Bryan McGowan

My husband and I are both foreign nationals who have fallen in love with Portland. We contacted Bryan to find answers to our many questions regarding visa and permanent residency. Bryan asked great questions, helped us understand our options and made it easy for us to move forward. We appreciated his... ability to demonstrate his vast knowledge and still speak in layman's terms. Bryan's patience, caring and expertise moved us from feeling lost to a place of informed decision-making. Even if we decide not to stay, meeting with Bryan was worth every penny. We would highly recommend Bryan for any immigration questions/concerns that you face.

I called Bryan to discuss how I could go about marrying my Chinese girlfriend and bringing her to the US legally, and I was very pleased to have gotten in touch with him. I found Bryan to be very down-to-earth and easy to talk with. He knows the laws and procedures quite well, and he communicated ...in such a manner that the ambiguous jargon of the application process was easy to understand. He was very patient with my wife, who's English can be broken at times, and made her feel comfortable talking with him, taking the time to explain things slowly and often repeatedly without complaint. Our case went quite well. I would have been at a total loss if not for Bryan, and I would likely have taken a much longer, more expensive route had I not consulted him. I highly recommend this man.

Bryan McGowan was my immigration attorney when I applied for a K-1 fiancee visa to bring my fiancée from China to Oregon. In all instances I found his efforts to be outstanding. Regarding an attorney, I feel that he had all the bases covered regarding what one is likely to expect from an attorney. I ...will itemize these below: 1. Personable: Bryan is very likable and down-to-earth. There was no legal mumbo jumbo or convoluted explanations. Instead, he was very straight-forward and presented the situation in a very amenable manner. 2. Flat and fair fee: I liked his flat fee arrangement. This is especially contra to a number of attorneys who constantly nickel and dime their clients for brief phone calls and attempts to extend the length of meetings in an effort to pad their fees. His flat fee included a reasonable number of interim phone calls. He said if these phone calls were getting to be a bit excessive, then he would notify me in advance. Fortunately, this was not the case with me. Regarding his fee, he explained this in detail in our first meeting and was very clear in telling me what it included. A follow-up letter after the meeting documented our financial arrangement in detail. His fee was quite reasonable, as I did do some comparison shopping. 3. Knowledgeable: Bryan was able to explain in detail the interpretations of the laws, expected wait times for the visa, pitfalls to avoid when applying for the visa and so forth. Indeed, his knowledge can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. It is amazing how he is able to recall many of the things from his memory, which is phenomenal. In retrospect, I found his knowledge to be extremely accurate and in that regard, I was met my no surprises in the application process. 4. Eye for detail: I consider this to be one of his major strengths. The visa application process is filled with anomalies and demand for information in a specific form. There were a number of times that he requested the information from my fiancée to be in a different or more official format. His being able to detect this reduced the likelihood of processing delays. In all aspects, I found Bryan to be an excellent attorney and I highly recommend him. The visa application process is fraught with pitfalls. Bryan was able to present a strong package and was skillful in the wordings on the visa that would increase its chances of succeeding, including his coaching my fiancée regarding how she should respond to anticipated questions in the interview. Getting a fiancée visa in China is difficult and has a high failure rate. I attribute our success in this endeavor to Bryan’s dedicated and diligent efforts.