Laurel Deborah Scott

Laurel has been handling our family's waiver applications (for me & my parents). She's very responsive to our emails & gives clear guidance on the steps we need to prepare. At the beginning of our case, she provided an honest review of our chance & thankfully we were able to get waiver approvals. O...ur family's case is quite complicated and we're glad to meet Laurel as our attorney. She is very knowledgeable & always ready to answer our questions & concerns. Also, looking at our waiver supports, we could see how much she prepared for each application. Our family is very satisfied with the services. We greatly appreciate it. Thanks so much for all your help, Laurel!! :)

I am an American whose nightmare began in 2006. Long story short, my family was facing a lifetime of being kept apart due to a tangled legal mess resulting from an innocent mistake...my fiancé used the wrong type of visa to enter the country. We honestly thought we were doing everything correctly a...nd I was left in shock and bewilderment at the sudden and horrific consequences. In my confusion and not knowing where to turn, I initially hired a general immigration attorney who filed my hardship waiver and assured me that everything would be resolved without issue--we just had to be patient and wait 12-18 months for the process to play out. WRONG! The waiver was denied and I was left more confused and desperate than ever. My circumstances seemed hopeless - it was as though I was merely banging my head against a solid brick wall. I decided my only recourse was to try again and file another hardship waiver. I read up on the internet and learned there are attorneys who specialize in different areas of immigration law. This was a revelation to me. In retrospect, I realized I had made a mistake in hiring the first attorney. It was as if I had gone to a general practitioner for a serious cardiac problem instead of to a heart specialist. I feverishly researched immigration specialists and read message board after message board in which people talked about their legal issues. Sometimes, people would cite who they used as their attorney. For stories that had a happy ending, I began to notice a pattern-- a handful of attorney names popped up who seemed to be more successful than others. I focused my research on this group and decided that Laurel Scott was my choice. I contacted her office and got the ball rolling. I immediately noticed a marked difference in the way my case was handled in contrast to my experience with the first attorney. I can tell you she is all business and I personally liked that. Professionalism is the word I would use to describe her style. I immediately had the sense I was in good hands and this provided me with a much needed ray of hope on the heels of my first unsuccessful waiver. Ms. Scott diagnosed my legal issue and prescribed a list of documents I needed to submit to her office. I dutifully carried out whatever directions she gave me and the rest is history. I cannot tell you the overpowering sense of relief and joy I felt when I was overseas and opened my in-box in August of 2009 to reveal her email with the subject line "YOU'RE APPROVED!!!" In fact, I fell to my knees and wept like a baby. My nightmare was finally over. All of that was 9 years ago. From time to time, I think about how fortunate I was to come across Ms. Scott's name. I recommend her without hesitation to anybody seeking a proven immigration specialist.

I hired Laurel back in 2012 regarding my Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). She was refereed to me by my sister. ( Not a client) My sister is always interested on learning about immigration cases and found Laurel online, while reading her comments on her chat. I read about Laurel on... her page and saw how many cases she has helped int he past. When I called for an interview I was a little nervous as I did not know what to expect, I live in California and everything was handle thru the database which was more nerve racking not being able to see her personally. After I spoke with her she explained that DACA was new and attorneys out there did not know what to expect. She explained everything with further detail and i was more relaxed. Her associate Lauren (LC) as we called her took over my case, I was scared that she may had not been as good as Laurel, but she did. Laurel informed me that she went over everything before LC filed. That made it more less stressful to me. I got approved about 3 months later. Now I have hired Laurel for my Permanent Residency Status. We are working on that at the moment. Even tho I am not able to meet in person with Laurel I can not say with words enough how much I trust her and her team. Very professional, always responding and on top of the case. I recommend everyone following her on her Facebook, and read more about her cases and what her passion about immigration really means to her. Very educated women, different from other attorneys. She may ask for documentation that you may think what the heck is this going to help with my case, just do as she says. SHE IS THE PROFESSIONAL one, she knows what she is doing. At this moment I am currently waiting patiently while she is working on my case and know this will be a positive result. So yes I do highly recommend her! (ps. she has a great sense of humor) read her FB and blogs!

My husband and I hired Laurel Scott to compile his I-601 Waiver packet after he had entered without inspection and was subject to a ten-year ban. We had consulted with another lawyer who specializes in immigration. This other lawyer was knowledgeable, experienced in I-601 waiver packets, and cheaper,... BUT she did not inspire much confidence and wanted me (as the USC) to do all sorts of things that felt unnecessary (or at least very annoying). Laurel was highly recommended on a website for which she offered free Wednesday question-answer sessions. Her own website is very well-organized and has extensive information for immigrants. Immigration law is what she does. We paid for a 30 minute consultation, which lasted 20 minutes. During that time Laurel listened to our case, which I feared was weak, and gave us her very straightforward opinion. She was very clear and articulate, and we hired her as soon as we figured out that we could afford her. She was in consistent contact with us through her own website, asked me (the USC) to write a hardship letter. From that letter, she gave us simple directions on what she needed from us to compile our strongest argument. We sent her the information all at once, and she had our packet mailed within days of receiving the last piece of information from an outside source. We received a copy of the completed packet, which was huge and well organized. There were a couple pages missing (just from the copy), and 1 item was misorganized. I feared that the adjudicator would request further evidence to address this small issue. They did not, and we were approved! Laurel comes with the highest recommendation from myself and others, which is not to say that she is perfect. She is not cheap, but you don't want to drag this process out by getting denied or a request for further evidence because of a poorly constructed packet (believe me the short version is long enough!). She is not chatty, but she will update you monthly, and will continue to watch your case after she submits the packet for a monthly fee. She is not going to request an unnecessary expedite or call the centers about your case until it is outside of the timeline that she tells you about, AND you can't step on her toes by doing it yourself (it's in the contract). The contract is super specific, so read it carefully, and it lays out your payment schedule. For us, she was very flexible with our payments, and allowed us to pay a certain amount upfront and then the rest monthly. I really can't recommend her highly enough. Like I said earlier, I thought our case was kind of weak, but she compiled a strong argument, organized it, and we were approved in just over 6 months (at the time the average was 7 months). She continued to monitor as the visa was issued in Brazil, and my husband is due home in days. Priceless.

We spoke to several attorneys regarding our I-601 case (waiver for unlawful presence). Ms. Scott was by far the most knowledgable. Her fees were were reasonable and she responds to inquiries via phone and email. She also provides a low cost consultation as well as a free chat on her website on Wednes...days at visacentral.net. Ms. Scott is understandably busy and there was somewhat less communication from her than I would have liked. Since immigration law is federal, you may hire her from any state. We never met in person and were happy with her services. Overall her work was excellent and I highly reccomend her.