If you want to help a foreign-born family member or fiancé immigrate to the United States, you may be wondering whether to hire an immigration lawyer to help you through the process of filing a visa petition and sponsoring that person. And naturally, a big part of that decision depends on how much an attorney costs. We conducted a survey of readers who applied for family-based immigrant visas and fiancé visas. Here’s what we learned about how many hired lawyers, what those lawyers charged, and what readers said about their experiences with immigration attorneys.
Immigration lawyers typically charge a “flat,” or fixed, fee, rather than billing by the hour. In fact, our survey showed that nine in ten of our readers paid their lawyers a flat fee to handle their visa applications for fiancés of U.S. citizens or for overseas relatives of U.S. citizens or green card holders. Most clients prefer to pay flat fees for their immigration cases; that way, they know from the beginning how much they’ll have to pay. And most of the time, experienced immigration attorneys can predict how much work they’ll have to do in a case, by comparing it to similar cases they’ve handled in the past.
Even though almost all readers had the same type of fee arrangement with their lawyers, there were significant differences in the amount of those flat fees. More than half (53%) paid between $1,000 and $3,000, but over a third (35%) paid more than that. Only about one in ten (12%) paid $1,000 or less. The amount any particular lawyer will charge to handle a family or fiancé visa application will depend on several things, including the attorney’s experience, the city or region where the lawyer works, and whether the case involves complications (such as the need for a waiver because the immigrant was previously in the U.S. unlawfully, or low family income that requires extra affidavits of support).
When immigration lawyers use an hourly billing arrangement, they usually charge between $150 and $500 per hour. Although hourly fees can add up quickly, it might be to your advantage to pay by the hour in certain situations. For instance, if you have the ability to complete the paperwork on your own, you can save the lawyer’s time for reviewing the forms and giving you legal advice.
Naturally, not everyone can afford to hire an immigration lawyer. And it is possible to go through the process of applying for a family or fiancé visa without an attorney—particularly if your case is simple and you have the time and wherewithal to follow the complicated instructions involved in immigration applications. Also, unlike some immigration hearings, lawyers can’t go with your overseas relative or fiancé to the required interview at a U.S. consulate (though they can help with the paperwork and handle follow-up communications).
So it’s not surprising to learn that many of our readers didn’t hire anyone to help them with their immigrant visa applications. In fact, nearly half (49%) of the readers who applied for family visas didn’t have any legal help, compared to 44% who hired a lawyer. And even more who sought fiancé visas (60%) applied on their own.
Given the expense of hiring an immigration attorney, some people turn for help to paralegals, notaries (known as notarios in the Spanish-speaking community), or so-called immigration consultants. Very few of our readers hired nonlawyers to take them through the process—7% of applicants for family-based visas, and only slightly more (12%) of applicants for fiancé visas. There are good reasons for that. Notaries in the U.S. (unlike in some other countries) don’t need to have any legal training or knowledge; the same is true for people who call themselves immigration consultants. Certified paralegals do have the training to help fill out legal paperwork, but they can’t give you legal advice or discuss your case with immigration officers. (See Nolo’s article on the risks and savings of hiring paralegals or notaries for immigration cases.)
If you’re at all concerned about your ability to navigate the complicated immigration process on your own, it makes sense to speak with an experienced immigration lawyer about your case. In fact, you should speak with two or more attorneys, if you can, before deciding on one. Many immigration lawyers offer low-cost (or sometimes free) initial consultations. (Our national study on immigration attorneys showed that nearly three-fourths of them said they offered free consultations to potential clients.) It’s important to prepare for a meeting with an immigration attorney by gathering all of the information and documents related to your effort to sponsor an immigrant.
Remember that when you’re having an initial meeting like this with a lawyer, you’re not only discussing your case; you’re also essentially conducting a job interview. On that front, you might get some ideas from what our readers had to say about immigration lawyers they hired to help with their family and fiancé visa applications. About half of the readers said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with their immigration lawyers. When we asked them why, the most common reasons were that the attorneys explained their immigration options clearly and kept them informed about the progress of their case. Of course, readers were also focused on getting the results they wanted, as well as the attorneys' ability to handle complications that came up or demands for more information from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). (Note that the responses add up to more than 100% because many readers gave more than one reason.) These results should help you ask pointed questions to evaluate whether an attorney is likely to give you the legal help and communication you need.
Finally, be prepared for the fact that it could take a long time to process the various parts of the application and get the immigrant visa. Just how long will depend on the nature of your family relationship, where the relative is living now, and the degree to which the slow-down in immigration processing under the Trump administration continues. (See our survey results on how long immigration cases take.)
