Finding a lawyer to represent you in an immigration case can be a pretty major decision, one that many people in your position will undoubtedly consider very expensive. You should however consider the fact that an experienced immigration attorney can actually make all the difference and may ultimately affect the positive outcome of your particular case. However, just hiring the first lawyer you can find may not always be the wisest solution and you should be able to choose the attorney who best suits your needs.
Below are a few things your dedicated immigration lawyer should be able to successfully complete, when taking your immigration case to court.
1) Determine a plea and proper defense strategy based on your charging documents
As a sign that removal proceedings have been initiated in your case, the government will serve you with a NTA notification, which is basically a notice to appear where all the charges against you are to be noted. What does this mean? Basically that all the motives for your deportation have to be properly listed in this NTA document. An experienced lawyer will be able to review the file and determine if everything in there is correct. In case of incorrect changes, the attorney has to be the one who will notify the court. Many immigration cases are based on unproven or wrongful evidence and this is basically where your experienced lawyer can help: if the government has been unable to prove any of the charges against you, your attorney can even move to have the case or legal proceedings terminated.
In case all the charges are proven, you can move to discussing your plea and defense options with your attorney.
2) Fill out applications and put together supporting documents
Once you have established a proper defense strategy, your lawyer will help complete all necessary paperwork on your behalf, specifically documentation that is sent to court. In this case, you need to actively involve yourself into providing the right information. At this stage, the lawyer will also take the lead in working with your family and collecting supporting evidence and documents that may you’re your case. Included in this category are letters of support, country condition reports, US presence proof, affidavits and additional information regarding your family. Another important step that your immigration attorney will make sure to follow is follow the rules of submitting documentation to court.
3) Work on preparing witnesses for your hearing in court
Filing paperwork is not all an immigration lawyer will do for you, as they will typically speak on your behalf during all calendar hearings for your case. These are basically preliminary hearings and they do not compare to the last one, where you yourself will testify regarding your deportation case. In most situations, additional witnesses are invited to testify. Preparation, for both yourself and the witnesses is vital so your lawyer will hold individual sessions with everyone to make sure they are prepared for questioning.
One thing that you should always keep in mind is that an immigration lawyer with a proven track record of won cases can be often invaluable with your deportation case. Don’t take this matter lightly, as you may not have a second chance to win such a difficult case.