Peter Messersmith

I hired Peter Messersmith. He failed to represent me suitably because of the following reasons: he made several mistakes on a couple of forms that caused several months of delay; he didn't stick to the terns of the client-arrorney agreement, in the middle of the work and after withdrawing several tho...usand dollars from my bank account, he requested more than what was explicitly stated in the agreement, he didn't continue working on my case when I refused to pay more than the amont that was agreed; He was representing my case for 3 years, but never talked to or consulted me on the phone, he never returned my calls; His paralegal was not helpful at all I could barely understand her

I hired Peter to file a NIW petition, hoping that I will get the best service (after reading the other reviews on here). He said he was highly confident my case will be approved. During the application process he responded to my emails very briefly, and I felt he didn't really care about my case. Sin...ce I am from another city, most of the communication was done via email. After he submitted my petition, I asked him kindly to send me the cover letter he wrote on my behalf, and he refused to do so. He said he doesn't send the cover letter through mail or email, and I would have to go in person to Chicago to see it (550 miles from where I live). I later found out that, according to the Illinois State Bar Association attorneys are obligated to provide to their clients access to their files and promptly respond to reasonable requests for information Long story short, after one year and one RFE letter, my petition was denied. Peter said he is confident that the USCIS decision was a mistake, and he had encouraged me to reapply. His fee for reapplying would have been "only" $2000 -- to basically resend the same documents). After speaking with two other very experienced immigration attorneys, I decided not to reapply as they told me that NIW is not a category suitable for musicians, and applying for NIW was a mistake to begin with (Thanks, Peter for misleading me and taking my money!). Please do yourself a favor and find an attorney who is knowledgeable and actually cares about you.

I give the Messersmith Law firm a zero rating. They have ruined my life. These people don't care for their clients and for the repercussions of their negligence on the clients' lives. They are a money eating machine and are happy as long as you keep feeding them. I approached Peter for a green card a...pplication. He told me that he was confident that he could get me a green card in both the EB1 and EB2 categories. I had a paid consultation with Peter where he convinced me that getting a green card was the way to go. He gave me vague answers during this consultation as well as throughout the process. But not knowing anything about immigration law myself, I signed Peter up as an attorney for my EB1A petition. The moment he received the money from me, he sent me file with examples of recommendation letters and a document list. However, most of the recommendation letters were not pertaining to my field of work. Peter did not give me any guidance about how to write these recommendation letters and on what sort of letters would improve the chances of my petition being accepted. He didn't draft a single recommendation letter for me. Most of the time, he gave one sentence or sometimes, even one word suggestions about the recommendation letters. Once all the money was paid, he almost didn't care about my case. He would never tell me clearly what documents he needed from me. I submitted all the documents by email. But then he wanted me to print them all out and mail them to him (even though he charges $300 for mailing, copying, etc.). He told me that he would charge $300 upon completion of the case. But he immediately charged me $300. I have been to the post office several times because of Peter's miscommunication. The worst thing is that Peter blatantly refused to send me copies of the write up for my own case! He didn't even tell me which documents he was submitting to the USCIS on my behalf. Upon receiving an RFE for my case, I asked Peter for a copy of the documents that he had submitted. He still refused to give me a copy of the write up. But he reluctantly gave me a password-protected file of my own documents that he had submitted prior to receiving the RFE. After examining this, I noticed that several important documents which would point out the significance of my work (such as a book chapter, conference presentations and a letter from the editor of the journal JBC) were out of place and one letter which Peter said would harm my case and hence should not have been included was included in this document list. When I brought these issues to this notice, he didn't even have the courtesy to apologize for his mistakes. His paralegal Jen also made several mistakes on the important I-140 and I-485 forms. After receiving the RFE, I wanted to discuss about the write up and documents with Peter before he submitted them. However, Peter submitted these without my knowledge and I don't know till date what he has submitted on my behalf to the USCIS and how he has presented my case. My green card was finally denied. I am broke and have no more money to refile. I have to leave the country and my postdoc position at a prestigious institute in two weeks time. Peter does not care about your case. He will try and talk you into signing up with him. He will try and convince you to keep paying for all of his services that are conveniently not mentioned in the contract. After living in the US legally as a responsible citizen for over 12 years, being a Summa cum Laude undergraduate and graduate student and getting a PhD, I have been given 2 weeks to pack and leave this country. I would never want anyone to be in my position. Please hire a good reliable lawyer and stay as far away from Peter as possible

I engaged Peter Messersmith to apply for my greencard and EAD. I do not recommend him. Here’s why: I am a postdoc research associate and I applied for my greencard through the NIW EB2 category. Peter files both I-140 and I-485 concurrently without telling you the pros and cons. I found out throu...gh my own research that it is not recommended for you to file the I-485 if you will be changing status or jobs. USCIS will likely request for further evidence (RFE) if you change jobs. And Peter automatically charges an additional $500 when there is an RFE. Easy money for him. He didn’t even tell me that I could track my application progress online using the Receipt Number, I found out much later by doing my own research. Read the attorney-client agreement carefully. Don’t get fooled by his price. He initially sounds cheaper as he quotes $5000, but that does not include the USCIS fee of $1650 (for both I-140 and I-485), and office expenses fee of $250. It ended up being more expensive than other lawyers. You have to prepare all the documents yourself. Peter does not help you at all. He sends you some examples but they don’t really help. For instance, I had to write my own recommendation letters and have other experts in the field sign them. Peter sent me some sample recommendation letters but they were for journalist or industry consultants, completely unrelated to science and they didn’t help. There are other attorneys out there that actually write the letters of recommendation for you. All you have to do is proof read and they will contact your referees for you. Peter never had the courtesy to call me even after I paid him. If you call, you always speak to the paralegal. And she always tells you that he is busy and to call back if you want to speak to Peter. I didn’t speak to Peter at all throughout the process, until the last day when I demanded that he call me. We only communicated through email. He replies emails very quickly when it is for you to pay him, otherwise it typically takes 24-48 hours for him to reply. Often it is that he’ll just skim through your questions and responds vaguely. Doesn’t address the specific points that you are asking. Though seldom, there were times when he didn’t reply to my follow up questions. While my greencard application as pending I switch from an F1 to a H1 visa and this caused an RFE (this is my own speculation, there’s no way of knowing why USCIS ask for RFE). After submitting the material for RFE, USCIS sends you a notice saying that you will hear back from them in 60 days. During that 60 day period I got another job offer and Peter advised me to apply for the expedited EAD which he says will take ~2 weeks and cost $1000, instead of applying for a new H1 visa which takes 3-4 months. I thought I could be employed earlier and the $1000 would have been worth it. I paid the $1000, put in my 2 weeks notice, and accepted the new job offer. But 4 weeks after I had submitted the EAD paper work to Peter (3 weeks after receiving a receipt from USCIS), there was still no news, and I was unemployed. I started to question Peter and he says the symbol “~” means approximate and he has no control over when USCIS adjudicates cases. He then tells me that he requested USCIS to either expedite my EAD or my greencard, and USCIS has approved my greencard a week ago but he just found out about it. I do not know whether my greencard was approved because of Peter’s expedited request when submitting the EAD, but I wasted $1000 on an EAD and I lost a month salary. The 60 day RFE period was less than a month away anyway, and I could have just waited for the greencard application to be approved in due time. Maybe his advice to apply for an EAD was financially motivated, guess I will never know. I could have just hung on to my previous job until my I485 was approved, but his lack of clarity in words and non-transparent way of working caused havoc to my life.