the Price of Immigration Lawyers

The initial consultation (first hour) with the attorney was free, and additional time is $120/hour, billed by the minute. We only ended up needing the first hour.

The entire firm deals exclusively with immigration issues including visas, green cards, citizenship, and a variety of other topics.

An employee of mine's work visa was set to expire in under a year and being his sponsor I wasn't entirely sure what I should do since he wanted to renew his visa. I talked to my usual attorney and he recommended a firm that dealt exclusively with this kind of issue.

Upon seeing the lawyer, she spent the first (free) hour answering questions and passing over pamphlets and forms to us regarding the subject. She actually seemed to go out of her way to keep from having to charge us anything. Either she was honest, or quite busy. Or perhaps both. Either way, we managed to sort through the process and get all the paperwork taken care of well enough with the help she gave us in the first hour.

People seem to see lawyers as good when they're on their side, and bad when the lawyers are working against them. They're also in an odd niche as they're one of the few professions that seems to be able to dictate how much you need their services since with the application of lawyers, the law has become so convoluted that lawyers are now a necessity. Immigration, though, is one place where it's nice to have the help of one to stick it to the government and their silly laws a bit.