Do You Need an Immigration Lawyer or Not?
There is no situation which absolutely requires a private immigration lawyer. Be careful not to misread that. I didn’t say that immigration lawyers aren’t valuable; they just aren’t required.
The fact is that hiring an immigration attorney is a matter of preference. As an immigration attorney myself, I can safely say that some immigration matters probably do not need the attention of an immigration attorney. If an individual needs to renew her green card, there’s a form for that that can easily be found on USCIS’s web site, and she can fill it out herself and pay the fee. It’s that simple. Don’t waste your money on an immigration attorney to do this for you.
Other immigration matters, while seemingly straightforward to the untrained eye, can turn into an immigrant’s worst nightmare if she omits something in her paperwork or admits something that gets her into immigration trouble that she wouldn’t have otherwise been in. For example, an individual with a criminal record (such as a conviction based upon shoplifting a pack of gum five years ago!) who applies for naturalization could be put into removal proceedings. immigration lawyer in san Antonio Please don’t let that happen to you.
Then there are the incredibly difficult immigration matters that individuals usually have absolutely no idea how to handle, such as submitting complicated waiver applications, navigating all the different types of employment-based visa categories, or (heaven forbid) being placed in removal proceedings which necessitates at least several hearings in Immigration Court.
That being said, there are several very good reasons why people hire immigration lawyers:
(1) Immigration law is complex. In 2005, the Congressional Research Service reported: “The statutory scheme defining and delimiting the rights of aliens is exceedingly complex. Courts and commentators have stated that the Immigration and Nationality Act resembles ‘King Mino’s labyrinth in ancient Crete,’ and is ‘second only to the Internal Revenue Code in complexity.’
Finding someone who can navigate the complicated immigration laws can mean the difference between being able to live and work in the U.S. and being forced to leave. Legacy INS Spokesperson Karen Kraushaar stated that “immigration law is a mystery and a mastery of obfuscation, and the lawyers who can figure it out are worth their weight in gold.”
There are, however, some immigration attorneys who either cannot or at least have not yet figured it out. In a law review article written by Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and Northwestern University Law Professor Albert Yoon, it is noted that a panel of judges were asked which area of the law had the lowest quality lawyers. The judges “agreed that immigration law was the area in which the quality of representation was lowest.”
(2) Immigration lawyers can fend off future immigration problems. Because of the complexity of immigration law, it’s difficult for individuals attempting to handle an immigration case by themselves to get up to speed on the immigration laws. This is especially important if time is running against you, which it almost always is in immigration matters. Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has stated in the context of detained immigrants that “the need for legal representation for immigrants has grown so acute and the consequences so drastic that something must be done.” If immigration attorneys are useless, then a U.S. Supreme Court Justice would never have made such a remark.
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