What a Lawyer Can Do

Immigration lawyers typically avoid helping clients with B2 visitor visa applications. We ourselves did so for many years. The reason is that there is little procedural complexity in applying for a B2 visa (it’s relatively easy to submit an application), so the attorney’s effort may seem less “concrete” to the client. Also, there is the apparent subjectivity and even randomness in the consular decision process. However, with experience and careful research we have learned that consular officers generally follow clear State Department rules when evaluating such applications, although many of such rules are unpublished and can be learned only through experience.

Earlier in our practice, our firm simply advised our onboard clients as to the do’s and don’ts of B2 visa application, and let the clients take it from there. Unfortunately, we found that such clients achieved only slightly better success than the typical applicant going into the process “blind”. When we agreed to start managing these cases ourselves, we achieved dramatically better results. It’s clear now that the challenges of B2 visa applications are well matched to the lawyer’s skills: effective fact-finding, identifying issues, addressing problems, developing a “theory of the case”, providing advice based on legal research and extensive practical experience, clear effective writing skills, discovery and production of supporting documents, avoiding pitfalls, preparing the applicant for the interview, and interacting with government employees.

Our experience indicates that we achieve roughly a doubling of the applicant’s chances of success.

We can not emphasize enough that your best chance of receiving a visa is on your first attempt. Your chances go down dramatically after a denial. The applicant’s passport will be stamped evidencing the denial (and getting a new passport will NOT solve the problem). It’s a widely held myth that a denied B2 visa applicant is legally barred for six months from receiving a visa. There is no such legal barrier. The myth exists because consular officers act as though such a bar exists. They are loathe to contradict a prior decision of a fellow consular officer (or maybe their own decision) and they certainly don’t want to encourage people to endlessly apply and re-apply for the same visa. This is particularly true in busy embassies that can see over 500 non-immigrant visa applications per day.