL audited the labor certification case, there is a chance that the DOL would deny the case just for this seemingly small oversight. Staying current matters.

6) Reasonable fees. Legal fees should not be too high or too low. For example, if a law firm is charging $750 to file an H1B petition, it’s either desperate for business and likely not experienced, or it might provide very impersonal service. If a law firm is charging $2500, it is not providing a fair value, no matter how high the quality of service may be. Of course, there are exceptions where the costs of such petitions may be elevated due to unique complications.

7) Dedication. It’s difficult to gauge this criteria, but some of the ways to see how dedicated the attorneys at the law firm are is to see whether they are active in the community. Read the profiles of the attorneys to see if they attend legal clinics, make media appearances, etc. If the law firm provides a newsletter and publishes articles on immigration topics, theses are also good signs.

Our Law Firm’s Overview

We’ve won and kept the business of our clients because we are able to offer personal attention and because we truly partner with our clients to achieve success. Furthermore, we stay current, and adapt our services to changes in immigration policies. Immigration regulations are continuously revised and the immigration service constantly changes the way it adjudicates visa applications based on policy memoranda. The difference between success and failure can be a matter of specific application of law to address these changes. Our personal and adaptive approach requires that we handle a steady but manageable caseload, and it requires that we work with dedication and compassion. The largest immigration law firms are generally too rigid in bureaucracy to adapt quickly. On the other hand, firms that are not handling a stable volume of immigration cases may not be as familiar with current adjudication policies. As a boutique immigration law firm with dedicated attorneys, we strike a balanced approach, and get outstanding results.