Peter Messersmith

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.