d_outside2007-05-10 15:19:33
I have got a lot of help from many of you nice persons, and I would like to share some of my experience with you all too (so I do not have to write to many of you who asked privately -- I am a little lazy on this :-)

1. I do not want to repeat those procedures as how, which has been posted many times already, just follow it. Be careful though, some of those posts have mistakes, and some of those mistakes are FATAL. If you simply follow, your case will be kind of dead. So always do your home work, no matter pro se or through attorney (many attorney makes the same mistake, and get their clients cases killed too).

2. Once you have your complaint ready, decide pro se or through attorney.
Good days are over (WOM triggers automatic expedite nc). So I guess through attorney is the way now. UASA definitely pay more attention to attorneys, and believe it or not, your attorney might have some good relationship to AUSA (some are friends). But be smarter here:

2-1: find a good attorney: Better a big firm, and who do a lot of litigation in federal district court. You can find this in your local district through pacer.

2-2: prepare a good complaint yourself, show attorney and you can negotiate a good price.

2-3: negotiate a good price: you can separate filing and litigation. Filing should be very cheap, and it should cover something like regular filing, communication with AUSA, pre-hearing, objection of MTE etc. Litigation might be starting from a real hearing or discovery. So for litigation, you can do something like hourly based or whatever you are comfortable. Most of the cases do not go to litigation, so you could save thousands (like me).

3. Even if through attorney, monitor your cases closely all the time from pacer, and push your attorney and AUSA if necessary (be polite though). Do a lot of home work, ask experts if not sure (like this forum).

4. There is no guarantee of anything though, but my feeling is: I have done all I can, and I have done all correctly, the rest is up to GOD. You might just wait and do nothing, and you will be very sorry if it turns out one year after another waiting game. But if you have done all you can, even if it does not work, you wont be sorry.

5. The whole process will be part of our life strength/journey, so take it positive all the time, never give up!

Final note for your homework:
http://www.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=194681&page=1&pp=15

Read first 200 pages, and last 100 pages is enough.

Just my 2c.
Thank you all.
JR_KR2007-05-10 15:25:58
nice post, DING !!
eb1a_20082007-05-10 17:42:53
Thank you for sharing such valuable information with us
crotonwang2007-05-10 19:37:52
What kind of mistakes are FATAL?
d_outside2007-05-10 20:56:15
most in prayer part: adjucate vs approval etc.