Is it worth going through a lawyer?

[Delmo]

I was curious if visa/green card applications have a better success rate when going through a lawyer. The green card I want to apply for would cost me 8 thousand through a lawyer so I just wanted to explore other options before going ahead with this.

[agnelson]

If it is employer-based, the employer should use a lawyer.

If it is marriage-based, you can do it yourself. check on visajourney for recipes.

If a lawyer is suggesting some other way, I'd be suspicious

[Reba]

My own personal experience with lawyers for the marriage based immigration tells me to tell you No, you don't need a lawyer. The paperwork is pretty straightforward, and there is NOTHING a lawyer can do to speed up the process. If one tells you that they can, they're lying.

[Delmo]

Well I'm in the states currently on a TD and my wife works as a nurse. We did that ourselves no problem. But I had a sit down with a lawyer and he recommended EB1 givin my skills.
I guess I should have asked should I go through a lawyer for an EB1.

[agnelson]

Do you know what the criteria for EB1 are?:

Receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence;
Membership in associations in the field which demand outstanding achievement of their members;
Published material about the alien in professional or major trade publications or other major media;
Evidence that the alien has judged the work of others, either individually or on a panel;
Evidence of the alien's original scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-related contributions of major significance to the field;
Evidence of the alien's authorship of scholarly articles in professional or major trade publications or other major media;
Evidence that the alien's work has been displayed at artistic exhibitions or showcases;
Performance of a leading or critical role in distinguished organizations;
Evidence that the alien commands a high salary or other significantly high remuneration in relation to others in the field;
Evidence of commercial successes in the performing arts.

You need 3 of these.

If you don't have any of these, the lawyer was blowing smoke. You mentuionned you were a tradesman, so I'm thinking the smoke was pretty thick.

[Delmo]

I have all of the them. Meeting the requirments isn't an issue, I've heard of something like the EB1 before but never looked into it. Since then I've researched the criteria and it looks promising. The question is can I save myself the 8 grand by processing this myself?

[agnelson]

So why aren't you working in US already?!

One of the reasons lawyers suggest EB1 to clients without a job is the self-sponsoring angle. Other forms of EB green cards require employer sponsorship. Since a lawyer can't help you find a job, his next best option is to try and get you to pay him for EB1 self-sponsorship.

EB1 can be done on one's own without a lawyer. But Nobel laureates are usually pretty good at a paperwork. If you are too, go for it. But given the documentary requirements associated with the I-140 and the EB1(a) process, $8000 would seem a bargain.

This is no TD

[Delmo]

Thanks ya that's what I thought. I want the freedom to work without sponsorship and EB1 sounded like a good way to go for that reason. I have job offers here but I'm not sure how keen they are to sponsor. If you say the paper work behind a EB1 is extensive then maybe the 8G isn't bad. Seeing as that gets me and my wife green cards.