Bring lawyer to interview or not?

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panther0528

Registered Users (C)
I am wondering if anyone is kind enough to share their thoughts on whether bringing a lawyer to our interview would be good or bad? I have seen some comments that suggest having a lawyer may cause the IO to be less kind or cooperative. Others say that having a lawyer maybe useless since they really can say anything. Please feel free to suggest as you may.

Thanks
 
pretty straight forward. had a previous I485 denial based on employment due to the fact that the lawyer sent the application early.
 
I agree with praetorian, having a lawyer probably won't add anything if your case is relatively straightforward. The lawyer can only really intervene if the IO does something out of line... assuming your case is legitimate, your task in the interview is just to understand the questions and answer them truthfully. If you think you can do that, you probably don't need a lawyer.

On the flip side, I don't know if a lawyer can hurt your case. Some people on here swear the presence of their lawyer exacerbated the IO's suspicion/prejudice... but to be honest, in all of those cases I've read about here there was some kind of "hiccup" that the IO seized on, however small... the IOs in those cases sometimes made a big deal out of a tiny and ultimately inconsequential irregularity, but I haven't read one where a big deal was made out of nothing. (I don't mean to suggest that those cases weren't legit, by the way, because most of them seem to be.) If your case is 100% together and uncomplicated, the IO is not likely to make a fuss about the presence of a lawyer.
 
I DO NOT agree with it, having a lawyer always helps, without a lawyer, IO can ask things does not suppose to ask, or can deny an application does not suppose to? Having a lawyer puts pressure on IO to do right thing?
 
I agree with all of you. I see the benefits, then I see that there is no point to bring a lawyer.

If anyone else has any inputs please post
 
Byram said:
I DO NOT agree with it, having a lawyer always helps, without a lawyer, IO can ask things does not suppose to ask, or can deny an application does not suppose to? Having a lawyer puts pressure on IO to do right thing?
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With all due respect my friend, but do you really think IOs are sooooo scared of lawyers??? Common! They have more power then you can imagine. It's The Government. And don't forget an IO is an adjudicator and not a clerk. If I was an adjudicator and somebody would bring a lawyer with him/her, I would suspect that there might be something iffy in this case that caused the petitioner to have an attorney accompany him/her. Otherwise, if you are clean as a whistle, why would you need to pay an attorney to help you? Also, if an IO has solid grounds to deny an application, he'll do so even with 20 attorneys around him.
 
I don't think bringing a lawyer is necessary. Read up on your rights. There are many information on the web regarding these interviews - what questions may or can be asked, what to bring, etc. You may even find people in forums like this who are more knowledgeable with immigration matters than some lawyers.

My case was far from straightforward, but after a lot of research, I decided I don't need an extra expense.

You should be wary after your previous experience with a lawyer - denial because of filing too early?? Did the lawyer at least reimburse your filing fee?
 
zuzkin said:
With all due respect my friend, but do you really think IOs are sooooo scared of lawyers??? Common! They have more power then you can imagine. It's The Government. And don't forget an IO is an adjudicator and not a clerk. If I was an adjudicator and somebody would bring a lawyer with him/her, I would suspect that there might be something iffy in this case that caused the petitioner to have an attorney accompany him/her. Otherwise, if you are clean as a whistle, why would you need to pay an attorney to help you? Also, if an IO has solid grounds to deny an application, he'll do so even with 20 attorneys around him.
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I definitely agree with Zuzkin.
The IO's have power to deny an application regardless of how many lawyers you bring to your interview. If a case it's straight forward, a lawyer is not necessary and might even get things more complicated, depending on the IO feelings about lawyers..
 
Rosie74 said:
I definitely agree with Zuzkin.
The IO's have power to deny an application regardless of how many lawyers you bring to your interview. If a case it's straight forward, a lawyer is not necessary and might even get things more complicated, depending on the IO feelings about lawyers..
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Well, part of my lawyer's fee calls for him to tell us what to expect at the interview, and to go with us to the interview.

I highly doubt the USCIS person will care if a lawyer is there and I also doubt that he or she would believe the marriage could be a fake because a lawyer is there.

I think the average US citizen (not including those on this website) knows nothing about the whole process of adjusting their spouse's status so feels more comfortable paying a lawyer to process papers and go to the interview with them. I am that average person. I wouldn't be surprised if the norm is for couples to have a lawyer there rather than not.
 
Zadex,

Thank you for what you just wrote. I was about to write the same thing but all I could do is thank you for saving my time.

Our interview is coming up exactly a week from tomorrow. I was also having second thoughts about bringing the attorney to the interview or not since my case is also very straight forward. I never realized until I got a call from my attorney letting me know that he will accompany us to the interview without any extra charge. His initial fees included to come to the interview with us. If he wants to show up, I don't think I need to call him up and ask him to backoff and not show up for the interview. I am sure with this kind of situation, you will let him come too if you were in my situation.
 
Thank you to everyone who has given us a response. I would like to think that our case is very straigtfoward. But after all, IO's can be mean and unreasonable and find anything...that they feel is not RIGHT marriage material. We have been married for over two years, have a house together, bills together, accounts together...and even my in-laws are living with us.:)

We are just scared because of what happened with the employment application...Everything was in check...except for the lawyer! He sent in the application before my husband's three year service was completed.He based it upon some memo he received for National Waiver Interest for Physicians. So after the denial...we decided lets just apply through the marriage, no need to go through this again. So this is why we have so much reservation.

Any comments?
 
Zadex said:
I highly doubt the USCIS person will care if a lawyer is there and I also doubt that he or she would believe the marriage could be a fake because a lawyer is there.
QUOTE]

I didn't say the IO's are brought to believe the marriage is fake if a lawyer is present. What I said is that the IO has the power to further investigate on your application if he/she has any reason to believe you are hiding something and some IO's might actually think it's the case if a lawyer is present at the interview. I'm sure not all Io's are the same and some might not care, but from what has been discussed in different threads/formus, there is a chance this could happen.
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it is your right

i am a january filer and i brought my lawyer to the interview. the i.o. was extremely pleasant. we were done in 20 mins. i got my green card a week after the interview.

it is your legal right to be properly represented so if you want to bring your lawyer....follow your gut instinct. i did and everything went very well.

of course this is just my personal experience.
 
janfiler2008 said:
i am a january filer and i brought my lawyer to the interview. the i.o. was extremely pleasant. we were done in 20 mins. i got my green card a week after the interview.

it is your legal right to be properly represented so if you want to bring your lawyer....follow your gut instinct. i did and everything went very well.

of course this is just my personal experience.
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Thanks Janfiler,
Congrats too!
 
zuzkin said:
With all due respect my friend, but do you really think IOs are sooooo scared of lawyers??? Common! They have more power then you can imagine. It's The Government. And don't forget an IO is an adjudicator and not a clerk. If I was an adjudicator and somebody would bring a lawyer with him/her, I would suspect that there might be something iffy in this case that caused the petitioner to have an attorney accompany him/her. Otherwise, if you are clean as a whistle, why would you need to pay an attorney to help you? Also, if an IO has solid grounds to deny an application, he'll do so even with 20 attorneys around him.
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Okey, How do you explain the people who stuck on namecheck and security clearance mostly the people without lawyers, and most of them has straightforward cases?
 
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