Susan B. Church

I hired her for my citizenship application as I was caught with small amount of marijuana few years ago. There were signs that working with her would be a disaster from the very beginning. One time, I asked her if the citizenship application has been filed, to which she replied "yes". But then I hear...d few days after that it has not been filed. Or there was one time when she asked me if I have made the payment to her few months after I already did. Or there was one time when she was on the zoom call with me and she proceeded to look for my legal documents in front of me, fumbling through documents for good two three minutes. I should have known then. One issue that we talked before submitting the application about was having a police report, that shows that the amount of marijuana I was caught with was less than 30 grams. The immigration law states that if marijuana was less than 30 grams, it should not pose a problem with the citizenship application. I found the police report and submitted that to her. After that, I did not hear anything about it until the interview. During the interview, the USCIS officer asked her if she has a police report that proves that the possession of marijuana was less than 30 grams. She argued that she did not because it was not a conviction. That was the first time that I heard of that argument from her. To which, the USCIS officer argued that it is. Then, to my utter dismay, Susan started arguing angrily with the officer. She asked, I quote, "Are you a licensed lawyer?" in an accusing tone. I tried to stay calm, but inside I was in a sheer panic. I thought I could be deported in a country that I have lived in for more than 10 years. Even though I passed the interview, we got a notice saying that they cannot make the decision. The USCIS officer said that she would talk about this case with her office's lawyers and then send us a request for evidence. When we were walking out of the interview, she said "we don't have a police report, right? why do we not have it again?". That was such a crazy question to me, because I have actually sent her the police report. A week after the interview, she said that she purposefully decided to not show the police report because she believed that it was not a conviction and that showing them the report just might lead to more suspicions and questions. I can understand her strategy, but if that was her strategy, why did she not mention it before the interview to get my take? If I was asked before, I would have probably said maybe we can try that, but bring the police report just in case so that the strategy fails. What I think happened here, is actually that she simply did not think about the whole police report issue until she got to the interview. As I mentioned before, when we walked out of the interview, she told me that we don't have a police report and then asked me why we do not have it. It does not make sense that her "strategy" was to not show it on purpose when she did not even know that we did not have it. This was a deliberate, dishonest attempt to hide a mistake that she has made. Seven months of agony started after that. I could not travel outside of the country because of this delay, and I could not see my girlfriend, for seven months. We did not get any response from USCIS. I would plead with her through emails, which she would seldom reply, to look for ways to speed up the process. One time I even got an email from her saying "DON'T WORRY, YOU WILL NOT BE DEPORTED", all caps. I talked to two different lawyers about this, and they both said it is utterly insane that she did not bring the police report and that it is definitely a conviction. The issue only got resolved when I found a way, by myself to reach out to USCIS. In short, I would really really not recommend working with her on serious immigration issues.

She was recommend by many lawyers giving her experience and knowledge in the Criminal/immigration laws. It took me a month to get an appointment and when I finally met her, I felt was worth the wait. She was able to tell Us that my brother's previous lawyer gave him a "total inaccurate advice letter ...and not everything was AF/deportable". We discussed the fee she will charge for her services but needed the examine the criminal record of my brother, before she could take the case. I managed to obtain the documents at the Distric court house, sent them to her. And that's when Our ORDEAL with her started. 1 week went by, a month, 6 week, two months of constant attempts to reach her by phone, emails and she DIDN'T responded to them. Neither the previous lawyers my brother had, were able to get a hold of her. Few times during the over two months waiting period, she answered and my impression was that she didn't know anything about the case, barely remember who I was, until I told her that I'd flew from California to MA to see her. And still, she didn't say anything about taking the case and put us on hold again, "I will call you back" .... We patiently waited for her, she mislead Us and when I finally got her on the phone after two months, She simply say "I'm not taking new cases, I can't take the case, find another lawyer and good luck" That same day, my brother was notified that he will be Transfer to an ICE detention center in less than a week. I couldn't believe someone with her Reputation could so something like this. She knows, how important and sensitive is TIME for someone who face criminal/immigrations actions. Since she advocate for those who seek her for help. Her lack of communication and honesty, has added more difficulties on the case and sadly an agony for my brother and Our family who Believed and Have Faith in this lawyer. I hope this review help her firm to be more communicative with her clients and to many others who consider her services, to be aware that this happened, so won't happen to someone else. Even though, she put my brother's case in a disadvantage position (time), I give her the credit that she knows the laws. I Just wish, she could had been more honest and communicative since the beginning.