My kids love the "Get Rid of Cable" ad campaign that DirecTV has been running for the past two years. Â You may have seen a few of these ads during the Super Bowl or on local television.
In the ads, the strong voice tells the tale of someone who had cable and then a series of bad things happens to that someone. Â Typically, the person ends up being tackled, or in a roadside ditch or reenacting scenes from Platoon with Charlie Sheen. Â The ads always end with the advice "don't have XYZ happen to you, get rid of cable and upgrade to DirecTV."
You can see a few of these ads by clicking on this YouTube page. Â The boys and I laugh hard whenever we see these commercials.
I bring this to your attention because we see so many cases where an immigrant (or someone who loves an immigrant), makes a bad decision at the early stage of their immigration case. Â This can include providing the wrong documents in support of an application or filing without an attorney on a difficult case or even making the mistake of filing in the first place.
People then come to us after one, two or even more follow-up decisions have really placed them in harm's way. Â And once they start explaining their problems, I can hear that husky voice from the "Get Rid of Cable" commercials saying something like:
When you file an immigration case on your own, the immigration service sends you a request for evidence.
When you get a request for evidence, you don't know how to respond.
When you don't know how to respond, you mail in things that you shouldn't mail in.
When USCIS gets the things you mail them, they send out an investigator to research your case.
When USCIS researches your case, bad things happen.
When bad things happen, you waste your time, lose your filing fee and get put in deportation proceedings.
Don't get put in deportation proceedings. Â Hire the right immigration attorney BEFORE you file your case.
Sound good?
Thanks for reading.
