Gina Maria Polo

Tremendously disappointed with Gina. I hired her to prepare an E-2 visa application, and it was denied. She was a very passive advocate - which in case is not obvious, is not the kind of attorney you want. You want an aggressive and proactive attorney, which she isn't. Firstly, much of the documen...tation was prepared and put together by an associate attorney, not herself. It's unclear to what degree she was involved, although she claims she was supervising all along the way. Secondly, she did not spot a lot of issues with my E-2 documents, which was subsequently pointed out by my second attorney when I showed him the one prepared by Gina and co. For instance, I provided a business plan which I wrote for a school project and the numbers were wildly ambitious. When I asked her if that was an issue, she said no. Turns out, it was indeed an issue because it made the application appear incredible (as in, not credible). Thirdly, after my application was denied, she failed to pursue it any further beyond merely asking the consulate the basis for denial. For comparison, my second attorney not only contacted the consulate, but also contacted Legalnet for assistance, which is a last resort avenue available to attorneys who believe their client (me) has been erroneously denied a visa. Fourthly, she is not very accessible by comparison with the other attorneys I consulted with. My second attorney is almost always available by phone or replies almost instantaneously to emails, whereas with Gina you need to schedule phone calls in advance, sometimes quite far in advance. Lastly, after the denial, she advised me to obtain a B-1 visa for temporary visits and she still wanted to charge what I consider to be a ridiculous amount of money to help me prepare it. My second attorney, by contrast, offered to help me prepare a B-1 visa application at no charge after the denial. As mentioned, I applied a second time for an E-2 visa, with a different and more competent attorney, but was denied again. I believe the second attorney did a good job, but Gina's terrible first application which resulted in a denial has severely "poisoned the well" for me and resulted in a very tough situation for my second attempt. I'm very disappointed with Gina, and would not recommend her to anyone.