This retainer agreement will confirm the terms upon which you have retained our firm to represent you in connection with immigration and related matters. The services to be rendered will consist of securing the receipt by your fiance of a K1 visa to enter the United States. The specific services to be provided are as follows:
1. USCIS Forms Preparation
Our office will prepare all USCIS forms for you based on the information and documents you and your fiance provide us. Upon completion, we will send your forms to you for signature by express mail.
2. Collection of Form Data from Fiance
A member of our office (including overseas staff) will contact your fiance to obtain all biographical information required by the visa process, unless such information has already been obtained by you.
3. Supporting Document Advice
Our office will provide you and your fiance with all necessary advice regarding the collection of supporting documents for the USCIS petition and Embassy interview.
4. USCIS Application Preparation
In the interest of expediting USCIS review of your K1 visa petition, our office will prepare your petition according to the highest professional standards, and every effort will be made to make the application as complete, accurate and easy to review as possible, so that the USCIS official is encouraged to approve the application as soon as possible.
5. Contact with USCIS
Our office will handle all telephone, mail, and fax contact with the USCIS. In extraordinary circumstances, we may ask you to voluntarily contact the USCIS to aid our office's efforts to expedite your case. Your voluntary agreement to undertake such contact will not be deemed as a failure by our firm to adhere to the terms of this agreement.
6. Embassy Forms Preparation
We will fill out all Embassy forms for your fiance shortly after our submission of the USCIS petition and will mail the forms to your fiance's home address. We will also at this time send your fiance's instructions prepared by our office, as well as all the Embassy instructions and other material contained in U.S. State Department Packet #3 (initial Embassy mailing to the fiance) and U.S. State Department Packet #4 (final Embassy mailing to the fiance).
7. Contact with U.S. Embassy
All required telephone, mail, and fax contact with the U.S. Embassy will be handled by our office. In extraordinary circumstances, we may ask you to voluntarily contact the Embassy to aid our office's efforts to expedite your case. Your voluntary agreement to undertake such contact will not be deemed as a failure by our firm to adhere to the terms of this agreement.
8. Contact with the Fiance
We will honor all reasonable client requests to contact your fiance by telephone to assist her/him in resolving problems or difficulties associated with the legal process as well as maintaining confidence and composure in the process.
9. Paralegal Assistance in Moscow, Kiev, Guangzhou, Manila and Warsaw
One of our assistants will meet your fiance prior to her Embassy interview to prepare her/him for the interview. In the event that our assistant becomes unavailable due to illness or some other exigency beyond the control of our office, a member of our U.S. office fluent in your fiance's foreign language will contact your fiance by telephone to conduct the Embassy interview preparation.
10. Embassy Interview Preparation for Other Cities
For fiances undertaking interviews in embassies other than those listed in the paragraph above, one of our attorneys will call your fiance and thoroughly prepare her/him for the interview through telephone consultation.
GENERAL SERVICES / PROVISIONS:
11. Client Updates
We will keep you closely advised of all significant developments in the progress of your case. We will initiate contact to advise you of the following events, among others: (a) Our successful contact with your fiance to obtain all necessary biographical information (b) Receipt by us of your and/or your fiance's documents and other supporting items (c) Our mailing to you of your completed USCIS forms (d) Our submission by express mail of your USCIS petition (e) Our mailing to your fiance of her/his Embassy instructions and completed forms (f) Arrival of USCIS Receipt Notice of your petition with case number (g) I-797 Approval Notice of your petition (h) Request by our office to embassy for interview date for your fiance (i) Interview date for your fiance
12. Attorney Accessibility
You can expect to have access to an attorney during normal working hours, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time, excluding holidays. Should a specific attorney you desire to speak with be engaged at the time of your telephone call, you can expect a return telephone call within 24 hours (not including weekends and holidays), except in such cases where extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the attorney make such a call impossible.
13. Expedited Case Processing
Every reasonable effort will be made to expedite your case promptly and efficiently. Please understand, however, that government bureaucracy errors or workload problems beyond our office's control can sometimes slow the processing of a case. We will, however, work proactively with the government agencies involved to minimize the impact on your case of any such government errors or delays.
14. Attorney/Client Ethics
We expect that all information given by you or your fiance to our firm, either orally or in writing, will be accurate to the best of your knowledge. If we discover that any information you supply us is willfully inaccurate or false, we will immediately withdraw from representing you as required by law.
15. Attorney Fee
You will be charged a flat fee of $2000.00 for the K-1 visa, plus $300 for each child invited as a K-2 beneficiary. Should a co-sponsor be needed to meet the financial requirements of the K-1 visa, there will be an additional charge of $250. Our fees presume that you and you fiancé (e) have accurately represented all material facts to us, and that you and your fiancé(e) follow the instructions that our office provides to you. You may pay the fee in installments as follows: two monthly payments of 1/2 the attorney fee plus $25 per payment, or three payments of 1/3 of the attorney fee plus $25 per payment. All installment payments are due 30 days after the prior payment.
16. Fixed fee
Both parties understand and agree the fixed fee and is based upon the average time for a K-1 visa case in our office, and that individual cases vary in the actual amount of work required. If your case requires more work than average, whether it be for appeals, post-interview processing, or other additional work, you will not be charged an additional fee beyond the initial retainer fee. Likewise, if you case should require less work than average, and in particular if you should withdraw or abandon your petition, the fee will be deemed to be earned in full and no part of the fee will be reduced or returned.
17. Money Back Guarantee
If we are unable to obtain a visa for your fiance after exhausting all appeals, we will refund your legal fee to you in full, except in such cases where you or your fiance have misrepresented a material fact to our firm, or have failed to follow our office's clear instructions.
18. Expenses
We will not bill you for our office expenses associated with processing your case (e.g. express mail charges, telephone charges, copying costs, et cetera). You will separately pay all required government fees and medical examination fees.
We appreciate the confidence expressed by you in selecting our firm to act as your counsel in connection with this matter.
AGREED TO AND ACCEPTED BY:
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Client Name
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John F. Roth
