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Military lawyer for immigration?

My husband of 6 months joined the army and now is in boot camp. Originally I planned to use a local immigration lawyer to apply for permanent residence. I overstayed my visa and therefore need to adjust my status. My question is, should I wait and apply with the help of military immigration lawyer or should I just go ahead and do it with my local lawyer? My husband thinks I should wait till he's in Basic Training and I apply through the military service.

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Attorney answers (1)

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One of the benefits provided to military members and their family is "Military Legal Assistance." In the Army, many bases have legal assistance offices staffed by attorneys (Called JAGs, which is short for Judge Advocate General) and civilian lawyers and enlisted paralegals and staff. These offices are tasked to provide such things as legal advice, the preparation of wills and powers of attorney, and assistance and limited representational actions with land-lord tenant matters. But because legal assistance is rather limited, you my find that your average legal assistance JAG does not have the knowledge or expertise to assist you in every legal issue. Such is probably the case with the immigration issue you are asking about.

If you are now in a status which may impact your ability to remain lawfully in the country, probably the last place you want to be in on a military base. For obvious reasons, many bases now have security measures which require government issued ID, which they scan at the entry control points to determine if you can enter or not.

My advice is to not wait. Get this fixed now.

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