Breaking Immigration Law Myths With Andres Mejer

January 8, 2025 | Written by Gladiator Law Marketing

Andres Mejer is the Owner of Andres Mejer Law & Associates, LLC, a New Jersey law firm specializing in helping individuals navigate the complexities of immigration law. Born in Santiago, Chile, and raised in a Spanish-speaking household, Andres has a personal connection to the immigrant experience, having faced the challenges of being an undocumented immigrant himself. As an accomplished immigration attorney, he is fluent in Spanish and Hebrew, with other areas of concentration on traffic and DUI defense, family law, and personal injury legal matters. In addition to his legal practice, Andres serves as a commissioner of the Long Branch Housing Authority and is a board member of the Monmouth Family Health Center.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[01:31] How a childhood conversation sparked Andres Mejer’s interest in becoming a judge and later an attorney
[02:11] The personal and educational journey that led to Andres’ career in law
[05:09] Andres’ transition from a self-taught immigration attorney to a specialist in the field
[12:26] Common misconceptions about immigration and the reality of immigrants’ tax contributions
[15:13] Strategies for immigrants to successfully navigate the US immigration system
[16:55] Challenges faced in representing immigrants and the importance of trust-building
[26:15] Andres’ approach to advocating for policy changes that benefit immigrants
[29:23] Staying updated on policy changes to provide informed legal advice

In this episode…

Changing careers is a decision that can significantly impact your personal and professional life. Research shows that 49% of US workers have made a dramatic career shift, with 65% considering it. However, finding your true calling can be a winding path filled with unexpected turns and revelations. What drove this episode’s guest to switch his career focus from business to law and then find his niche in immigration law?

Immigration lawyer Andres Mejer forged a path from an undocumented immigrant to a notable immigration attorney, discovering his passion for helping immigrants through a series of serendipitous events. Initially pursuing a business career, Andres’ life took a pivotal turn when an immigrant needing legal assistance approached him for help. Through a combination of his experiences as an immigrant and a drive to assist those facing legal challenges, Andres developed a marketing strategy resonating with the Hispanic community. He walks us through his journey, from his early aspirations influenced by pop culture to his rigorous academic pursuits that set the stage for his legal career. His innovative 953 method, designed to educate and solve complex immigration cases, exemplifies his commitment to helping immigrants navigate the legal system.

In this episode of 15 Minutes, Chad Franzen hosts Andres Mejer, Owner of Andres Mejer & Associates, LLC, to discuss Andres’ unique 953 system for navigating immigration law. Andres delves into his journey from self-taught practitioner to successful law firm owner, the truth behind common immigration myths, the value of client-attorney communication, and strategies for effective grassroots advocacy.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable moments:

“I realized there was nothing more rewarding than helping someone achieve legal status and changing their life genuinely.”
“For me, the challenge was not just being good at my trade but learning how to market and manage people.”
“A third of our cases are ones another attorney has screwed up. I love coming up with strategies to solve their problems.”
“Being a fantastic attorney that no one knows about doesn’t get you anywhere.”
“We don’t take someone as a client unless they have a path, can solve disqualifiers, and we can help them.”

Action Steps:

Conduct thorough research for legal representation: Before engaging with an immigration attorney, investigate their credentials, expertise, and client reviews to ensure they have a successful track record. This strategy helps avoid common pitfalls like hiring unqualified firms.
Understand the Nine Principal Paths to legal status: Familiarize yourself with the main avenues for obtaining legal status in the US, such as family-based or employer-based applications. This knowledge is critical in determining your eligibility and avoids the misconception that merely residing in the US will lead to automatic status.
Be aware of common disqualifiers: Recognize factors that could hinder your immigration process, such as having prior criminal charges or multiple illegal entries. This awareness is crucial in addressing potential obstacles early on, ensuring a smoother path to legal status.
Seek continuous education and stay informed: Continuously educate yourself on immigration laws and policies through reputable sources and consultations with qualified attorneys. Staying informed helps dispel myths, allowing you to make informed decisions and avoid misinformation prevalent in society.
Build a strong support network: Engage with community organizations and support groups that cater to immigrants and can provide guidance and resources. This network not only offers moral support but can also assist in finding reliable legal representation and understanding your rights and opportunities.

