10 Ways to Choose the Best Immigration Lawyer for You

How to Choose an Immigration Lawyer?

If you have decided that you need to seek the help of an immigration attorney. The next problem you will face is how to choose the right immigration attorney. For those who do not live in a city, there may not be many options to meet with an immigration lawyer.

If you have not found an experienced immigration lawyer in your city, try to get advice over the phone, especially if your case is not complicated and if you are not in the process of deportation. You can arrange to email the documents to a lawyer for verification and pay for the consultation by credit card over the phone.

Read on to know ten ways to choose the best immigration lawyer for you!

• Don’t Ask People Without a License for Help

Where should you start looking for an immigration lawyer? It should be in mind that not all people who claim to be immigration lawyers are actually immigration lawyers. 

Notaries, paralegals and translators cannot give immigration advice unless they are licensed to do so. Decide right away who you are dealing with. 

Ask if the person has a lawyer’s license, find out its number. Check the status of this license on the website of the licensed state bar. 

• Immigration Attorney Disciplinary Action

Every self-respecting American immigration lawyer has a website. Go to the website of an immigration lawyer, read about his work experience and education. Check the website of the bar of the state that licensed the lawyer to see if that lawyer had disciplinary action. 

• In His Ad, A Lawyer Is Unlikely to Talk About Disciplinary Actions or Poor Work Experience

In practice, we see a lawyer who received a license in 2001, stopped practicing law in 2009. However at the end of 2016 he was allowed to return. Anyone who has counted 15 years of experience here is deliberately hushing up that the lawyer was out of work from 2009 to 2016.

• Your State Licenses

Different states have different requirements for obtaining a lawyer’s license. After graduating from law school, students take the Bar exam. Licensed exams vary in complexity from state to state. For example, it is consider the hardest exam in California. In July 2012, only 55% of students passed the California exam, while in Misuri State, 90% of the students passed the exam. 

US immigration law is federal. Many believe that any lawyer licensed in any state can practice immigration law. For example, a lawyer licensed in a state like Misuri, where it is not difficult to pass a licensing exam, would argue that he can practice immigration law in California. In fact, it is not always legal and ethical to practice immigration law in California without a California license. 

• Choose An Immigration Attorney Who Has Received A JD In The USA

You can become a lawyer in California not only after completing three years of doctorate in law school. People with a law degree in other countries can complete one year of Master’s degree (LLM) and, by passing the California licensing exam, obtain a lawyer’s license.

Requirements for lawyers in other countries are very different from American ones. In many countries it is possible to practice law with a bachelor’s degree. It is, of course, advisable that your immigration lawyer has a doctorate from America and a license from the state in which he works.

• More Likely That an LLM Lawyer Will Be Incompetent

As a result, having knocked over the thresholds of law firms, such lawyers open their own practice, having neither the slightest experience of working in the American system, nor the full amount of knowledge how to maneuver in this system. For such lawyers, specialization in immigration becomes natural – it is always easier to sell services to former compatriots who are not particularly verse in the intricacies of the system. 

Of course, many of these lawyers gain invaluable experience through trial and error and become very cool professionals. Unfortunately, others slide into absolute unprofessionalism and operate on the principle of “sell at least some service.

• About Me Section

It is important to pay attention not only to which university the lawyer graduated from, but also how he graduated, what classes he took, what experience in the field of immigration the lawyer received during his studies and after graduation. This information can be found on the website of the immigration lawyer in the “about yourself” section.

Look for an immigration attorney who has handled immigration cases in different organizations and law firms — more likely to have worked with a large number of experienced attorneys and will have more experience than someone who started a law firm immediately after graduating from law school.

• Work Experience

Next, pay attention to how many years the attorney has been in immigration cases and whether he takes on other cases besides immigration. A lawyer who deals exclusively with immigration will have more experience in his field than one who deals with everything.

You should not choose an immigration attorney based solely on the date the attorney received his license. By itself, this factor does not say anything, unless, of course, the lawyer graduated from law school last year. After passing the state licensing exam, a lawyer may not practice law for ten years and still claim to have ten years of experience in immigration law. 

• Immigration Lawyer Specialization

Immigration attorneys can specialize in employment-based immigration or family-based immigration. Decide which lawyer specialization you need.

Make sure your attorney has court experience, many just fill out and do not represent clients at immigration court deportation hearings.

• Certified Immigration Specialists

Since any lawyer can say that he or she is involve in immigration law, it becomes more difficult to figure out who the real immigration lawyer is. The State Bar Association comes to the rescue, awarding attorneys with the title of Certified Immigration Specialists. 

To obtain this title, a lawyer must a eight-hour immigration exam, which questions on all types of immigration, including family, business, and deportation protection. The exam is held only every two years. If a lawyer passes the exam, he needs to prove he has been engaged in immigration law for five years. He have to complete more than a hundred immigration cases, completed 45 hours of additional training in immigration.

The California Bar Association reviews an immigration attorney’s application, reads peer reviews, reviews the attorney for convictions and disciplinary actions, and then makes a decision. Certified Immigration Professionals charge more money for their work. 

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