American Attorney/Law Firm that specializes in Family based US Visas

bethey

Hello!

Any chance anyone knows of a firm or attorney located in Delhi that handles K or CR/IR classified visa issues at the US Embassy? I'm not looking for an agent who can file paperwork on my behalf or anything like that - we are well past that point but have hit a road block of sorts.

My google searches have yielded a ton of firms that handle work/business visas but not too many on the family front.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

machadinha

Hm. I'm dropping a note to someone in the field. Works more the other way around though, don't hold your hopes up.

You might want to scout around the Goa and "Moving to..." forums here some where the question has probably come up, but you may be hard-pressed to find any reliable names.

Anyway, maybe that person will be in with some advice. Give it a day or so.

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dzibead

I don't know of any U.S. attorney or law firm with a branch in or near Delhi that would specialize in this. I'm not saying there isn't one, but I don't know of any and I would honestly be surprised if there were one, as the expertise required is fairly specialized and I don't know how much demand there would be in India for someone who does this kind of work.

An immigration lawyer in the U.S. is your best bet for dealing with this, as the paper work is ordinarily submitted in the U.S. by the U.S. spouse. There are some significant differences between the K3 visa and the CR-1/IR-1 visa (e.g., the K3 visa is a non-immigrant visa and the holder of such a visa would need an adjustment of status to stay permanently in the U.S.), so it pays to work with an attorney who actually knows what he or she is doing, which means someone who has actual experience with the application process and isn't just looking stuff up on the internet and "making it up as he goes along", which is what you might get if you tried work with someone in India who doesn't do the process all the time.

P.S. mach, the "moving to Goa" discussions aren't going to help, because the OP is inquiring about types of American visas used to bring foreign spouses to the U.S.

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RWeHavingFunYet

Looks like you're looking for information on Marriage Based Immigration Choices
for Non-US Citizen fiance(e) or spouse living overseas.
There should be tons of specialized, knowledgeable Attorneys in NJ/NY area, who could handle this case very easily. Why are you looking for Delhi based Attorneys? Is there a special reason ??

machadinha

Ah! I got that thoroughly mixed up then Well, that's why I called a certain person in I was thinking any CR/IR etc. is well beyond me anyway. (--> I'd been wondering why an American attorney though. Makes sense this way though, yes, sure. Duh. Blame it on all the people here looking to get into, not out of there.)

So Bethey, how did your shipping plans ever work out?

bethey

I've tried finding an attorney states side that has dealt extensively with the New Delhi Consulate for a K1 and have found numerous attorneys that have handled family based visas but not necessarily this specific consulate or if they have dealt with New Delhi, not the issue we are having. Some cities with higher fraud posts [like Ho Chi Minh City and Juarez Mexico] have American attorneys with local offices, I thought there was a possibility New Delhi may be the same. We are having issues that are definately high fraud post/India-centric so I was hoping maybe there was someone...

There is the real possibility we will be re-applying as a CR1/IR1 via a direct consular filing, meaning I will be living in Delhi to be eligible to file in such a manner. So, I would no longer be state side at that point.

Given the particulars of US immigration you can't just refile without resolving your old case and I want to be able to have someone able to resolve issues available to me locally [meaning in Delhi] when/if the time comes. And, I would prefer to have that relationship lined up before needing to move to Delhi otherwise I'll be hiring someone here and dealing with a long distance attorney relationship.

As for the shipping plans - on the back burner until all of this can be resolved. What was supposed to take 6 months is hitting month 10. If we refile, we're looking at another 12+ months...we'd really like to get on with our lives!!!

bethey

Sorry to bump this - but looks like plan B may be in effect shortly...dzibead you didn't happen to habe any luck, did you?

It appears there is a US firm with a "presence" in the Indian Consulates - Murthy Law out of Houston Texas. Ring anyone's bells?

I'm off to look at the expat threads in more depth.

Did I mention hating the consulate yet today

dzibead

The Murthy Law Firm I found on-line is in Owings Mills, Maryland, not Houston. It looks excellent.

http://www.martindale.com/Sheela-Mur...433-lawyer.htm
http://www.murthy.com/attorney.html

bethey

Evidently, I'm a fraud looking for a marriage of convenience.

