Anyone hear of him? He is not an attorney but an immigration specialist. He comes recommended so I feel confident that he does have experience. His fee is $485.00 My only concern is that he is not an attorney and how useful he could be if push came to shove along the process.
Johnwill, you don't need an immigration attorney, but if you're looking for one, he used to advertise on visajourney, his name is Gary Stanley in Maryland or Virginia I think. He charges about $365 and guarantees free appeal if the visa isn't granted. Actually it's really easy and I don't think an attorney does you any good, but take your money. His email is legalgroupatty@aol.com. I've done the K1 through Greencard and it isn't rocket science.
Johnwill if you would like help on the Visa process I would gladly help you, but if you feel more comfortable, I've seen good reports on Mr. Stanley in the visajourney forums. Espeically his price. We had a member here that used one of the high ticket attorneys and screwed it up so bad for him, it took another additonal year to get his lady here. 1500 bucks for nothing.
The actual difficulty in the Visa process is acquiring her documents in the FSU. Our side in the states is cut and dried and relatively simple. You can download all the forms you need on visajourney. When you file your K1 and you can read it on the website of the embassy that you file, you will give you all the relevant documents she needs for the interview. Each embassy seems to operate a little different than the others. Our process in Ukraine was simple, the adjustment of status was simple, for her greencard, though USCIS when we filed neglected to put her married name on the documents, it was correct on the greencard, so when she filed for her social security card they denied it. So we had to schedule an info pass to have a meeting with an immigration officer to get it changed.
Lesson learned, as soon as your lady arrives in the states she can apply for a social security card immediately, saves the headache of what we had to do. Four hours of driving for 5 minutes to change the incorrect information. Then all you will have to do is produce a marriage certificate for the name change on her social security card.
Good luck and if you have any further questions you can email me at lastlapmark6@netzero.com
we used sir Jim Phair for our fiancee visa. He's the best so far. My husband is very busy at work and he contact mr. Phair to process our our visa and within 6months i depart philippines. he works visa processing for 20yrs and so far theres no failure yet. If i were you used him.
The time frame of this process is much different now than it was a year or year and a half ago. uscis announced raising the application cost effective in July 07 from between 100 and 200 dollars to 455 dollars. To beat the increase the the case load went from 1.2 million applications to 2.4 million. So what took 3 months early in 2007 now takes 6 months to get the invitation and then uscis sends it to the consulate in the country she resides in who in turn set up an interview before the visa is issued. So Mona if your invitation was processed prior to July of 2007 six months is not that fast but if it was processed after it is a speed record. On April 15 uscis shows cases being processed that were turned in on October 8.
Danny I am not an expert on the success rate but I think that if the forms are filled correctly with all documentation, you meet the above poverty requirements, your background check is ok (no domestic abuse or felonies in your back ground), you have not had over your limit in successful k1 visas, and the lady is convincing (serious)in the interview then all of the applications are successful. There is no intent of denial unless qualifications are not met.
:) if you do not have time to do it yourself, or you just have enough money and lazy, use a lawyer. if you have enough education to follow instructions do it yourself. some lawyers can save you time. some can screw you up and waste more of your time, if their paralegals fill out forms with mistakes. it happens. see our blogs down the page. ask lawyer.
Yes and uscis has an 800 number on the I-129F instructions. If you have questions they are very courteous and happy to help answer any questions you have about the application. The biggest hold up I see on filing the papers is that many of the ladies sign with only one name and it is necessary to to sign first, middle, and last name on the application. If her G-325A form (demographic info) has a mistake on it then it has to be corrected and remailed from her country. So I could see where a person might want her original signature in the proper place on some extra blank papers that the computer could print a corrected form over. Not that anybody would do that but if they did they would need to adjust the margins a little to compensate for the different size paper used in the FSU compared to the English system.