Immigration Consultants can cost you more than money—they can cost you your immigration status.

Maria enters the United States on a visitor visa and on the advise of relatives, consults with an Immigration Consultant about obtaining long term legal status. At the fraction of the cost of an attorney, the Immigration Consultant claims he can get Maria a work permit. Maria pays the Consultant and signs some forms. As promised, Maria received a work permit in the mail. Maria was elated—for a while anyway. What she did not know was that the Consultant filed an asylum application, which eventually led to Maria being placed into deportation proceedings. Maria was then forced to spend a substantial amount more money in legal fees to overcome a fraudulent asylum application in the immigration court. 

This scenario and others like it have played out countless times over the last 2 decades.

Immigration Consultants, also known as “Notarios,” are not licensed to practice law and most have no formal training in the law. However, they usually speak the native language of the immigrant community and they cost less than attorneys. BUT DO THEY REALLY?

As an immigration attorney practicing for 13 years, I have had countless clients come to me after their immigration standing in the United States was damaged by fraudulent or just ignorant practices of an immigration consultant. In each case, the client spent more money in the end trying to repair the damage than if he or she had consulted with a licensed attorney experienced in the area of immigration law in the beginning. However, the money is only half of the price immigrants pay for using Immigration Consultants. Immigrants suffer the fear, stress and embarrassment of being dragged through immigration proceedings.

I am passionately informing the immigrant community about this problem because I recently became involved in a case in which a mother of a terminally ill United States citizen child is under threat of imminent deportation because the mother used the services of an unscrupulous Immigrant Consultant several years earlier. The Immigration Consultant provided false information, which eventually led to the perilous situation she now faces. The mother said to me with tears streaming down her face, “If someone had only told me….”

Learning from her mistake and the mistakes of the countless immigrants that came before her, I offer this—Immigration Consultants will not only cost you more money in the end, but they will cost you your peace of mind and in many cases your immigration status.

You can find an experienced immigration attorney by contacting the American Immigration Lawyers Association where many attorneys offer free consultations.