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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawVisa NewsHow Can a "Visa Agent" Quote a Service Fee Without Case Review?

How Can a "Visa Agent" Quote a Service Fee Without Case Review?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Visa agents quoting fees for services without even reviewing a case. What are we talking about here? Well I see this a lot in the US Immigration context and I see it a lot in the Thai Immigration context. You will see people who say "well I saw it somewhere that so-and-so is quoting this amount to do this kind of Visa", or "I called them up and they said, yeah I can do this." I often ask, in a US Immigration context especially "did you talk to them about your history? Whether or not you had a criminal history, arrest history, whether or not your significant other in the case of Fiancé and Marriage visas has any type of illicit history? Did you talk about anything having to do with your prior history for applying for an American visa?" Oftentimes, they will say "no, they just told me it is all okay and I can just apply." Well those things have a tremendous impact on your ability to apply for an American Visa of many different categories. For purposes of this video, I am talking more narrowly about Fiancé and Marriage Visas but they can have an impact, especially criminal history, on the part of a petitioner or a beneficiary. In a family-based context it can have a tremendous impact on whether or not one can be deemed admissible to the United States. We have gone into detail in this on this channel many, many times. We have got videos on Inadmissibility, Waivers of Inadmissibility etc. 

At the same time, I also see this in the context of Thailand and actually for me, because I am used to all the fakes in the American Immigration context, for me the Thai situation seems a lot more ominous because I am not as used to it in the sense that Thai Immigration has changed a lot since the promulgation of the Emergency Decree back in March and the situation that has evolved since then. Thai Immigration is hard. Dealing with matters pertaining to Thai Immigration is not just some straightforward endeavor in filling out some forms and just throwing them at an Immigration Officer. That isn't how it works especially in the context of Non-Immigrant Visas. The other thing is a lot of folks find themselves in really precarious circumstances because they will have entered Thailand on for example a Tourist Visa and they want to stay longer or they have entered Thailand on an Exemption Stamp and they want to stay longer. Well in the past, border runs were an easy fix. That is really not a viable option for most people now. Meanwhile, Immigration policy remains in place where the presumptive paradigm if you will, the presumptive default position of Immigration is those who are in Thailand on an Extension Stamp, Tourist Visa, Non-Immigrant Visa, all of those folks are considered temporary. So if you want to change status, the presumption is you need to leave the country, get a new visa and come back; again not a viable option for most folks. So when I see folks that are telling me "well I found this for this price", this isn't a video where I am trying to denigrate people on price that is not my point. My point is you could end up possibly costing yourself a lot more money by trying to save money on the front end by utilizing somebody who hasn't even reviewed your situation. Again depending on the circumstances of your case, over this past summer, we had some really nettlesome situations to the point of being almost impossible. Now ultimately, we were able to find solutions for pretty much everybody we dealt with, in fact everybody we dealt with over the summer but it wasn't easy. It definitely didn't operate like it did a year prior, it definitely did not operate like I presume it will operate in the years to come. Especially right now I think this is more pertinent than ever. You really need to be talking to somebody. Anybody that is just going to quote a case fee without even talking to you, without even looking at your case, looking at your passport, seeing exactly what it is you are trying to do here in the Kingdom, without understanding that stuff, you know "yeah it may be a substantially reduced price from what you may presume somebody else may do, I have a lot of people call us and they think we are going to charge a huge amount with their case and it turns out it is quite nominal. In fact it is to the point where they say "wow I have never would have thought it would be that low". Long story short, in the cases that do have real problems, I have seen this time and time again because they end up coming to us after they really had a bad experience in other places where they paid this bargain fee that they thought was such a bargain and then they weighed into it and whoever was supposedly there to help them, they get in above their skill level, their capability level, and they end up abandoning them because they can't get it fixed and I often find, especially in some cases that are unfixable and I haven't seen that a lot lately but I have seen a lot especially in the American Immigration context in the past, people have told me "wow, if I would have just come to you, you would have told me I could do this from the get-go." I specially see that a lot in drug related grounds of inadmissibility. Again these fake lawyers, these so-called Visa agents especially in an American Immigration context, they will just say, "yeah, no problem. We will fill out the forms; put it through no problem at all". Well long story short they had a ground of inadmissibility that might not be waive-able and when that is discovered months down the road after that money is long gone, they find out they can't do anything and that person oftentimes either stops answering their phone or is nowhere to be found and that bargain they had, ultimately turned out to just be a rip-off. 

So again I am not here to denigrate anybody for doing business. That is not my point but my point in this is you need to proceed with caution for anybody who's going to tell you exactly what the cost of the service is, especially in the Immigration climate we are in, both in America and in Thailand, you need to proceed with caution for anybody who just throws you  out a flat rate without ever even looking at your case.