Immigration Consultants
The reasons for a person's immigrations from one place to another may be varied. Removing oneself from one place and relocating to another could be for reasons of health where the person moves to another country to seek medical aid. It could also be for the purpose of work. Or it could be the case of affiliations, be it political, moral or religious. Such relocation of people from one place to another was particularly popular in the colonial period owing to the fairly inexpensive air travel during that period. Quite a number of laws, however, had to be followed while emigrating from one country to another, if permanent citizenship was sought. The United States, for example, required residents to permanently reside there for a stipulated period of 10 years. It also required them to have a clean moral and criminal record, among other things. Apart from that regarding legal residence, survivors of the immigrant, must be obtained.
Therefore, for the purpose of advising clients and representing them in the court (Immigration Court, in this case), an adviser is required who would help clients through the proceedings and other legal nitty gritties. The following are some of the functions that an immigration consultants is expected to handle: 1. Process the citizenship permit, or even permit for short visits like for the purpose of education, medical treatment, travel, etc. 2. Deal with issues related to right, duties and obligations of an immigrant, keeping in mind the laws of the state naturalization of the foreign national. 3. Deal with legal issues related to illegal immigrants to the state refugees, traffickers, etc. 4. Help obtain visas. Visas may be of various kinds of H1B visa, investor visa, permanent visas based on the employment status of the visitor. He figures out the one the client requires in consultation with the client. 5. Help obtain visa waivers, for whatever purpose, religious, medical, etc. 6. Represent the client in the court of law regarding immigration proceedings, deportation hearings, etc. Such immigration consultants either work in their private capacity or even the state provides the services of the lawyer to its citizens and emigrants. Their payment is generally on a contingency fee basis. The controversial concept of a la carte legal work has not been widely accepted. However, the American Bar Association is in its favor. In this method, the lawyer does not do the complete work. He only works on a part of the case. In most cases the one who does the paper work does not represent the client in the court of law. This is advantageous as the clients would have to pay only for the services they require as opposed to the entire fees for the entire case that is traditionally paid. |
