Setting out on the path of legal immigration is no easy affair, and as such it makes people vulnerable to sub-par service providers, dishonest consultants promising more than they can deliver, as well as outright fraudulent actors who are out to scam prospective immigrants of their money without anything to show for it.

In the worst cases, malpractice or malicious intent may expose you to losing your money, identity theft, or it may jeopardize your future chances, rights to immigration benefits or to relief.

Needless to say, before you decide to move forward and spend a large sum of money to engage with a legal service provider, you need to educate yourself. This way, you will be better placed to decide what kind of assistance you need and who is most adequate to provide it.

Today, I want to attempt to provide some guidance to those of you who are at this preliminary stage of their journey. At GovAssist Legal, we are not aiming to “reel in” prospective clients unless we know for certain that we can appropriately represent them and support their case. 

This is why we provide the option of a one-time consultation without further obligations for either party. In this way, you can speak to an immigration lawyer before you make any commitments for representation, and confirm whether you even need an immigration lawyer to begin with.

But if you aren’t ready for a one-on-one consultation with a licensed professional quite yet, read on.

What does the law say?

There are two common categories of individuals enabled to provide legal advice and legal services on immigration matters: 

• licensed attorneys (immigration lawyers) and 
• accredited representatives of non-profit, charitable or social service organizations established in the U.S., and recognized by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

In the United States, an attorney is anyone who attended a graduate program and obtained a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree. In order to practice Law in the U.S., the attorney must be a member of a state bar association in “good standing”. The best way to know that the person you are interacting with is a licensed attorney is to ask to see his/her current attorney licensing document. 

Attorneys licensed to practice law in any state can give legal advice and provide legal services.

They can file papers and applications and represent you before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), any immigration court, the BIA, and the state court where he/she is a member of the bar. 
An accredited representative is a staff member of a BIA-accredited organization who has a certain level of experience in and knowledge of immigration law and has been accredited by the BIA to provide immigration legal services. These organizations are, of course, limited in their capacity, and will prioritize cases with high humanitarian considerations, such as asylum seekers and refugees.

Does it matter in which state the immigrant resides?

Immigration Law is established at the Federal level in the U.S., so any U.S.-based attorney can represent you and defend your cases before the official instances.

It does not matter if the immigration lawyer you select is in a different state than the one you reside in.

This is precisely the reason why here at GovAssist Legal, we are able to serve all our clients remotely across the U.S. and even the world, from our operational base in Utah. 

What is legal representation?

In the purest sense of the word, legal representation is any legal work that an attorney performs on behalf of his client. But it is different from legal aid, or legal information.

Legal information

In principle, anybody is permitted by law to provide legal information, an overview of options - but legal information stops when you ask for advice on any decision. Since an unlicensed consultant cannot provide advice, he is not bound by liability for the information given; you must therefore be sure, in those cases, that the consultant is adequately informed and overseen.

Only a licensed attorney can provide you with legal advice, which he is bound by law to provide to the best of his knowledge and abilities, and with a guarantee of privacy.

Self-representation

Self-representation is of course permitted by law, if a case is simple enough. However, I strongly discourage this, as legal practice requires certain skills, and an unschooled party representing themselves (pro-se) can find themselves at a disadvantage. Even attorneys are generally advised to hire another attorney when they need legal representation.

Duties for both parties

Legal representation always places duties on both the client and the attorney.

• On the client’s side, all relevant information needs to be provided accurately, and any new information needs to be added as it appears. The client is expected to be completely honest about his case, to follow the directives of his attorney, and fulfill the basic contractual obligations of settling fees.
• The attorney, as soon as he has accepted to take on the case, must defend the interests of their client to the best of their ability, abide by their directives and keep them sufficiently informed to make tactical decisions.

Client communications are privileged and protected by law, and in case an attorney must withdraw from representation, he must act to protect the interests of his client, including helping them to find another attorney.

Attorneys are considered officers of the court, and as such they must follow the law closely and obey additional ethical constraints:

• they may not advertise with false or misleading claims, 
• they  mustn’t create unjustified expectations, 
• they may not knowingly assist a client who will lie about his case - or lie on their behalf, 
• they must also not have any conflicts of interest with the party they are representing; that is, there may not be any circumstance that adversely affects the outcomes for a client or limits the loyalty of the attorney to him.

Area of expertise

Of course, all attorneys are not equally specialized in all areas of the law, so before you engage in any contractual relationship, you need of course to make sure that your provider has the required depth of knowledge to represent you. An ethical attorney will never accept a case that they cannot confidently take on and will want to get to know your case before accepting representation.
At GovAssist Legal, we facilitate this through a set on online questions (for simpler cases) that allow the attorney to review the details beforehand, or by offering a short, one-time consultation with one of our immigration lawyers in order to give you a general direction and a good sense of the feasibility of your case, without any further obligations down the road. Thanks to our unique set-up, you can have this consultation from the comfort of your own device, at a fraction of the cost of a traditional law firm.

How can I connect with my immigration lawyer?

As a hybrid U.S. law firm (working in both physical offices and remote online), we have been able to create a set-up that completely transforms the legal services delivery model people were used to.

Technology helps our paralegals efficiently verify the technical aspects of your application and supporting documents to avoid potential errors and unnecessary delays; but your case is always overseen by your assigned immigration attorney, who reviews it, answers your questions and is able to provide adequate advice, so you can file your application confidently.

Thus, with GovAssist Legal, you can connect with your attorney without needing to travel anywhere.

What about in-person matters? Can you come to the interview with me?

As a Utah-based law firm, we employ a limited-scope client agreement which enables us to represent you throughout your case and dealings with the authorities, but not for any in-person matters.

U.S. immigration law is federally managed, so we are able to represent you no matter where you reside. This is one of the main reasons we are able to conduct our activities also on a remote basis with such high cost-effectiveness.

As far as interviews or exams (for prospective citizens) are concerned, rest assured our team is very well equipped to make sure you are prepared for any in-person interviews or other interactions with U.S. authorities, including mock-up interview sessions and rundowns of standard test questions.

The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available are for general informational purposes only.