NIW without a lawyer

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zombi

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NIW without a lawyer: Approved ?

Does anyone know whether it is okay to file Green Card Application under NIW category without a lawyer. I am new to this Green Card and Immigration stuff and dont have enough money to spend on lawyer so would like to know the pros and cons of filing a Green Card by myslef under NIW catgory. Do you think it will ever get approved and what would be the chances.

Please share your or your friends experiences !

Has anyone done this and gotten success or this is too weird question?

Thanks !!!
 
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zombi said:
Does anyone know whether it is okay to file Green Card Application under NIW category without a lawyer. I am new to this Green Card and Immigration stuff and dont have enough money to spend on lawyer so would like to know the pros and cons of filing a Green Card by myslef under NIW catgory. Do you think it will ever get approved and what would be the chances.

Please share your or your friends experiences !

Has anyone done this and gotten success or this is too weird question?

Thanks !!!
Click to expand...

An attorney is not a requirement to file any type of petition.

Brian
 
I would NOT do a NIW without a lawyer (my personal opinion!).
Yes, you could do it (it is not mandatory), but in fact it is very hard and you must spend a lot of time to prepare your petition yourself.
I would do NIW myself only if I would feel very confident about myself - but I am not a Nober prize winner, nothing like that...
I had no money when I started my green card story..but you always can look for a better fees etc... ask your friends.. get monthly payments... and I think I-140 is for what you need a lawyer. Some lawyers charge separate for I-140 and I-485, you can go with I-140 first and when approved, you can do I-485 yourself...
My experience: I was surprized how my lawyer was treating my case, he stressed out things I would never imagine are important... and he did not care abouth others I thought are important...
 
I agree with Compass. But, spent time to find a good lawyer. A bad one not only get your money, also waste your time (years). I have experience with a bad lawyer. It WORTH the effort to find a good one.
 
yes Joo77, I agree, I also had a good one and a bad one..
my bad lawyer charged me an extra $1670 just for "additional trouble", which was my asking him "when my H-1 extension was filed???" Yes I am not kidding! and I got such bill after I myself paid the fee for H-1 extension, jusk for asking if that thing was filed and if yes - when... and this was extra... so sometimes big fee does not mean good work...
 
Exactly. For example, when I filed my NIW, all my references are from the people I knew, which I feel more comfortable to ask a letter. My lawyer not even remind me to get an independent reference. Anyone who read this forum for a day can know this is critical for all EB1, EB2 cases. I do not believe my lawyer even studied the recent AAO decisions. As a professional, there is no excuse.
Anyway, repeat my suggestion, find a competent lawyer. Good luck.
 
There is no alternate of a good lawyer. Try to hire a good attorney no matter how much does it cost. Good attorneys take little more than average attorneys but it is worth.
 
NIW without a lawyer: Approved?

Many thanks guys for your opinion about filing a NIW case without a lawyer. Can u also share your experiences about your good lawyers and also the bad ones so that I get the glimpse of tricks of trade. I had been focussing on David Morris of www.visalink.com who charges around $4000 for filing both NIW and OP, whereas Rajiv Khanna of www.immigration.com who is also a respectable immigration attorney charges $3600 for each filing so maybe $7200 for 2 filings (I guess). Elizabeth McGrail of Washington DC charges around $3500 for one category and may be another $1000 for another category as well. Sheila Murthy of www.murthy.com who is the best among them charges exhorbidently high (atleast per my research) $5000. Know of a chinese lawyer who claims big on his website but dont know more than that. Recently my Chinese friend sort of got duped by one of the bad Chinese lawyers who did nothing but to collect money from him. Poor guy in my lab ended up doing everthing on his NIW case by everyone's help, even editing his letters and getting help on their writting more sophisticatedly by our help. So there are so many fishes in this Green Card pond and dont know which one would taste better. You experiences would be highly appreciated. Please dont forget to mention their charges and the time they took to file your case since I plan to do before concurrent filing of I-140 and I485 ends on 1st Jan 2005.
Thanks,
 
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If a lawyer charges X fee for NIW, he/she may give you discount if you file two at same time (or close time), like NIW and OR, please ask about this. My lawyer offered me 50% discount if I decide to file OR in addition/after filing NIW, since he was already familiar with my case and many things are common for both cases. So I had to pay only 50% of X for additional OR I-140. I did not use it (decided to go just with NIW) but my friend did (same lawyer). My friend got NIW approved (after RFE), and when he got another RFE for OR (he filed OR a little later), he asked the lawyer just withfraw another I-140 (OR).
X was $3000 I think (maybe $3500, I don't remember exactly).
Time to prepare all documents took for me about 4-6 months, for my friend about 3-4 months, most time was spent to wait for rec.letters mailed from other countries. After all letters were received, time to prepare I-140 took maybe one week.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
 
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