How to Prepare

Write a brief timeline.

A little preparation helps us give you clear, specific answers — instead of general ones — in the time we have together.

Key dates — entries, exits, marriages, prior filings — help us understand your case quickly.

Gather your documents.

Passports, prior USCIS notices, marriage or birth certificates — anything related to your situation.

List your questions.

Write them down beforehand so nothing gets missed once we're talking.

Be candid.

Even details that feel awkward — past denials, overstays — help us build the strongest strategy. Everything is confidential.

Bottom Line

Your intake call is free. A follow-up consultation with our attorney is a flat $125 fee, credited toward your retainer if you hire us.

The Two Conversations, and What Each One Is For

Our process has two distinct steps, and knowing which one you are in tells you what to prepare for.

The first is the intake call, which is free. Its job is narrow: to understand what you are trying to accomplish, confirm your matter is something our firm handles, and tell you honestly if it is not. We handle affirmative immigration matters — petitions and applications filed with USCIS and the consulates. We do not handle removal defense or immigration court litigation, and if that is what your situation calls for, the fastest thing we can do for you is say so on that first call rather than three weeks later.

The second is the consultation with the attorney, a flat $125 fee credited toward your retainer if you hire us. This is where your actual facts get reviewed, where you find out which options are realistically open to you, and where you get a flat fee quote for the work. Preparation pays off most here, because this conversation is only as specific as the information you bring into it.

How to Build Your Timeline

A timeline does more work than any other single thing you can prepare. Immigration eligibility turns almost entirely on dates: when you entered, how you entered, what status you held and when it ended, when you married, when you filed, and when anything was approved or denied.

Write it as a plain list, oldest first, one line per event. Approximate dates are far better than no dates — write "spring 2019, roughly March" rather than leaving a gap. If you are unsure whether something belongs on the list, put it on the list. It is much easier for us to set an irrelevant fact aside than to discover a relevant one after a case is filed.

Include every entry into and departure from the United States you can reconstruct, every visa or status you have held, every application anyone has ever filed for you or that you filed yourself, every marriage and every divorce, and any contact with police, courts, or immigration authorities.

What Slows a Consultation Down

The most common way a consultation loses time is a fact that surfaces late. An overstay, a prior denial, a marriage nobody mentioned, a citation from years ago — none of these are automatically disqualifying, but each one can change which strategy makes sense. When one appears at the end of a conversation, the advice given in the first half may no longer apply.

The second most common is documents that exist but were not brought. We can often work around a missing document, but we cannot analyze a notice nobody has read.

The third is a question that never got asked. People frequently leave a consultation without raising the thing that worried them most, usually because it felt embarrassing or off-topic. Write it down beforehand and ask it early.

Why Candor Actually Helps You

Communications with your attorney for the purpose of legal advice are confidential. That protection exists precisely so you can describe your situation accurately without managing how it sounds.

Difficult facts are also, very often, workable facts. Immigration law has waivers, exceptions, and alternative categories built into it, and many of them exist specifically for people whose histories are complicated. What those tools require is advance notice. A problem identified before filing is a strategy question. The same problem discovered by an officer at an interview is a much harder one.

What Happens After the Consultation

You should leave with three things: a clear picture of the options actually available to you, an understanding of what each one would involve, and a flat fee quote for the work if we are a fit. Our fees are quoted before you commit, so you know the cost of your matter before any work begins.

You are under no obligation to retain us at that point. Some people need time, and some need to talk it over with family. If you do move forward, the $125 consultation fee is credited toward your retainer.

What we will not do at any stage is promise you an outcome. No attorney can, and anyone who does should be treated as a warning sign rather than a reassurance. See our guide on notario fraud for what those warning signs look like.

Who This Guide Is Not For

This guide is about preparing for a conversation, not about how any particular immigration process works. If you already know which process applies to you, read that guide first — the family petition, green card, naturalization, work visa, and humanitarian guides each cover their own ground — and bring the questions it raises to your consultation.

If you are currently in removal proceedings, or have been given a date in immigration court, this is not the right firm for that matter and preparing for a consultation with us will not move it forward. Look for a litigation attorney who practices in immigration court.

If your immediate concern is an encounter with law enforcement rather than a filing, see our Know Your Rights guide instead.