Written file request
Ask for the complete client file by email rather than by phone, so the request carries a date. Include anything drafted but never filed, not only the documents that reached the government.
Switching immigration lawyers midway, or filing the rest yourself? Six things to check first
Receipt numbers first
The receipt numbers on agency notices are the key to checking case status independently. Copy them somewhere separate from the file before anything else.
G-28 versus EOIR-28
Form G-28 records representation before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, while EOIR-28 does the same in immigration court and EOIR-27 at the Board of Immigration Appeals. Filing the wrong one leaves the old representative on the record.
The decision to part ways with an immigration lawyer is usually made in a bad week, after a missed call, an unexplained delay, or a bill that arrived without a description. What follows is mostly paperwork, and the paperwork is more forgiving than it looks, provided it is done in a particular order. The order matters because a case in front of an agency or a court belongs to the person, not the representative, and the government keeps its own record of who is authorized to speak. Sorting that record out is the whole job.
1. Get the file before the relationship gets tense
The client file is the foundation of everything after. It holds the receipt notices, the filed forms, the exhibit index, the biometrics appointment letters, the correspondence with the agency, and, in a court case, the hearing notices that set every deadline that follows. Most state ethics rules require a lawyer to surrender papers and property to which the client is entitled on request, and a careful reader asks in writing, by email, so the request is dated. Ask for the complete file in digital form, including anything filed and anything drafted but never filed. Copies of receipt notices matter most, because they carry the receipt numbers.
2. Understand which form actually changes who represents you
Two systems, two sets of paper. Before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, representation is recorded on Form G-28, and a new representative files a fresh G-28 with the next submission, which supersedes the earlier one. In immigration court, the appearance form is EOIR-28, and before the Board of Immigration Appeals it is EOIR-27; a lawyer who wants out of a court case ordinarily has to file a motion to withdraw and may need the immigration judge's permission, particularly close to a hearing. A person representing themselves does not file an appearance form, but must file a written change of address so notices arrive.
3. Treat the fee agreement as the answer on refunds
Whether any part of a flat fee comes back depends on what the written agreement says the fee bought and how much of that was delivered. A flat fee described as covering preparation and filing of a family petition, with the petition prepared and filed, is largely earned even if the case later stalls. A flat fee covering a hearing that never happened is a different matter. Fees paid in advance for work not performed are generally refundable in most states, and unearned fees are supposed to be returned promptly on termination. Ask for a written accounting: hours, tasks, filing fees advanced, and the balance.
4. Know what a bar complaint is for, and when it is required
State bars and disciplinary counsel handle license discipline, not case outcomes, and a complaint will not undo a denial or reopen a case by itself. It is still worth filing when a lawyer refuses to return a file or an unearned fee, because fee arbitration and client security funds often sit alongside the disciplinary process. There is a second reason to know the procedure. A person who wants to reopen a case on the ground that former counsel performed ineffectively is expected to notify that lawyer, give an opportunity to respond, and either file a bar complaint or explain why none was filed.
5. Assume no deadline pauses for the change
This is the point that decides most cases. A thirty-day appeal window, a response date on a request for evidence, a call-up date for filings before a hearing: none of these stop because representation changed, and none of them are extended by a motion to withdraw sitting unruled. The Department of Justice, which oversees the immigration courts and the discipline of practitioners appearing before them, publishes the practice rules that govern filing deadlines and continuances, and those rules run on their own clock. Calendar every date from the notices themselves rather than from what anyone remembers, then work backward two weeks.
6. Decide honestly whether the next step needs a lawyer at all
Some steps genuinely do not. Mailing a response to a straightforward request for evidence, filing a change of address, submitting a form with a clear checklist: these are within reach of a careful person with the file in hand. Others reward representation heavily, especially anything adversarial, anything with a discretionary standard, and anything on appeal. A useful test is whether the next filing requires argument or only documents. Documents, a person can assemble. Argument, most cannot, and paying once for a consultation to scope that question is cheaper than paying to fix it.
The cleanest exits share a shape: file requested in writing, accounting requested at the same time, new appearance form filed or a change of address submitted, and every deadline transcribed from the original notice into one calendar the person controls. Do those four things and the change of representation becomes an administrative event rather than a crisis.