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Does the lawyer gather the evidence for you?

Key answer

No lawyer will gather evidence for you: they do not know you or your field, you describe every achievement yourself, and the lawyer packages it correctly. So many start on their own: scholarly articles are scholarly articles for any lawyer, judging and prizes can be collected by reading contest rules, expert articles can be written in bulk, and then you show it all to the lawyer, who says what to add. The opposite view exists too: do not collect criteria without a lawyer, because different lawyers see criteria differently, and your job is to make a lawyer interested in your case. A warning from members: avoid those with a 100 percent approval rate - they take only unlosable cases, demand top-tier publications, and hand the writing to a paralegal.

Community answers

The answers below are translated from the original Russian - the language of the community chats.

  • If you can write, for example, a scientific article, then you can write the petition yourself. No lawyer can gather evidence for you, knows nothing about you, and does not understand your field. You describe everything in detail, each of your achievements, while the lawyer packages it neatly. How they package it is another matter.

  • Start doing it yourself. Scientific articles are just scientific articles for any lawyer; if they are in a scientific library, that's great. You can also start gathering awards and accolades: read the competition rules, and that's it. If you are writing a book, a lawyer won't help you here. You can create as many expert articles as you want; the topic is hot. Then throw all this at the lawyer, and he will tell you what to add. I don't see the point in spending money at the initial stage.

  • Do not even consider gathering criteria without a lawyer unless you plan to apply without one. Otherwise, one lawyer will have one vision of the criteria, and another will have a different one. Your task is to find a lawyer who is interested in your case. If you have had a bad experience, draw conclusions on why the lawyer finds you uninteresting: closed criteria are not all that is needed from you. Look for someone whom you can understand and who wants to work with you.

  • You especially need to steer clear of those with a 100% approval rate. They generally only take on cases that are impossible to fail, no matter how much effort is put in. That is why they require top publications, as they are sure not to receive a denial with such publications, and then the petition is handed over to a paralegal for writing. A truly competent lawyer has an average approval rate because they take on not only absolutely winning cases; their job is to understand and prove a case where there are rough edges.

  • It seems better to gather the case and evidence yourself and clearly understand how you will build your argument. A lawyer knows the legal side but doesn't know you or your field, and without your input, they cannot distinguish relevant articles from irrelevant ones.

The answers are anonymized community experience from the public chats, not legal advice. Officers may decide similar cases differently.

Sources

All questions on: The petition and formattingAll questions on: Process and timelinesAll questions on: General questionsAll questions on: EB-1AAll questions on: O-1 visa

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A reference page built from community experience, not legal advice. Requirements and practice change - verify on uscis.gov.

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