| There are three (3) separate schedules of fees that vary based on the complexity of the issue on appeal itself, and from appeals containing either a "single" or "multiple" issues as described below.
The information below will assist you in determining the actual cost of having us represent you in your administrative appeal to the BIA (or in your client's appeal if you are an attorney). Our commitment to you or your client is that—once we have agreed to prosecute a single issue appeal for you, we will complete and prosecute the appeal process before the BIA for the same costs we entered into a contract with you, regardless of the hours that it will actually take to complete the appeal process on your behalf. This means that if we agree to represent you on appeal to the BIA for a single issue Level "A" appeal (described below), we will honor that Level A appeal costs whether or not we end up doing more work on your behalf than we originally anticipated. These appeal levels are described and defined below.
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Appeals involving a single issue (or "Level A Appeals") to be filed with the Clerk of the Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Virginia.
Level A appeals consist of "single issue"
appeals such as for example, involving a decision of the immigration judge finding
that the noncitizen did not establish “statutory eligibility” (based on
discretionary grounds) for either asylum, suspension or cancellation of
removal, including a finding of ineligibility for waivers such as a 212(c),
212(h) and/or 212(i) waiver of inadmissibility (among others), usually filed in
conjunction with an application for adjustment of status.
These Level A appeals are billed to the client at the rate of $74.00 per hour (consisting of a minimum of 20 hours). The total amount billed for Level A appeals is therefore $1,480.00. This appeal fee includes the attorney
and paralegal hours involved in the examination of the immigration court
transcripts, in reviewing the applicable precedent and all evidence in the
client’s files, and includes also of course, the preparation and the filing of
the appellate brief with the Board of Immigration Appeals via certified or
express mail. The above fees also
include the preparation and filing of the Notice of Appeal (or amended notice),
if one should be needed. Please
note that the filing fee ($110.00) for any appeal is never included as those
fees are processing fees owed to the Board of Immigration Appeals at the time
of filing the Notice of Appeal and they are paid by the client.
In
preparing these Level A appeals, we pay particular attention to the possibility
of raising a viable constitutional issue, without which the case may never
become eligible for judicial review before the courts of appeals of the United
States, because of prohibitory statutes (such as Immigration and Nationality
Act, §242(a)(2)(B) and (C)). Said differently, where the sole issue invoked on
appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals is grounded on “abuse of
discretion”, there is a strategic advantage in raising a constitutional issue
if one exists to preserve that issue for challenge later on appeal to a court
of appeals. The reason for this is
that the noncitizen may be able to use the constitutional challenge to defeat a
summary dismissal of a petition for review in the courts of appeals of the
United States. Level A appeals are reviewed with each practitioner and/or
client individually, and any additional fees if necessary are determined on a
case- by-case basis at the conclusion of the review, if different from the
usual Level A appeal fee shown below.
Level A appeals also comprise those appeals from decisions
of Immigration Judges that have pretermitted the noncitizen’s applications for
relief for other reasons—meaning, the Immigration Judge denied the right to the
noncitizen to have his or her application be heard outright usually for some
technical reason but never on the merits.
As noted above, the total amount billed for these Level A appeals is $1,480.00. And again, this
amount includes the total sum of hours (no less than 20 hours) that we will be
working in researching the issue involved, reviewing the court transcripts and
the administrative record, preparing the Notice of Appeal, and in preparing the
most important document of all—the appellate brief required to convince the
Board that a material error was committed by the Immigration Judge warranting
reversal— times $74.00 per hour.
This sum is paid in advance at the time of Immigration AppealWorks®
involvement in the case.
Important caveat: Level A
appeals are accomplished as intended, within the estimated minimum of 20
hours. Where additional hours are
required to accomplish the appeal brief, it is our office policy that the
additional hours are fully absorbed by Immigration AppealWorks®. Frankly, there is a good reason for
this policy. We believe that after
quoting the client a particular appeal’s legal service fee, the legal fee
quoted should remain unchanged throughout the representation of the noncitizen
in order to build client trust and confidence in all professional agreements
with Immigration AppealWorks®.
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Appeals
containing "Multiple Issues" (or “Level B Appeals”) to be filed with the
Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Virginia.
