我们为何不提供免费咨询？Why We Don’t Give Free Consultations?
我们专业且极具耐心的客户服务团队，每天都会接听那些来自需要法律建议和移民签证指导的人的电话，想问一些“很快的问题”。在沟通中，很多来电者会惊讶于他们需要为律师或移民顾问的咨询时间付费。当今社会，太多“白嫖党”期望律师或移民顾问应该愿意为每位咨询者无偿奉献他们的经验与时间，以换取某天他们成为付费客户的可能性。
我们事务所有严格的书面规定：不提供免费咨询或回答“非客户”的法律问题。我们绝不是唯一这么做的签证移民事务所。虽然此项规定看起来不近人情，但这样的规定不仅保护我们，更大程度上也保护您的利益。
当您遇到签证或移民问题需要咨询时，您可以致电多家机构寻求免费咨询。当然会有机构提供所谓的“免费咨询”。事实上，这意味着移民律师、持牌移民顾问或接待人员会倾听你的情况，并决定他们是否愿意承接您的案件，并解释聘用他们的费用。他们不会真正意义上提供详尽的法律建议、申请途径指导、回答您的法律问题，更不会插手您的案件。以下是我们要求付费咨询的主要原因：
Every day, our patient, caring, and supporting staff answer calls from distressed individuals in need of “quick questions” for legal advice and guidance on immigration issues. Many callers are surprised to hear that they must actually pay for the attorney or RCIC’s time for the consultation. It has somehow become an expectation in our society that attorneys should voluntarily offer their service and advice to the clients at no charge in exchange for the possibility of getting paid for the case at a later time.
According to the company’s written policy, we do not offer free consultation or answer legal questions from non-clients. In fact, we’re not the only office who has this policy. This might seem like an insensitive policy, but it is designed to not only protect us but also to ensure the quality of our service.
When you are facing immigration or visa issues and are in need of legal advice, you may call around and look for free consultation. You probably will find a consulting firm that offers such service, but there is a catch – they will be giving you what is called a case evaluation. Basically, what this means is that an attorney or RCIC will listen to you and make a determination of whether or not they can help you and then explain the cost to retain. They will not give you legal advice, answer legal questions or get into the weeds of your case. Below I have listed a few of the top reasons for offering paid consultations:
- 便宜没好货 You get what you pay for
- 您不会得到中肯的建议 You will get bad advice
- 您更有可能提供虚假信息 You will lie to us
- 如果您是付费客户，您值得拥有我们的移民律师或持牌顾问竭诚为您服务 If you are a paying client, you deserve to have an attorney/RCIC who can properly focus on helping you.
便宜没好货 You get what you pay for
经验丰富且工作繁忙的移民律师或持牌顾问通常无法提供“免费咨询”。他们会更加专注于在重要时间节点完成、补充案件细节，并为已付费的客户提供法律、申请或咨询服务。
也许您会把免费咨询与美食城中的免费试吃相提并论。但其中的区别是，虽然您可以确信牙签末端的“左宗鸡”薄片尝起来必然与买到的一整份左宗鸡套餐一样美味。但不幸的是，当涉及您及您家人的签证或移民申请时，您真的无法保证“免费”将换来怎样的服务。当您意识到移民律师或持牌顾问由于缺乏经验或关注而犯下严重疏忽失误时，通常为时已晚
诚如大多数商品和服务一样，它的市场价格会反映出相应的供需关系。您的移民律师或持牌顾问进行收费咨询的事实，也可以反映出与他们所付出咨询时间等价的服务价值。
Experienced lawyers/RCIC who are in high demand usually don’t have the time to commit to working for free when they have important deadlines for existing clientele who have paid for legal services.
It’s tempting to think of a free consultation similarly to how you might grab a free sample of a meal at a food court. You can be confident that the General Tao’s Chicken at the end of that toothpick is going to taste exactly like the meal you’re about to order. Unfortunately, when it comes to immigration and visa, you really don’t know what you’re buying until it’s too late. By the time you realize that your lawyer/RCIC has made some serious errors due to lack of attention or experience, it’s usually too late.
Like most goods and services, the market price of a product or service will reflect whether it’s in high or low demand. The fact that your lawyer/RCIC is charging a consultation fee should signal that their time is actually worth paying for. On the other hand, when you’re paying nothing for a product or services, it will reflect on the value of what you receive.