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Gladiator Law Marketing, where we deliver tailor-made services to help you accomplish your objectives and maximize your growth potential.

To have a successful marketing campaign and make sure you’re getting the best ROI, your firm needs to have a better website and better content. At Gladiator Law Marketing, we use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and decades of experience to outperform the competition.

To learn more, go to gladiatorlawmarketing.com or schedule a free marketing consultation. You can also send an email to ad**@gl*******************.com .

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:01

You’re listening to 15 Minutes, where we feature community leaders sharing what the rest of us should know but likely don’t.

Chad Franzen 0:12

Hi. Chad Franzen here, one of the hosts of Share Your Voice, where we talk with top notch law firms and lawyers about what it takes to grow a successful law practice. This episode is brought to you by Gladiator Law Marketing, delivering tailor made services. Tailor made services to help you accomplish your objectives and maximize your growth potential. To have a successful marketing campaign and make sure you’re getting the best ROI your firm needs to have a better website and better content. Gladiator Law Marketing uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and decades of experience to outperform the competition to learn more. Go to gladiatorlawmarketing.com, where you can schedule a free marketing consultation. My guest today is Andres Mejer, owner of Andres Mejer Law, an accomplished immigration attorney based in New Jersey, born in Santiago, Chile, and raised in a Spanish-speaking household. Andres has a profound personal understanding of the immigrant experience after facing challenges as an undocumented immigrant himself, Andres embarked upon a mission to assist others navigating the complexities of immigration law. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and Brooklyn Law School, where he met his wife. Andre dedicated to his legal practice, but also serves as a commissioner of the Long Branch Housing Authority and a member of the Board of Monmouth Family Health Health Center. He demonstrates his commitment to community service and also advocacy. Andres, thanks so much for joining me today. How are you?

Andres Mejer 1:31

It’s a pleasure to be here. Chad, thank you for that introduction.

Chad Franzen 1:38

Just as an aside, I just came across a marketing piece from you guys from a couple of years ago. It was a puzzle with different pieces making out gladiator marketing. And I put it that, you know, been a while since I chatted with gladiator marketing. Let’s see what they’re up to. Like, that’s the note I wrote down myself. I didn’t realize that Share Your Voice was Gladiator Marketing. Yeah, this is we’re all together. Wow, amazing. Well, hey, it’s great to have you. Thanks so much for joining me. Tell me how and when did you know that you wanted to become an attorney?

Andres Mejer 2:11

Well, it’s funny, you asked that I remember my earliest memory. It was in elementary school. I was talking with a friend of mine at the time, and he said, I want to be a judge. Because he liked Night Court. He liked the show. I want to be a judge and like a judge. Well, judges are attorneys. That was the first time I thought of, huh, that sounds like fun. And throughout most of my life, and even when I was in so, when I was first accepted into Rutgers, I was working on a five year combined Masters in Business and an undergraduate degree. In the middle of that, I left, moved to Israel, came back, and when I came back like I didn’t want, you know, years had gone by. I five years is a long time, and I wanted to graduate in two but I only had one year worth of classes, but Israeli military only gave me two years. So like, Okay, I got it done in two, and I didn’t do the business side. But when I was in law school, I was working on a joint program with Baruch College, also an MBA and a JD. But after five years of working non stop, seven days a week, nights and mornings, because I worked in law firms at the time and took classes at night, by design, not I had to do it. I was an immigrant. I had no one to support me, and I didn’t want to take out as many loans as possible, so I left the loans just for the education, and I worked to support myself, or whatever I could. So business and law was always my fascination. I when I graduated law school, times were difficult. It was not my intention to immediately open up a law firm. I wanted to learn the trade from others. Now, I’d already worked in law firms for three years by the time I graduated, so I knew what the practice of law looked like, and I knew what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t what I was doing, and it wasn’t immigration law, you know. I didn’t take a single class in immigration when I was in law school. I only took classes that were either practical or on the bar, you know. So it took me a while to decide on immigration law, even though I lived twice in Israel, twice in Chile and twice in the United States, I came to the US as a child, not speaking English. I moved to Israel as an adult, not speaking Hebrew, and then I came back on vacation and stayed and got permission from Israel and military to finish my studies here, what I thought was a three week vacation. Well, it’s been like 28 years. So you know, it was never my intention to come back and live in the United States, but after the two years, the economy went to crap in Israel. So I went to law school, and in law school I met my wife, who said Israel’s. Beautiful, but America is my home,