Level
B appeals consist of "multiple issues" appeals (as opposed to a
“single issue” appeal) and usually involve either discretionary grounds,
statutory eligibility challenges and/or procedural or substantive due process
challenges. These appeals may also
involve the need to file a pre-briefing motion before the Board of Immigration
Appeals to either exhaust a particular issue that has not been exhausted, or
where the need to introduce “new” evidence is prevalent and permission to
present the new evidence must be requested by motion.
These
appeals involve additional attorney and paralegal hours of research because
they are inherently more complex and challenging than those in a single issue
or Level A appeals. These appeals
are billed at $109.00 per hour and require a minimum of 22 hours. The total
amount usually billed for Level B appeals is therefore $2,398.00.
The attorney and paralegal hours involved in these appeals include the examination of the court transcripts, review and research of the applicable precedent and all evidence in the client’s files and included also are the preparation and filing of the appeal brief with the Board of Immigration Appeals via certified-express mail. They also include the attorney-paralegal time involved in the strategizing of the case, including the likelihood of success on any other issue that, although may not be decisive as to the merits of the case, may nonetheless be of sufficient benefit to the practitioner/client in the overall long-term strategy of the case.
Level
B appeals are accomplished as intended, within the estimated minimum of 22
hours. This sum is paid in advance at the time of AppealWorks® involvement in
the case. The above fees also include the preparation and filing of the Notice
of Appeal (or amended notice), if needed. The appeal fee ($110.00) is not
included.
Where it becomes evident at the outset (after a
preliminary review of the case, the court transcripts and a careful examination
of the issues involved in Level B appeals) that additional hours may be
necessary to complete the appeal process, AppealWorks® will first inform and
consult with the practitioner/client in advance and will seek his or her
approval before going forward with the strategy over such an appeal. Said differently, once an agreement has been made as to the particular level of the legal fees associated with any appeal case, that fee will always be honored by Appealworks®. After entering into the agreement any additional fees for services deemed strategically necessary and that are suggested by Appealworks® will only be charged if the practitioner and/or client him or herself gives us his or her authorization.
Click To
Learn Whether Your Case Is A Level B Appeal
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Appeals
involving decisions based on the noncitizen’s conviction of serious criminal
offenses (or “Level C Appeals”) to be filed with the Board of Immigration
Appeals in Falls Church, Virginia.
These
Level C appeal cases involve decisions of Immigration Judges denying
applications for relief against noncitizen’s that have been convicted
of serious criminal offenses. The majority of these cases are
denied by Immigration Judges because the Immigration Judge determined that
he or she did not qualify for the relief due to the effect of the
conviction over the noncitizen’s eligibility for that relief.
For more information on individual Level C
appeal cases, please fax or email us a statement detailing
the preliminary factual and legal grounds or the Immigration Judge’s
decision in writing if you have it. We will then contact you at your
request by email and provide you with our assessment of the problems involving
your case including what may be the right course for you to take to resolve
it.
Important: these Level C appeals require a
careful assessment of the state (or less frequently a
federal) criminal conviction to determine the probability of success
in either direct appeal or reopening of those proceedings where the facts
and the law support it. A noncitizen who is serious and committed to
mount the best defense possible against removal must be prepared to
conduct an offensive attack on the validity of the criminal conviction in
the state or federal court. If the noncitizen is successful, the efforts
mounted in pursuing such results will very likely make the threat of
removal or deportation disappear, or be diminished considerably.
As
in Level B appeal cases, Level C appeals may require the submission of a
pre-briefing motion before the Board of Immigration Appeals in order
to exhaust an issue or seeking permission to introduce new evidence.
And last, as in all appeal cases to the Board of Immigration Appeals, the
appeal filing fee charged by the Board of Immigration Appeals
of $110.00 in order to consider the noncitizen appeal is not included
in the legal service fees.
In
electing how to pay the legal service fees for Appealworks® to handle your
Level A, B or C appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, you may use
PayPal to make your payment in full. However, if you chose the PayPal
services, please note that there is a relatively small, one time
transaction fee charged by PayPal for which you will be billed from
our office after your use of their services. In the alternative, you may
chose to make a direct bank deposit without any fees to you, or you may
transfer funds from your bank to ours, if this would be more convenient
for you. In that event, you may be charged a fee, if any, by your
own bank for making the transaction. We will not charge any fees to you
for such bank transfers.
Click To Learn Whether Your Case Is A Level C Appeal
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