Questions worth asking before you hire an immigration attorney

Choosing an immigration attorney is uncomfortable because you are being asked to judge expertise you do not have. Most people fall back on whoever seems most confident, which is unfortunately the least reliable signal available. A few direct questions will tell you considerably more.

Who will actually be doing the work?

This is the single most revealing question. In some practices the person you meet is the person who handles your matter throughout. In others the meeting is with one person and the file is worked by somebody you have not met. Neither arrangement is wrong, but you should know which one you are buying, and who to ask for when something changes.

Ask how you will reach them, and how quickly you can expect a reply. Immigration matters run for months or years, and the thing clients most often complain about is not the outcome. It is silence.

What would make this harder than it looks?

A lawyer who cannot name a single difficulty in your matter either has not looked at it closely or is managing you rather than advising you. You want somebody who will tell you where the weak points are at the start, while there is still time to address them.

The reverse is also worth noticing. Somebody who describes everything as desperate and themselves as the only solution is applying pressure, not judgement. The useful answer is specific and proportionate: here is the part that will need work, and here is why.

What are you not able to promise me?

Asked directly, this question sorts people quickly. No attorney can promise you an approval. The decision belongs to the government, and it rests on facts, on policy, and sometimes on the individual officer. Any guarantee of a result should end the conversation.

What can reasonably be promised is process: that your file will be prepared properly, that you will be told what is happening, and that you will hear the straight answer rather than the comfortable one. That is a much better thing to be offered than a prediction.

How will I be charged, and for what?

Ask what the fee covers and what it does not. Ask specifically what happens if the government comes back asking for more evidence, because that is common and it is where unexpected costs usually appear. Ask what happens if your circumstances change partway through, since over a long matter they often do.

You are not being difficult by asking. You are avoiding the conversation nobody wants to have later, when the work is half done.

Have you dealt with situations shaped like mine?

Note the wording. Not whether they have won cases like yours, which invites a sales answer, but whether the shape is familiar. An employer moving staff between countries, a family with members in different statuses, somebody restarting after a refusal. These are different kinds of problem and experience with one does not automatically transfer.

It is also fair to ask what they do not handle. A practice with a defined scope and the willingness to say a matter falls outside it is usually a better sign than one that handles everything.

What happens if things change?

Immigration matters run long, and lives do not stay still while they do. People change jobs, relationships begin and end, employers restructure, children reach ages that matter, and somebody occasionally has to travel urgently. Ask what you should tell the firm about, and how quickly, because the answer tells you whether they are thinking about your matter as a single transaction or as something that has to survive real life happening around it.

The same question applies in reverse. Ask how you will be told if the law or policy shifts in a way that affects you. Over a matter lasting a year or more that is not a remote possibility, and the difference between hearing it from your lawyer and reading it somewhere is the difference between having options and having a problem.

A short list to take with you

• Who will do the work, and how do I reach them?
• What makes my matter harder than it looks?
• What are you not able to promise me?
• What does the fee cover, and what falls outside it?
• What happens if the government asks for more evidence?
• Have you handled situations shaped like this one?

The answers matter less than the manner of them. You are listening for somebody who tells you things you did not want to hear, in plain language, without hedging. Over a long matter that is worth a great deal more than confidence.

This article is general guidance on choosing a lawyer. It is not legal advice and it does not describe the requirements of any application. To talk about a specific matter, contact Streefland Law Firm in Minneapolis.