Assembled from EOIR rosters, state bar directories, published fee schedules and court filing instructions. Nothing here is legal advice, and the forms change often — check dates before relying on any figure.
In the United States, only two categories of people can represent you before immigration authorities: a lawyer licensed by a state bar, and a DOJ accredited representative working for a recognized organization. Everyone else who offers help with your case is either doing something narrower than representation (typing what you dictate) or doing something they are not permitted to do. The difference matters most when something goes wrong, because a person with no license has nothing to lose.
Category one: a licensed attorney
An attorney can sign Form G-28, appear before USCIS, appear in immigration court, file appeals with the Board of Immigration Appeals, and give you advice about which relief to pursue. Immigration law is federal, so a lawyer licensed in any state can handle a case for a client living anywhere in the country.
What a careful reader checks
Ask for the state where the person is licensed and the bar number. Then go to that state's bar directory yourself. Do not use a link the office gives you. Search the surname. What you are looking for, in order:
- Status. It should read active or in good standing. Suspended, inactive, resigned, and disbarred all mean the person cannot represent you now.
- Public discipline history. Many state bars publish it on the same page. Read it if it exists.
- The address on file. If the directory lists an office in a different state from the one you visited, that is worth a question, not necessarily a problem.
If the name does not appear at all, stop. The most common explanation is that the person is not a lawyer. The second most common is that you were given a slightly different spelling than the one on the license.
Category two: a DOJ accredited representative
These are non-lawyers approved by the Department of Justice, working for a nonprofit that has itself been recognized. The list of recognized organizations and accredited representatives is published by EOIR and is searchable by state. Check the organization's name as well as the person's, because accreditation belongs to the pairing. A representative who leaves the nonprofit does not carry the accreditation to a private office.
The two levels, which are not the same thing
Partial accreditation covers filings with DHS: applications with USCIS, green card renewals, naturalization, work permits, family petitions. Full accreditation adds immigration court and the Board of Immigration Appeals. If you have a hearing date, ask which one the person holds. A partially accredited representative cannot appear for you in court, however well they know your file.
Cost is the reason this category exists. Recognized organizations charge nominal fees or nothing, and their fee limits are part of the recognition. If a recognized organization asks you for two thousand dollars, something is off.
Category three: everyone else
Notario público in much of Latin America is a licensed lawyer with public authority. In the United States, a notary public is a person authorized to witness signatures, typically after a short course and a fee, with no legal training required. The words look identical and mean different jobs. Federal and state rules bar notaries from advertising in Spanish as notario for this reason, and some do it anyway.
Other titles with no standing: immigration consultant, paralegal working independently, travel agency offering paperwork help, tax preparer who also does forms, petition preparer. Some of these people are honest about their limits and charge a small fee to type a form you have already decided to file. That is legal in many states if they do not advise. The trouble starts when they choose the form for you.
Signals in the advertising and the money
Compare how the three categories tend to sell and bill. A pattern worth noticing:
- Guarantees. No one can promise approval. A guaranteed work permit or a promised green card in a fixed number of months is a claim nobody in category one or two would make in writing.
- Cash only, no receipt, no written agreement. An attorney is required by bar rules to put fee terms in writing in most states. A recognized organization documents its nominal fee.
- Keeping your originals. Your birth certificate, passport, and prior filings should come back to you the same day. Held documents are leverage.
- Refusing to give you copies of what was filed, or filing without showing you the signed form.
- No G-28 on file. Check your receipt notices. If a person says they represent you but no attorney or accredited representative appears on the notice, they do not.
- Advice to claim something that is not true, such as an asylum story you did not describe or a relationship that does not exist. The signature on that form is yours.
Two lookups, roughly ten minutes: the state bar directory for a lawyer, the EOIR list for an accredited representative. A person in neither list is in category three, whatever the sign on the door says.