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Comment by imaginenore | Hacker News Reader

The thing about the US immigration is, any mistakes have major consequences, often leading to deportation and/or multi-year bans for country entry. TurboTax can make a mistake, and you will just pay whatever the IRS asks you to. The INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) is not that lenient.

That's why I think you have to be batshit crazy to use any software instead of a cheap immigration lawyer.

(I personally went through the student visa -> greencard -> citizenship process, so I know how it works)

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The INS doesn't exist anymore. The USCIS is assuming its former responsibilities now.

Otherwise, completely agree with you. You don't want to fuck with these guys. A mistake in your application randomly triggers either them asking for more doc, or them rejecting the application altogether. A rejected application can have very severe consequences indeed.

I read a lot of horror stories in this thread about bad attorneys, I guess I was lucky with mine who was completely awesome.

I would say that the first place I would target would be renewals -- the first time is scary.

They have a lawyer look over the documentation.

And, even if you hire your own lawyer, being able to present a neat packet of all the forms already completed will surely save you many billable hours.

Marvelous. Does the lawyer also take professional responsibility when a mistake is made?

Is that something lawyers do? I've never met a lawyer like that. Next we'll hear that physicians or architects stand behind their work...

How did you get from student visa to green card?

Would you recommend that path?

The US education is crazy expensive. But it's compensated by crazy / high / good salaries in certain fields. So do the math carefully for your field.

For example, if you want to be a lawyer or study something like history, women studies, arts, it's absolutely not worth it.

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