16 weeks and counting...

[Mengxin]

I don't want to get into too many details about my former lawyer right now. Just want to share some wisdom "learned the hard way." It's been 16 weeks now since I 1st delivered the paperwork to my lawyer to submit. I have been watching timelines thankfully.

 

After fireing him and taking my paperwork back, I discovered what a mess he had gotten me into. I have only two documents from Immigration so far. I have the NOA1 and the RFE for the 130 for the NOA1. I will be returning the RFE in to the mail tommorow.

 

The Lawyer mailed my 130 and 129 off at the same time "to speed things up." Chicago hasn't responded at all, hasn't even cashed the check. I do have the tracking # that says an envelope arrived there. When I called last week, explained my situation and asked if I should just send in another 129 since I already have the NOA1. (I see most everybody gets a response in 2 weeks.) She told me "absolutely not." She told me to wait another month for an Inquiry letter from Chicago. Great, so now I'm looking at 20 weeks now and all I have is NOA1.

 

If you hire a lawyer, review the packages before he sends them. Watch him seal the envelope. All this time went by and I have had to babysit the whole way. A lot of time was waisted because he forgot (1month) and went on vacation when I needed to know if he had recieved any response from Chicago (3 weeks). When he got back, he said he had nothing and they never cashed the check.

 

From the copies of the paperwork I saw for the 129, it's really no wonder I haven't heard anything. I know an RFE is coming someday (or month). I have a new 129 just about ready to ship off again with all the T's crossed and i's dotted. I think I could hear word back about NOA2 in two weeks or wait for 1 month for an RFE for the 129. I already know what's wrong and have just about evrything ready for when it arrives. ( I saw 1 timeline that someone waited 4 months for there 129 RFE with no response.)

 

If I wouldn't have fired my lawyer, I would have never seen all the descrepancies and he wouldn't have caught them. Thanks for the timelines, they are very helpful.

[tonado]

Yes, always follow up on your lawyer (if you have one).

[johnandrose]

When I started my K3 process, I had no clue as to how to do everything. I guess the only thought that kept me from hiring a lawyer was the thought that - "nobody will put more importance on your case than you yourself." And still I got an RFE. But that's another story. I am very sorry to hear about your situation Mengxin. I wish you good luck and wish that you don't have to wait too long to resolve this matter.

 

I guess many more applicants will start doing these things themselves if they knew sites like CFL exist. Is there anything else we, CFL members, can do to put the word out about this site? We members know about it already. But how many people, who are planning on filing a K3 case know about it? CFL has been such a wonderful resource for me.

[oregonknl]

Geeezzze Mengxin,

 

I am really sorry to hear about your situation... Since I joined in April, I have seen several other posts where lawyers cause more trouble (and delay) in this process than if you do these things yourself.....

 

... has really changed my mind about their role --- which I now feel should only be to handle specific complex problems...

[frank1538]

Sorry you had to learn this the hard way. Hopefully, other than the loss of time, nothing serious will come from the lawyer's f**k-up.

 

Using a good immigration attorney who knows about family visas (not just work visas) will give you another set of eyes to double check things, but if the lawyer doesn't know much about family visa processing, you're likely to be disappointed. There's probably more collective wisdom here at CFL.

[tonymasiello]

Not all experiences with lawyers are bad. I have (so far) had a very positive experience with my lawyer. I didn't feel I had the time and focus to do all of the research and preperation to prepare the petition myself. I felt the cost was justified for me. My lawyer was very well organized, prepared checklists for me to follow, and thoroughly checked all of our information, questioning every possible descrepancy. I also did some research before choosing a lawyer, and made a choice to hire someone with experience and expertise with K visas.

[cosmiclobster]

Hi Mengxin

I would be fuming right now if I were you. Not only has he wasted your time, but he might of also caused you further delays down the road.

Not only should you of gotten your papers back, but you should of gotten back every penny you gave him also. Lawyers and other people who represent others (like myself, I happen to be a real estate agent) are held to a higher standard of care then most other professionals. To have a complaint or a lawsuit filed against them is very detrimental to their standings and their career and they will go to great lengths to settle a claim before it gets officially recorded. I am not a lawyer and cannot act in an official capacity as one, but if this happened to me, I would ask for damages from him AT LEAST equal to the money you gave him. He was clearly derelict in the performance of his obligation to you and he knows he will lose a lawsuit if it came to that. I would think he would be happy to pay you some thousands of $$ to make this go away quietly. I would at least call legal aid for a free consult.

P.S. Thanks for the links!

I have seen those websites before!

[Mengxin]

When I started my K3 process, I had no clue as to how to do everything. I guess the only thought that kept me from hiring a lawyer was the thought that - "nobody will put more importance on your case than you yourself." And still I got an RFE. But that's another story. I am very sorry to hear about your situation Mengxin. I wish you good luck and wish that you don't have to wait too long to resolve this matter.

 

I guess many more applicants will start doing these things themselves if they knew sites like CFL exist. Is there anything else we, CFL members, can do to put the word out about this site? We members know about it already. But how many people, who are planning on filing a K3 case know about it? CFL has been such a wonderful resource for me.

John, Your timeline was the one I was referring to in my original post. Just curious how long it took them to cash your check? I saw you updated your site yesterday with some great news. Congratualtions on your interview. Between your site, Don's site, the Visa Journey site, the USICS...and a couple of lectures from Squeaky, I think have all the information I need to get this process back on track.

 

Most of the confusion has to do with our descision to marry before filing for the visa. We had originally filled out the paperwork for K1 earlier in the year, but then decided to marry in May. My lawyer was made very clear about what we had decided and was given pleanty of time to prepare. Our K3 paperwork was mailed out as K1, because he just changed the adresses on the envelopes without updating any other information from the previous K1 paperwork. I have a long list of what to look out for and what was missing from our paperwork. I found descrepancies on the Bio's and 130, not even brought up in the RFE.

 

Examples:

1. My wife's address was cut off half way through, because the font he was using on his Adobe Pro SW was too large. He fixed page 1, but 2, 3 and 4 were cut off. We didn't notice before.

 

2. The box that asked "are you married?" said NA. (K3 hello.)

 

3. I got a new passport between the time we filled out the 1st application and got married. So the RFE requested a valid passport. I gave my lawyer copies both the old and new passports. Never did a thing with the new one.

 

4. I had a name change that I also mentioned to my lawyer, that he left out of the paperwork. So my birth certificate was also invalid. I couldn't believe of all things that I was being asked to prove that I was a US citizen. Both the Passport and Birth certificate were considerd invalid. my god.

 

5. Only my company's name was listed, not the complete address as requested.

 

6 The dates for time living at residence were left blank on both her's and on my paperwork.

 

7. The copies of the photo's he sent were so dark they couldn't be recognized.

 

8. Only the picture page of the old passport was sent, not every page. The copy of it was way too dark. Even the RFE underlined Legible and Valid copy of US passport.

 

9. Even where it says to list present address 1st, was backwards.

 

I corrected the descrepancies and mentioned them in my cover letter with the corrected/missing docs. So in a nut shell 4 months later, I am essentually less than 0 days into the process now. My wife stays cool about it all and just keeps reminding me that in time we will be together again. If it wasn't for her pacience and coolness, I probably would have blown a gasket already. (like I did last week )

 

On a positve note my boss mentioned today that the Shanghai req. might be re-opening again. It will make things much more bareable if it works out this time.