Does USCIS discriminate against cases filed by lawyers? Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States out of our office here in St. Louis, Missouri. One of the great things about having a vibrant YouTube channel is that you'll get good questions from people who comment on the videos. If you have a good immigration question, we might just be able to feature it on an upcoming video.
Today's question comes from Nate, who commented on a recent video about lawyers and immigration. Nate wants to know if USCIS discriminates, or punishes, or slow walks cases that are filed with a lawyer. In other words, are people who file without a lawyer, do their cases go faster?
I've seen no indication of that. In fact, I think that there's a very good argument to be made that cases filed by lawyers go the fastest because lawyers who know what they're doing, know how to put the case together the way that USCIS is used to receiving it. We also cut down on mistakes. We cut down on missing information. I think for most lawyers who, like I said, know what they're doing, they can get a case moving faster than cases without a lawyer.
Now, I'm not making this video to try to convince people to hire us or anything like that. The only reason I'm making this video is to sort of share or to break this myth that USCIS gets mad when people bring a lawyer to an interview or get mad when people use a lawyer to file for an immigration benefit. I think that they don't treat you any differently.
The one thing I will say is if you're a lawyer who doesn't have a good reputation, that might lead to your case being delayed or denied, but if your lawyers have a good reputation and a good working relationship with the local field office, then I think that's going to make your case go faster.
Nate, I don't think in any way, shape, or form that they punish people or slow walk cases, make them go slower when you file with a lawyer. I think just the opposite; that lawyers who know what they're doing, actually make the case go faster.
If you have questions like this or questions that you want us to shoot a video on, just email us at [email protected]. You can also give us a call at (314) 961-8200. You can email us at [email protected]. Be sure to join us in our Facebook group, which is called Immigrant Home. Then if you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel, you can do that so that you get updates whenever we make videos, just like this one. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.
