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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawUS Immigration LawWhat Are Fees for Processing a US Marriage (K3, CR1, IR1) Visa from Laos?

What Are Fees for Processing a US Marriage (K3, CR1, IR1) Visa from Laos?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing US Marriage Visas so we are talking about the K-3 Visa, the CR-1 Visa and the IR-1 visa. 

We are basically talking about this as a Marriage Visa in the context of a Laos National married to a United States citizen and the process by which they get that person over to the United States in either Non-immigrant K-3 Visa status or Immigrant CR-1, IR-1 Visa status to the US. 

So I get a lot of enquiries about going to the United States from people obviously due to our job and we see these enquiries come in and they say "How much do you charge to do a K-3 visa to USA from Laos?", "How much do you charge to do a CR-1 Visa from Laos to the United States?" and that is it. That is all they say. 

Well unfortunately, the collective consciousness has kind of gotten this idea in its head that there is a fixed fee or an ability to provide a fixed fee and not have any context of the clients; you know you don't have any knowledge of the clients whatsoever and that a fixed fee can be sort of arranged on that basis. This is not a prudent way of looking at this and in fact I think most of the folks that are on the internet saying that they can do things with this fixed rate without ever even talking to a client, I think they are mostly basically fakes and we see a lot of this. 

As I have noted in other videos, pursuant to Federal Law, 8 CFR 292.1, only an American Attorney is entitled to charge fees for providing Immigration services, for assisting and representing in US Immigration cases; that is clear law on that. There are various memos associated with USCIS and their prior incarnation the INS  (Immigration Naturalization Service), that go into detail on how only Attorneys are allowed to provide these services and the reason for that is exactly this. There is no uniform "one-size-fits-all" fee for all for example K-3 visas from Laos or IR-1 Visas from Laos. There isn't. I have to talk to my clients or prospective clients. I have to talk to the prospective petitioner. I have to talk to the prospective beneficiary. I need to understand what their situation is and I need to understand what they are looking to achieve, how they are looking to achieve it. I need to understand the criminal history of both parties involved. I need to understand any prior Immigration history of both parties involved sometimes, but generally speaking with the US citizen or the spouse of the US citizen, I need to know the Immigration history of their Laos spouse and understand exactly if they have had a Visa before. If so, what were the conditions of it and did they overstay, for example? Again, I need all of this information. I need have some idea of the history of the name of this couple's relationship.  I simply need to understand what is going on in the case before I can provide a quotation and I think any reputable attorney will tell you the same thing. Different Attorneys are going to charge fees in a different way and I certainly don't begrudge any Attorney for charging what they charge but I certainly have an issue with especially these fake lawyers, fake law firms that are unfortunately out in the ecosystem of the internet surrounding Southeast Asia and the so-called fake services; what service they provide is simply beyond me.  A lot of them say "We help you fill out the forms." Well that is not really a service. Somebody who is fluent in English can pretty simply fill out the forms. Now Attorney guidance, or somebody that understands the law and the regulations underlying the forms, that is assistance, that is a legal assistance.

That being stated, someone that quotes a fee or a sort of set of fees without ever enquiring or talking to the person involved, that person or operation needs to be viewed with an overabundance of caution, I would even argue with suspicion, because those that are operating that way in my opinion are not ascertaining the situation of a case. Unfortunately I think with a lot of these fake lawyers, they also may take a case knowing full well the applicant may not even be eligible for the Visa benefit that they are seeking. They may take the money and go through the motions knowing full well that that person is going to be denied. A reputable Attorney isn't going to do that.

So again, the thing to take away from this video, if you are looking for a quotation regarding fees associated with a Marriage Visa from Laos, contact us. We are happy to talk to you. We are based in Bangkok. We deal with a lot of cases at the US Embassy in Laos and we are happy to provide insight and we will try to provide a fee quotation that is narrowly tailored to your circumstances and is at a reasonable price to reflect the actual cost of actually processing and an Attorney actually representing you before the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State and finally the US Embassy in Laos.