Transcript of the video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Visa Agents versus a Law Firm. I am going to discuss this in a general context in the sense that we do US Immigration Law as well as Thai Immigration Law here in our firm. The notion of Visa Agents I think it is a little bit different thing depending on the body of law, so actually when I say "generally" I am done talking generally. Now we will kind of get into specifics.

In a US Immigration context it is pretty clear you shouldn't be using a Visa Agent. 8 CFR 292.1 stipulates who can represent folks before the Department of Homeland Security and deal with matters pertaining to Immigration Law and so-called Visa agents are not part of that regime. They are just not part of the thinking with respect to Immigration Law in an American context. It has been my experience, Visa Agents are fake lawyers; some of them just pretend to be lawyers oftentimes. They are a real problem and they can get your case into a real bunch of problems in an Immigration context. In the past I have seen a lot of cases be really fundamentally messed up because so-called Visa Agents tell you to lie; they say: "Well don't bring this up", or "omit this". Well it could be a grounds of inadmissibility and when it is found out you are then looking at two grounds of inadmissibility, not only the underlying inadmissibility but then fraud and misrepresentation. So Visa Agents or notarios, whatever you want to call them, sometimes consultants, you will hear that; Immigration Visa consultants, yeah dismiss that out of hand. If you are dealing with US Immigration you should be dealing with an Attorney or an Immigration Law Firm. 

Now in the Thai context, Visa agents are much more ubiquitous here in Thailand. Now there isn't the same body of law pertaining to Thai Immigration and dealing with Thai Immigration. It is much more of an ad hoc experience so yeah there is a plethora of them, they are just out there. As with anything, some are really great and some are not so great. The problem is trying to figure out, separate the weed from the chafe because you don't want to be in the situation where you are dealing with a bad one and you didn't know it. I have seen cases really get messed up by Visa Agents: lost passports, I have seen cases where Visa Agents have tried to process essentially a fake Visa; something for somebody who wasn't really doing what they said they were doing and they got called out on it. You go back even further some 15 years ago, so-called ghost border runs, then those weren't possible and they started faking stamps. So I think in a Thai context you just want to be careful. 

I think the biggest difference between a Law Firm and a Visa Agency is levels of professionalism. I mean when you are dealing with a Law Firm, you are dealing with folks who that is what they do; they do legal work. You are not dealing with somebody, and again I am not really trying to stick it to every Visa Agent in Thailand. That it is not the point of this video because there are some great folks that know how to do Immigration in Thailand especially some local Immigration Offices they have got people that really know how to deal with that office. So again Thailand is a little bit of a horse of a different colour but it really comes down to comfort and professionalism basically.