Stop the Fraud Campaign 

We are very excited to be working on this project, and to finally present it to the community! We have heard you! we see you every day coming to our organization feeling hopeless because someone scammed you. And we cannot let this happen, therefor we are educating our community on who can provide you legal advice and who can’t. Please stay tuned for future presentations and workshops on how to navigate the very complex immigration system without falling prey of a scam. 

There’s currently two types of people that can give you advice:  A US LICENSED ATTORNEY, AND A US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ACCREDITED REPRESENTATIVE. That’s it. No one else. Not a “Llena Papeles” or a “Notario” or a “Forms preparer” so how do you know that the person who is giving you legal advice is indeed authorized? You can check their credentials online, you can also call the immigration court and find out. 

To check if a person is a LICENSED ATTORNEY please visit the following link https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/attorneyservices/search?0  and enter the name of the person to verify license.

To check if a person is a DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ACCREDITED REPRESENTATIVE  please visit the following link https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/942306/dl#NEW%20YORK  and look for their name. 

On both options it should say “Active” which means this person can practice immigration law. This is the first step in verifying credentials. 

The second step is to always ask questions about your case, and how will it proceed, always request copies of everything that is going to be used/send to immigration. There’s always usually a contract. Ask to have that contract in your native language, a service provider failing to give you a contract in your language is a big sign of fraud as you are not understanding what you’re signing. 

DUE DILIGENCE- It is our responsibility to make sure everything is done properly even if we lack knowledge in immigration law. Do your research, find information on trusted websites such as: USCIS.GOV, EOIR.GOV, ICE.GOV – And remember, if it sounds too good it may not be true.