您不会得到中肯的建议 You will get bad advice
在签证及移民领域，没有所谓的“快速问题”。如果律师或移民顾问提供的建议，仅仅是依赖通过“快速问题”草草获知的不完善信息，该建议的可行性和专业度可想而知。我们数次经历过在案件承接、准备、递交，甚至上诉过程中，由于之前未获知的信息导致案件走向发生正面或负面的极大改变。
如果您致电询问一个“快速问题”，您可能打断我们的移民律师或持牌顾问为另一个收费客户服务。“快”通常在专业人士看来是“免费”的同义词，所以当一位专业人士基于专业知识和经验给出回复的过程，实质上是在“赔钱”。无论公平与否，这意味着您已经被这位专业人士做出草率判断，贴上“白嫖”的标签。这在您收到的咨询质量与回复态度上会被极大的体现出来。
In the immigration and visa business, there is no such thing as a “quick question.” If an attorney or RCIC gives you advice solely based upon a “quick question,” it is not based upon 100% of the information that we require to make an adequate and well-informed suggestion about your case. We have experienced plenty of situations in which the lack of or false information provided lead to unfavourable consequences that are out of our control.
To ensure the satisfaction of our paid clients, it’s in our best interest to minimize the interruption of our top-quality service on track. Therefore, when you call us without an appointment for a “quick question”， you are holding our business back from long-term growth.
“Quick” is usually professionally seen as the synonym for “free” in the industry, so we are actually losing money by answering your question. Fair or not, this means your attitude towards our service will most likely result in a snap judgment about you, which might be reflected in the quality of answers you receive.
您更有可能提供虚假信息 You will lie to us
人们本能的希望通过沟通获悉对自己有利的确认信息（您大多数时候只想听到您希望相信的信息）。您在“快速问题”提供的信息可能有失客观对您更加有利，且忽略掉一些含有每个法律专业人士都知道可能会让案件充满不确定因素的“负面事实”。因为您很难通过“快速问题”告知我们发生的一切，我们知道您会挑选那些对您“看前来不错”的事实，忽略那些可能对申请案件产生风险的事实。
People instinctively seek confirming information they want through communication (Most of the time, you just choose information about what you believe in). Your “quick question” is probably full of information good to you, but it is biased. Sometimes, it ignores some negative facts which each legal professional believes to make your case insured. Actually, it is difficult for you to offer us accurate facts through “quick question”. You pick up the facts that make you look good, but you ignore the facts that do harm to your case.
如果您是付费客户，您值得拥有我们的移民律师或持牌顾问竭诚为您服务 If you are a paying client, you deserve to have an attorney/RCIC who can properly focus on helping you.
基于以往经验，提供有限时间的免费咨询，会遇到以下问题：
- 平均每年，我们每位移民专家需要耗费200小时提供免费咨询。这意味着200小时的时间耗损，无法为那些值得我们关注的付费客户提供服务；
- 在这些免费咨询中，只要很少一部分（少于10%）真心希望寻求专业协助的的人，会最终成为我们的客户。在他们进行咨询预约前，就理解代理费的含义。我们的客户更多是来源于基于信誉与口碑的转介绍，他们中的很多人在到访前就已经决定会聘用我们成为代理。没有最终聘请移民代理的人主要由以下群体构成：⑴ 无意聘请移民代理，但希望尽可能多的获得免费的专业建议（习惯性白嫖党）；⑵ 完全没有经济能力聘用移民代理；⑶ 他们希望能说服我们免费或对他们的案件进行价格减免；
想想看，经验丰富、富有责任心且有能力的移民律师或持牌顾问一定有足够多的付费案件作为收入来源。为何要将其才华、经历与时间耗费在提供免费服务上。如果您希望经办您签证或移民申请的法律人士足够专注、高效且全力以赴，那么他们的时间就不应该被无端浪费。
Based on our past experience, free consultations during a short time will produce some issues:
- Every immigration expert spent 200 hours providing free consultations every year, which meant the waste of 200 hours because the expert could not focus on those who deserve his or her attention.
- A tiny percentage (less than 10%) of those became paid customers. Those were the people who were serious about their cases and understood the true meaning of service fees before the consultation. Many of those decided to choose our service before they arrived because they believed in us and our reputation. Some people refused our service due to the following reasons: ⑴ had no intention of retaining a legal professional but wanted to gather as much free legal advice as they could; ⑵ had not enough fund to get the service of a legal representation; ⑶ hoped to get free service or a big discount service;
Think about it, if a legal professional is truly exceptional at what she/he does, that attorney/RCIC will have enough clientele to sustain his/her time. That attorney does not have the need (nor time) to give away their talent, energy and time for free. If you expect your attorney to be focused, cost-efficient and energetic enough to pave your path towards immigration, that attorney’s time cannot be frivolously wasted on those who don’t pay for it.
