Four Mistakes That Can Come Back to Haunt You
I’ve been practicing immigration law for nearly 15 years now, and perhaps the most painful part of my practice is telling people I can’t help them. Sometimes, this is simply because U.S. immigration law doesn’t provide benefits for everyone and the person in my office is one of the people the law is simply not designed to help. However, much more often, it is because their case, by the time they bring it to me, is either broken beyond repair or, if repairable, the fix is so costly they simply can’t afford it. The tragedy of so many of these cases lies in the fact that they often started out as fairly simple cases but, through either inattention and/or mismanagement, they became increasingly difficult, and eventually, irretrievable. Although it usually takes more than one mistake to ruin a case, there are several common errors that I see repeatedly and all of them are very easy to avoid.
1. “I can’t wait that long, attorney.”
Waiting is perhaps the most difficult thing for anyone to do – so, we tend to reject any option that requires us to do it. All family-based preference categories are backlogged. This was true when I started practicing immigration law in 1994, is still true today, and will most likely remain true for many years to come. In other words, if you want your relatives to join you here in the U.S., you will have to do two things: 1) you will have to petition them, and 2) you will have to wait. Waiting is a very hard thing to do when you miss your family, but even if the expected waiting period is several years, that is still much less waiting than you will do if you don’t petition them. If, because you don’t want to wait that long, you decide to not to petition your relatives, you won’t just be waiting years, you will be waiting forever.
2. “A friend told me it would work.”
A person is not qualified to give you immigration advice just because he or she is your friend, or even your relative. They may tell you that what they are advising you to do has worked for them, or perhaps for other people they know, and their cases were “just like” yours. Well, I have been doing this for a very long time and have handled thousands of cases. Yet, I have never seen two cases that were exactly alike; Not ever. Moreover, something that might get you a short-term benefit, such as a work permit, might seem to work, when in fact all it is doing is ruining your chances of getting your green card and having a future in the U.S.
3. “The attorney said he could do it.”
Being an attorney doesn’t give a person magical powers. Attorneys still have to work within the law and they can’t file an application or petition for an immigration benefit when their client is not eligible for that benefit. In addition, most applications are discretionary, requiring a persuasive and organized presentation. If an attorney says he or she can do something for you, ask them how. Ask detailed questions and expect explanations you can understand. Don’t accept statements like “trust me” or “it’s too complicated to explain.” This is your life, your future, and you’re putting it into someone else’s hands and giving them a lot of money to take care of it for you. Be certain they know what they are doing.
4. “I thought I could do it myself.”
Most applications look pretty simple. The questions are not hard and the answers seem to be obvious. However, looks can be deceiving – and almost always are deceiving when it comes to immigration. Immigration law is, at its core, administrative practice, which means there is a form for everything. That does not mean, however, that filling out and filing the form is sufficient, by itself, to present an approvable case. Most applications for immigration benefits require persuasive letters or declarations, and sometimes both letters and declarations, in addition to other evidence which must comply with very specific criteria. If your mistake is simply not submitting sufficient evidence in support of your case, you will have wasted the time and effort you spent to put it together, plus the filing fee, but you might still be able to fix it and re-file it. If, however, your mistake is that you submitted the wrong document, or said the wrong thing, simply because you didn’t know any better, that mistake likely cannot be corrected with a subsequent filing.
All of these mistakes can have disastrous consequences, but all of them can be easily avoided. So please, avoid them. It will make your life, and my job, a lot easier.
Mr. Nelson obtained both his Bachelor's Degree in Economics and his Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of Southern California. He has been practicing law since 1990 and immigration law since 1994. A member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the American Bar Association, Mr. Nelson is admitted to practice before all courts in the State of California, the United States District Courts for the Northern, Central, and Eastern Districts of California, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.
