How not to overpay for an immigration lawyer

No matter what lawyers say, processing immigration documents, in most cases, is a very routine process, because there are “blanks” and standard ways to solve certain problems. But lawyers, although they follow the beaten path with each new client, still charge a lot of money. The first consultation alone costs at least $150. Further more.

Many immigrants, whose cases are not particularly difficult, may well not spend money on expensive tête-à-tête consultations, but use remote network access to a lawyer.

Now the Russian-speaking residents of America have the opportunity to save money and use the “online” service.

A lawyer from Miami, Vladislav Salaridze, after more than ten years of immigration practice, opened the service immigrateful.com for Russian-speaking clients. The uniqueness of this service lies in the fact that, firstly, it is the only service of its kind in Russian, and secondly, an experienced immigration lawyer will check each and all additional documents before sending them to the immigration service.

The site immigrateful.com all in Russian, all questionnaire questions are also translated. The main thing is not to spend extra money and time for a personal meeting. At the same time, a certified lawyer will check all your documents. On the part of the user, the formation of an “immigration case” takes, in some cases, just 30 minutes.

Salaridze knows firsthand about the problems that immigrants may face in the States. However, he is not ashamed to admit that many cases do not require as much money and time as immigration attorneys usually take. Therefore, the emergence of the service, which greatly simplifies the procedure for processing immigration documents for “simple cases”, was a logical continuation of the long experience of his personal legal practice.

“Online” services can be used by anyone in the United States or outside, regardless of its citizenship. The lawyer has no requirements for the minimum level of language skills, laws or the amount of monthly payments of clients. The site charges only a small fee, depending on the "case". You will have to pay, in any case, no more than a thousand dollars, and this is at least two times less than any personal reception from a lawyer, various consultations and verification of documents before filing with the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, or USCIS).

We tried to log in and use Immigrateful to test everything personally.

How it works

Immigrateful interface is similar to the bank. To arrange your documents, you need to fill out the successive forms. Almost all form fields already have response options, from which you need to choose the right one.

Answer questions need to consistently. The next page can not go until you completely fill out the current one. If it is difficult to answer something, almost next to each question there is an icon, when clicked, an additional window appears with information and explanations to this question. Also, you can pause, find the necessary information, and then continue to answer questions.

The number of questions varies depending on the “case”. You will be asked questions about nationality, age, education, work, place of residence, as well as family members who will immigrate with you to the United States.

Also on the site there is a prequalification system for applying for asylum. After you answer basic questions, based on the data received from you, the system (the “online” attorney) will assess the chances. In addition, you will be given additional information and links to materials that will help you fill out the forms correctly. Opening and initial filling of your personal “online” case takes up to 30 minutes.

“The service was created in order to bridge the gap in access to modern technologies and to make legal advice more accessible in time and financial costs”,

- says Salaridze.

According to him, the main task of the service is to protect the client, because if he incorrectly fills in immigration forms or doesn’t provide supporting documents in full, he will most likely be refused.

Initially, it seems that everything is simple and you fill in all the forms and upload all the necessary documents, however, a very important element of this site is the stage of checking the package of documents by the immigration lawyer. The US Immigration Service (USCIS) is a bureaucratic body and, like any bureaucratic machine, it requires strict and strict adherence to all the necessary formalities. The uniqueness of the site lies in the fact that before sending your case to the immigration service, Immigrateful lawyer will carefully check the correctness of filling out all the forms and supporting documents provided by you. If necessary, he will report what other additional documents you need to provide in order to increase the likelihood of a positive decision from the US Immigration Service (USCIS).

If you know your immigration status and what you want to do, there is a list of popular forms in the upper left of the site. If you are not sure about something, then you can use the hint system, and continue phrases like “I am ...”, “I want ...”, and at the same time choose from the options that the system offers.

The User Control Panel

After successful registration on the site, we are taken to the user’s personal account. We found this to be a very convenient feature as you can store all your personal immigration documents in digital format without worrying about losing them. Using the internal messaging system you can communicate directly with your lawyer. You can also track the progress of your “case” in “online” mode, and each of the 5 steps.

1. Fill out and send documents to a lawyer for verification.
2. Sign and submit documents to USCIS.
3. Receive notification of receipt of documents in USCIS.
4. Get notified of USCIS review.
5. Get the final solution.

How much time and effort will have to be spent on filling out forms and checking documents depends on the specific “case”. I.e,

If you are going to get married, then the questions will be the same; if you are asking for political asylum, the questions will be completely different.

“Chips” system:

— the website and personal account are accessible from computers and mobile devices anywhere in the world;

— there are step-by-step instructions in Russian and English;

— you can upload and edit your documents;

— the notification system reminds you of the dates for submitting biometric data, as well as about the interview at the immigration service;

— you can sign up for an “online” conference with a lawyer;

— saving time and money up to 50%.

Send an application and get an introductory online consultation from an immigration lawyer for free. The fee is charged from the moment when the lawyer begins to check the documents that you have formed using the site.

Attendance of the resource has already reached 1000 people per day, which makes it the most popular “online” service for filling immigration forms of immigration and extending their stay in the US, with the possibility of checking these forms with an immigration lawyer.

It is important that this resource is completely legal, as the creator has a lawyer's license and monitors all changes in US immigration law. All data, personal questions and forms are constantly updated and instantly adjusted, in the event of changes in legislation.