Hannah-Lia
New Member
Hi, new member here. I am planning on filing a U-visa (Victim of crime visa) petition. I hired an attorney for that and it turned out that I picked the kind that just pockets your money and doesn't get the job done.
At the initial consultation I was told that it should take us about 2 weeks until filing. This was my main reason for hiring the attorney, as my current visa was about to expire and I therefore wanted to get the thing filed as quickly as possible. Now 9 weeks have passed and we are still far away from filing. First it took around 6 weeks to get the signature of the state attorney (that is one of the requirements of a U visa) and now my lawyer is suppossed to rewrite my personal statement. I've called him up several times to ask how things are going and he keeps promising that we can file in a couple of days. I provided 14 letters of witnesses - I contacted all the people, explained the situation, collected the letters etc. - I had the runaround, he did nothing. I gave him the letters for his "careful" review and the answer was that the letters are all fine and ready to submit. My guess is, he didn't even look at them. Long story short, this guy is a nightmare, I don't trust him at all, I want to get rid of him, and file without the support of a lawyer.
My questions:
* On the contract I signed it says that if I decide at some point not to pursue the visa process that there won't be a refund of the money. Is that standard in contracts with immigration lawyers?
* My ideal solution would be, that I pay him for the time he spent in getting the state attorney's signature, the time it took him to go through the letters of my witnesses and questions he answered per e-mail. Does that sound realistic? What would be a usual hourly rate for an immigration attorney with 5 years experience in Florida?
*Anything else I can do? I was thinking about filing a complaint with the Florida Bar but I am not sure if his behavior is enough for a complaint. It might be too easy for him to talk himself out and find excuses for his lousy work attitude.
At the initial consultation I was told that it should take us about 2 weeks until filing. This was my main reason for hiring the attorney, as my current visa was about to expire and I therefore wanted to get the thing filed as quickly as possible. Now 9 weeks have passed and we are still far away from filing. First it took around 6 weeks to get the signature of the state attorney (that is one of the requirements of a U visa) and now my lawyer is suppossed to rewrite my personal statement. I've called him up several times to ask how things are going and he keeps promising that we can file in a couple of days. I provided 14 letters of witnesses - I contacted all the people, explained the situation, collected the letters etc. - I had the runaround, he did nothing. I gave him the letters for his "careful" review and the answer was that the letters are all fine and ready to submit. My guess is, he didn't even look at them. Long story short, this guy is a nightmare, I don't trust him at all, I want to get rid of him, and file without the support of a lawyer.
My questions:
* On the contract I signed it says that if I decide at some point not to pursue the visa process that there won't be a refund of the money. Is that standard in contracts with immigration lawyers?
* My ideal solution would be, that I pay him for the time he spent in getting the state attorney's signature, the time it took him to go through the letters of my witnesses and questions he answered per e-mail. Does that sound realistic? What would be a usual hourly rate for an immigration attorney with 5 years experience in Florida?
*Anything else I can do? I was thinking about filing a complaint with the Florida Bar but I am not sure if his behavior is enough for a complaint. It might be too easy for him to talk himself out and find excuses for his lousy work attitude.