INITIAL CONSULTATION

Website Questionnaire:
Kingston, Martinez and Hogan provides qualified legal advice in the area of immigration law. There are several ways to obtain this advice. One of the cheapest and most accessible methods is through our website questionnaire. By completing the website questionnaire and forwarding it to our office, an attorney, certified by the State Bar of California as an Immigration Law Specialist, will evaluate your immigration status and advise you on any concerns or future immigration plans that you may have. In order for us to evaluate your particular case through our website questionnaire, we charge a fee of US$70. The fee charged is for the attorney’s time spent analyzing your immigration status from the information provided in the questionnaire. Upon receipt of the completed questionnaire and a check made payable to Kingston, Martinez & Hogan, arrangements will be made for a telephone conference to take place within 72 hours. You will be entitled to a 20 minute telephone conference call in which a board certified immigration law specialist from our office, will evaluate your immigration matter and answer questions that you may have. If, at this point, you decide to visit our office for a personal consultation or to retain our services, the questionnaire fee will be credited towards your total legal fees. To "retain" Kingston, Martinez & Hogan, a formal written legal services agreement must be executed and a deposit toward the total fees paid. For a complete list of instructions on how to complete and return the website questionnaire please
click.

Personal Consultation fee policy:
We charge an in-office consultation fee of US$125.00 for the first hour, this fee is discounted from our standard hourly rate of $225 per hour. The initial in-office consultation is not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. This fee is payable on the day of the consultation, regardless of whether you ultimately decide to enter into an attorney-client relationship, which will require completing and signing a written legal services agreement and making an initial payment toward the total fees. If our services are retained after the consultation, the consultation fee paid for the first hour will be credited toward the total fees.

How to set up an appointment for a consultation.

Office appointments.
If you are in Southern California, please call us at (805) 963-9585 to schedule an appointment. Please refer to the list at the bottom of this page for a list of documents and other material to bring to the consultation. If you have any additional questions concerning what to bring to the consultation, please make them apparent when you are scheduling an appointment.

Our office is located in the beautiful seaside city of Santa Barbara, CA, approximately 90 miles north of Los Angeles (1300 Santa Barbara Street in downtown Santa Barbara).

Telephone or e-mail consultations.
If you are not in the area, but wish to arrange for a telephone or e-mail consultation, please refer to our website questionnaire, or call or e-mail our office with your address. We will send you a detailed questionnaire and a checklist of items to assemble. When returning these documents, along with payment of the $70.00 telephone or e-mail consultation fee, include a few alternative dates and times for the telephone consultation. We will then call or e-mail you to confirm the appointment time and date. At the specified time of the consultation appointment, please call our office and plan for the consultation to last about an hour. We must receive your questionnaire, documents and consultation fee PRIOR to the telephone consultation so that our discussion can cover any issues concerning these documents. Consequently, it is very important that you fill out the questionnaire as completely and accurately as possible.

The Advantage of a Consulting with an Attorney

You will be provided with in-person and telephone consultations including an in-depth interview with a board certified immigration attorney, and an evaluation of current and proposed immigration plans and alternatives. The session generally runs approximately 45 minutes to one hour. You are entitled to ask the attorney as many questions as you desire.

The attorney will advise you about options, procedures, processing times, chances of success, potential issues, logistics, methods and frequency of communications with the attorney and staff. You may be given information to take home with you.

For in-office consultations, you will have an opportunity to personally meet the attorney and staff.

You will be able to discuss fees and costs, billing and payment methods with the attorney. We generally charge flat fees for our work. However, we can only quote a flat fee after consulting with you and reviewing your immigration concerns. This will enable the attorney to learn more about your case and decide which course of action is necessary. Thereby allowing the attorney to provide a more accurate quote of the legal fees required for your case.

What to bring to a Consultation

All prospective clients, please bring/send:

• Resume/CV - detailed
• Passport (original to interview, otherwise copies of all pages)

If you are in the United States, please bring/send:

• I94 (arrival document)
• I20 (foreign students), IAP66 (exchange visitors), I797 (other nonimmigrants)
• I797 (approved immigrant visa petitions)
• Green card (I551 or I151)

If you have a job offer, provide the following information about the proposed employer:

• Job description, pay, minimum requirements to perform the job.
• Marketing/promotional information about employer including,
• Number of employees, gross and net income
• Your diplomas, degrees and transcripts - translated
• Copies of awards, recognition you may have received

If you plan to start or purchase a business, please contact us about additional information we will need:

• Detailed, comprehensive business plans
• Copies of all applications, correspondence to and from the appropriate agencies, court filings, fee and mailing receipts, appointment notices, opinions/decisions.

If you have a relative to sponsor or you may be sponsored by a relative:

• All birth, marriage, divorce, death certificates & adoption decrees and translations for yourself and sponsor
• Proof of sponsor’s permanent residence or US citizenship status

Be sure to bring/send the $70.00 Consultation fee for a telephone or e-mail consultation, or $125.00 Consultation fee for an in-office conference, after receipt of the questionnaire.

FEE AND BILLING POLICY

We generally do not quote fees over the telephone or e-mail until we have interviewed you at length. The reason is that we like to conduct a complete personal evaluation and determine all facts so that we are better able to strategize your options. Our fees vary for each service and are based upon the facts of your case, actual time of all staff devoted to the case and the complexity or extraordinary nature of the issues.

We generally provide flat fee quotes with one half of the fee due upon commencement of your immigration case, and the balance due upon completion. Alternative payment methods can be discussed during a consultation