Will immigration be suspicious if I change the lawyers before my interview? Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States out of our office here in St. Louis, Missouri. Today's question comes from Nick, and Nick wants to know, "If I change my lawyer right before my interview, whether it's a green card interview or a naturalization interview, will USCIS be suspicious?"
Now, I wanted to make this video because so many people spend so much time worrying about what USCIS views as suspicious. And when it comes to lawyers, like bringing a lawyer to your interview, or changing lawyers before your interview, or bringing a new lawyer to your interview who didn't file the paperwork, those are not things that USCIS gets that worked up about. So if USCIS is going to be suspicious about your case, it's going to be because of the merits of your case. It's not going to be because you brought in an attorney or you changed an attorney, any of those things.
So some people think that just by bringing a lawyer that means your case is more serious and that you're going to be subjected to extra scrutiny. And I want to make this video to put you at ease. Nobody at USCIS cares about which lawyer you bring. Now, there are some lawyers who are sort of shady, and if you bring a shady lawyer to the interview, that might make them suspicious because lawyers after a while get a reputation. So when you're picking your lawyer, you're going to want to make sure that you have a lawyer with a good reputation. But in any event, the simple act of changing lawyers or bringing lawyers who did not file the paperwork to your interview, that in and of itself is not going to make them look at your case any differently.
I substituted myself for another attorney recently. I showed up at the interview. I filed a G28 that my client signed on the day. They signed it actually right in front of the officer, and the officer didn't care at all. They just needed it for their records and on we go. So I think for the most part, immigration officers like to ignore the lawyer and pretend that they're not there now. Some lawyers, like my wife, are a little bit more activist and sort of more involved in the interview. I tend to sort of sit back and watch and just comment when I need to. But I think for the most part, the immigration officers themselves don't get too worked up over which attorneys there or who the attorney is, or anything like that.
So Nick, I don't think you need to worry about it. It's okay if they changed the day of the interview. It's okay if they change ahead of time. It's okay that you change the lawyer at all. There's nothing to worry about. They're not going to hold your case to extra scrutiny, and I hope you found this video helpful. If you did give us a call at 314-961-8200. Or you can email us at [email protected]. You can always join us in our Facebook group, which is called Immigrant Home. And if you liked this video, please be sure to subscribe to this channel so that you get updates whenever we make videos just like this one, and please share it out on social. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.
