Great, now that you have made the choice and commitment to work with me as your legal advisor, it is time to get to work and start the wheels turning. There are several basic steps:
1. Fill out and provide intake-questionnaire. (client)
2. Review and sign Contract of Legal Representation. (client and attorney)
3. Transfer required Retainers and / or other Fees into the Trust Account, per my instructions. (client)
4. Complete Questionnaires and assemble required Documentation. (client)
You can send me copies* of your required documentation, according to my instructions, in a number of ways:
- assemble all photocopies in hardcopy and send by trackable/ traceable mail, or preferrably by FEDEX, or UPS. (unfortunately, we have had several bad experiences with lost/stolen USB-sticks or thumb-drives, which disappeared in transit!)
- NO mobile-phone or tablet-device “photos” of documents can be accepted.
- NO “photos” of computer screens can be accepted. (screenshots of websites, social media, etc. are OK to show web-content and layout, as many of these do not print properly otherwise.)
- in-person delivery to me, if you are in the area (by appointment only).
- place into a cloud-based storage, like GOOGLE-drive, or DROPBOX, etc. and provide me with the necessary access. (ie. download link, etc.)
- you can upload documents directly to me via FTP. I can provide you the required access credentials by email, upon request.
- PLEASE DO NOT – DO NOT – DO NOT STAPLE ANY DOCUMENTS!!!!— My Scanner will go insane, and so will I if I have to remove tons of staples by hand!
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* in some cases, government-issued “Certified Copies”, or notarized copies and / or translations of foreign-language may be required.
5. Document review and Case assembly. (attorney)
6. Preparation of required Letters, Forms and Fee Payments. (attorney)
7. Signatures. (attorney and client)
8. File Scanning, Archiving, and Mailing / Submission to Government. (attorney)
Once your case has been submitted to the Government, depending on your type of case and where your case is processed, additional processes will usually take place or be necessary, including:
- government acknowledgement of case receipt and processing (where file # or case # is assigned to your case),
- re-submitting initially rejected cases, because forms are not properly executed or forms are out of date, checks improperly issued, etc.
- receiving and complying with additional written requests from the government for further documentation or information (“evidence”), often referred to as “RFE” or “NOID”, or 221(g). — As your lawyer, I will respond to these types of inquiries FOR YOU. DO NOT respond to these on your own!
- attending Biometrics appointments, including fingerprinting + photographing,
- submitting to medical examination (client),
- attending in-person interviews, etc. (sometimes w/ attorney attendance, subject to additional fees and costs).
Last Revision: 2024-10-4