Immigration law is one of the most complex areas of law. Selecting a good immigration attorney (Also known as 移民律师 in Chinses) can make all the difference to your green card application case: obtaining a green card or being forced to leave the United States. A bad immigration lawyer can overcharge you, fail to provide the promised services, or damage your case in a way you might never recover from. If you are looking for New York immigration attorney (纽约移民律师)，lucky for you, there are so many options in big apple. Therefore, you should be more cautious, the following are several tips regarding how to select immigration lawyer.
- Research the Lawyer First before apply green card (Also known as 绿卡)
You can probably find out a lot about your lawyer online: whether he or she is listed as a member of a state bar association (a requirement) and of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association or AILA (a professional organization that most of the best attorneys join); whether he or she gets good reviews on websites; whether the lawyer has written professional articles for publication etc. If the only reviews you turn up show the lawyer getting arrested or disbarred, you can save yourself a personal meeting.
- Be Skeptical of Unrealistic Promises from immigration lawyer
Good immigration lawyers, like other lawyers specializing in a certain field, rely on solid professional skills to serve their guests. Normally, good immigration lawyers need a lot of case experience and long-term practice experience to ensure their professional level in a certain type of case. When encountering a case that is not in the field of their own practice, a good immigration lawyer will take the initiative to disclose to the client or, at the request of the guest, recommend a high level of other lawyers in the relevant field.
If you encounter an immigration lawyer who is willing to take your case when he is not familiar with type of case at all, you must pay more attention to it.Be careful of any immigration attorney who suggests that you do something fishy: perhaps lie on an application or to a USCIS officer, give the attorney extra money with which to bribe an immigration authority, or buy a fake green card from him or her.
- Compare Advice by Talking to More Than One Attorney for your green card application
While most good immigration attorneys will likely be extremely busy, you should be able to talk to them and their office staff to get a sense of their commitment to clients as well as their overall demeanor and impression of honesty.
Talking to several attorneys will give you some basis for comparison before choosing the one who will be representing you. It will give you a chance to “feel out” various attorneys to get a sense of their personality and work philosophy to determine if they will be a good fit for you. In some cases, getting a second opinion may reveal that the first attorney did not fully understand your case or the law, or was trying to take your money to do something impossible or unethical.