Just thought I'd share....

dzibead

This is the treatment (initially I typed "threatment" - Freudian slip?) everybody gets from the U.S. Consulate: guilty until proven innocent.

In order to prove that she had sufficient ties to India that she would return, a friend of mine who wanted to visit the U.S. with her husband (who already had a visa) showed her Caesarian scar to the interviewer to try to prove that the two kids they were leaving behind in India while they visited the U.S. were really hers. She got the visa, but honestly ...

Digital Drifter

Maybe they should put in some labelled collection jars and ask people to drop their kidneys in and collect it when they return to India when they suspect you might hightail it there.

me thinks it's win-win. No body goes, no work for the consulate too. Saves them some aggravation too.

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pontesnm

In all fairness to the consular officials they are just interpreting the law which has been badly written (and gives them too much authority). Recently 5 Chinese girls applied for student visas to the US. (they had to travel from Xian to Beijing - a long distance). Three got rejected. It is terrible.

Bethey - why did you file for the permit in India? It would seem to be better to do it in NJ. The Cherry Hill office in NJ is in a nice suburban location with plenty of parking and relatively nice treatment (I went there for my citizenship interview). The name on my Indian passport did not match the name on my Indian birth certificate - your official name as per US law. They allow you to legally change your name at no charge,

dzibead

Here's a discussion from the U.S. Dept of State's website regarding visa denials for non-immigrant visas. http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/de...ials_1361.html U.S. law officially presumes that everyone applying for a non-immigrant visa actually intends to stay and the applicant has the burden of overcoming that presumption and the key is evidence of "strong ties" to the country of residence. But bethey is dealing with a K1 (or K3?) or CR1/IR1 immigrant visa application, and I don't know whether there's any legally mandated presumption against issuing the visa in that case (e.g., presume every marriage is a phoney "marriage of convenience"), but I know that even when applying in the U.S. some couples get scrutinized closely and it probably has to do with factors like the duration of the marriage, whether there are children, possible age disparity between the partners -- anything that makes the marriage look "fishy". And even if there's no legally mandated negative presumption, I'm sure there's some guidebook of procedures that tells consular officials "what to look for".

indiaprof

The Indian papers in the States (India West, India New England, etc.) have lots of advertisements for immigration lawyers who specialize in South Asia. Many of these papers are on-line, as well.

They might be able to help, or might have contacts in India.

bethey

I spoke with an attorney with Murthy today. For the record if anyone is curious they do have a satilite office in Delhi.

We are going for a K1 - technically a non-immigrant visa that shows the intent to immigrate. It's a weird hybrid in the scheme on visas.

Consular officers are taught to look for certain "red flags" - and yes our case had some of those. It appears they also are more suspicious of mixed relationships [Euro descent Americans or African American engaged to/married to Indians]. Of the many mixed relationships I know going thru this process, a vast majority get requests for additional information and many get denied - like we just were on Monday. There is an appeals process that we will be starting shortly. Short of that, we will be refiling [another 6-9 months wait]. And then, if that doesn't work, I'm off to India to live...

Duration of relationship, age difference, religion difference, cultural difference, past divorces, past foriegn marriages, "quick" marriages, "mate disparity" [they don't look like they belong together : she's too pretty or he's too hunky for the mate], socio-economic disparity...all of these are traditional red flags.

I was told we may be viewed as trying to set up a marriage of convience because we were friends for years prior to changing the scope of the relationship. Additionally, I'm divorced, so what good Indian family would allow their precious son to marry a divorcee??? Which then led to the conclusion that he's using me for a green card. Oh - and they did a further investigation to try and prove he had family here paying me off for the relationship - impending marriage. Absofreaking lovely!

I know - more than you wanted to know - but at this point I just need to vent!

I'm still interviewing attorneys so I'll take a look-see at some of the Indian newspapers here in NJ...didn't even think of that but I was so shocked I couldn't even process what was happening.