Stuck with a bad employer appointed attorney, what to do?

I

ImmigrateMe

Registered Users (C)
I am stuck with the attorney that the employer provided. The empolyer doesn't allow me to contact the attorney directly. Each email has to be sent to HR first, then they forwarded to attorney, same route back.

It has been 5 weeks since the last email inquiry the attorney sent to CSC. I urge them to send another inquiry, if not, I will send the inquiry myself. Here is their reply... My case is Nov. 2001 case. Name check was cleared last May.

"If she would like to proceed with her own set of inquiries, she is of
course free to do so. I think we should withdraw as the attorney of
record and cease further work on her case if she proceeds with this
course of action, however. I believe it will not help her case to have
CSC receiving inquiries/communications from multiple sources."

Is what the attorney said above true? I have never filed an inquiry myself to CSC. My case is severely overdue and the attorney is slacking. I feel a lump in my throat after reading the email from attorney.

May God bless their soul.

ImmigrateMe
wac02-046-5xxxx
 
At what stage are you? If at I-485 stage, this has nothing to do with your employer. Find another lawyer and he/she will advise you accordingly.
 
Sad to hear that your 2001 case is still pending. I had a friend whose case was 2002 feb. I asked him to forget the company attorney and start a series of steps. First one was "change of address". Even if you think the address is correct call them and update it once again. Also send the ar11 form also. For my friend USCIS was having the old address in their file eventhough he had filed ar11 form earlier. Also after 1 month he started sending the level1 and level 2 faxes. Withing another monthe he got RFE and now he is approved. So start with address change update - this may trigger the IIO to take the file and look into your case
 
cashew
FYI, sending AR-11 does not change the address of the applications already pending with CIS.

You need to call the 800 number to make the address change.
Of course, you need to file AR11 as well (legal requirement )
 
You have 2 things you can do
1. Stay with this lawyer. Tell them through HR that you wish them to remain on your case and that you won't be doing inquiries. Then fax the inquiry yourself. You have to have the WAC number, of course.
+: you save money
-: the lawyer is still a moron

2. Switch lawyers.
+: you won't have to deal with the moron
+: they'll send as many inquiries as you want, within reason of course
+: they get to call the special "secret" CSC 1-949 number, only for lawyers
-: this all costs a lot of money
 
I too was in this situ. Had to talk to lawyer thru HR. I dont think it is a problem per se.

You dont need your lawyer' approval to contact CSC regarding your case. Your lawyer appears to be quite frustrated too. He is either bluffing or trying to get you to rid of him of your case. Probably the former. Just fax anyway and find out. Your lawyer wont know and if he does, it would be up to him to decide if he wants to keep your case. Either ways, you get to induce something into your case. There are many pro-active lawyers - not the least the admin for this BBS - who would be glad to assist for a fee.

I've been following your emails for a while coz you are so overdue. All the very best.
 
ruxrux and neeru, have given sound advice. I am not sure why you are waiting for your Lawyer to send faxes on your behalf, you should be sending level 2 faxes every 15-21 days till you get a response.

I am surprised the lawyer is taking such a hard stance on this issue, if he/she doesn't understand the frustration of someone waiting since 2001 doesn't deserve to represent that person. Having sucked all the money possible out of your case, they want to put their hands up and quit. It is no skin of their nose.

Go ahead and send faxes to the INS using the level 2 number. Attach a copy of your 485 receipt and a letter explaining your case. Ridiculous to see a 02-046 case pending. I am sure your case file has probably fallen behind the desk of some officer and hence the trouble. See if the faxes don't shake it out.

Good luck.
 
I've also been through the same situation(working with HR and then HR working with Attorney). Although my attorney wasn't that bad. Neither my company. Most of the time if the companies do it that way is because lawyers sometime start billing the company for any emails(from candidates) they answer or for any queries they make on behalf of the candidates. We're lucky to to have known this forum where we can have most of our questions answered but not everyone is.

Yes sometimes lawyers would recommend not to send too many faxes for inquiries since the officer who's going to respond would have to reply the same thing to 2 different persons, you and your lawyer which may or may not be a good idea, you don't wanna piss him off ;) . But if you think if your lawyer is incompetent and its been a while that he sent the inquiry then yes you should definitely do that yourself.
 
I believe attorneys may have special phone/fax numbers to make inquiry to. When my case was overdue, I asked my attorney to make an inquiry. She did, and told me she would follow up after 15 days. After exactly 15 days, I got a phone call from USCIS telling me my case was approved. Maybe I was just lucky.
 
So, what's the attorney's firm name?
My company is using Fragomen, big law firm, very, very, expensive, and they play the same kind of games, like advising the company not to file concurrent, or not wanting to send any receipt or even copies of receipts.
I believe it helps if the suckers are known, because eventually, we are the end users of their services.
 
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