Constantia, NY Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

If this is a flat-fee agreement, your attorney should honor it, regardless of the move, and her new firm should be fine with that. If this is an hourly fee contract where she has not yet charged you for the work she will have to do between now and February, her agreement probably states that she has the right to change her rates (which usually are increased). So read the contract you signed with her; you should find the answers in it. If this was a flat fee and you want to hire a different attorney, but she has not yet done all the work she signed up to do, you may be entitled to a portion of your fee back. But if this is an hourly fee contract, technically, she is not required to continue representing you. With the immigration proceedings, if your case is already in court, usually she would need to seek the approval of the immigration court to withdraw from representation. As a practical matter, you probably don't want an attorney whom you must force to work for you anyway; so talk to her, see if her new law firm will honor her old agreement, and perhaps you and your attorney can come with some mutually acceptable terms. She has worked for you for four years; a move could be expected, and the new law firm probably wants her to charge higher fees, which is also generally alright.

The time-frame for your spouse to obtain lawful permanent residence in the US through marriage to a US Citizen may vary depending on the district you are in and on her individual circumstances. If she is eligible to adjust status in the United States and has no criminal records or arrests, the local District Office in my area is taking about 4-6 months of processing. This may vary substantially depending on the your spouse's particular situation and assuming no delays on her FBI clearance. Some Districts may take many months to process the same type of case.

You cannot really help her until you become a citizen: only a marriage to a citizen would excuse her illegal presence in the U.S. after expiration of her visa. If you marry her now, you might consider filing an immigrant petition for her right away - it will shorten the process by a couple of months, and you will pay the current filing fee (which is likely to go up before you become a citizen). More importantly, it will give your fiancee some degree of protection from deportation: if Immigration & Customs Enforcement ever becomes aware of her illegal presence, as a wife of a permanent resident with an approved immigrant petition, she will less likely be placed in removal proceedings, and if it happens, the Immigration Court will look at the case a bit differently and consider the hardship the deportation would inflict on you (and on your children if you will have them by that time). If you decide to follow this suggestion, remember that: a) the filing of a Form I-130 petition or even its approval do not give your wife any legal status or rights in the U.S.; b) even with an approved I-130 petition, she can be deported; c) after you receive a notice that I-130 Immigrant Petition was approved, do not file an adjustment of status application Form I-485 - it will be denied, and your wife will be placed in removal proceedings; at that point, ask an immigration attorney to handle the case with the National Visa Center to prevent it being discarded as abandoned.