Chad Franzen 5:02

and here we are. Okay, awesome. Very nice. So what drew you then to immigration law? So

Andres Mejer 5:09

it’s funny, you asked that, unlike most people, I’m self taught immigration attorney. What I mean by that is, I did not go to another law firm work for an immigration attorney and then learn the trade. I learned it on my own, so when I open up. So I graduated in December of all three. Took the bar in February of all four, and was accepted in June of all four. In 2010 I opened up my law firm, having moved to New Jersey because we didn’t want to raise a family in it’s funny. I left New Jersey, saying I’m never coming back here. I freaking hate here. I want to be a New York City attorney. I turned down a full ride law school scholarship to be a New York City Attorney, and within one year of graduation, I was gone from from from New York because I did not want to be a New York City Attorney. So it’s funny how laugh, how life happens. But when I opened up my own law firm, by that point, I had five years of experience in a variety of different things, but most of it was litigation. Most of my experience was in litigation, particularly in the civil world, and I thought that’s what I was going to do. And when my movers helped me move my belongings into my new office space, one of them had a girlfriend who didn’t speak English and had a motor vehicle violation, I said, Well, I don’t have any I don’t have any clients. Sure. I’ll help you out. That’s when I learned to get paid in full first. Because good good result or bad result doesn’t mean you get paid afterwards. I learned a hard lesson, but I walked into court. It was my first time as an attorney in municipal court. I really didn’t know anything about it, but I did take some I took the books. I realized. I researched what the violation was. I really researched what to do. I walked in. I knew how to handle her case at that point, at least in my head, I did, and the judge is visibly frustrated. Well, what’s going on here? There was a Mexican individual that had a traffic violation. Didn’t speak any English, judge didn’t speak any Spanish, and they never translate. So I told that, like, Your Honor, I’m happy to help. I I’m a fluent Spanish speaker. How can I help? So he had me translate. Because of that, I walked out with three clients that were Spanish speaking that really didn’t know what had to do. I’m like, Oh, well. One, this is not hard. And two, I can’t believe there’s not another Spanish speaking attorney doing this. So then I said, All right, how can I find more of this type of work? And I learned how to market for motor vehicle violations. And then like, Well, okay, since this is a minor criminal, right? So New Jersey does not have Felony or indictables, felony or misdemeanor, they have indictables and non indictables, same basic idea, but, you know, they just have to call it something different. So the motor vehicle violations are essentially misdemeanors. Now it’s not just motor vehicle violations, those domestic violence. There’s also drug possession and driving under the influence of DUI or DWI. I learned D, U, I, d, W, y, because they were the most complicated and difficult and costly area of law in that that court field. So I learned how to advertise it, and as I started to get to know my clients, I realized their story was my story, or I should say, I lived all of their stories, because I came here as a kid, and I moved to Israel as an adult, and then I came back without anyone. So I had to support my college. I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have money for anything, right? I rode my bike to go to work. I would work in hotel industry, and Cole not had to go, and I was mad at in the winter. You know that that wasn’t healthy for me. But listen, we all do what you got to do. And immigrants, well, we don’t have a choice. We have no one else to help us. So as I learned more of their story, I realized it resonated with me, and I said, Okay, how can I help immigrants? And their number one question was, how does this affect my legal status? Or how does this Can I get legal status despite this crime that I being charged with? So as I learned more about them, I said, Well, let me figure that out. How hard can it be? I’d always done some immigration stuff. I did our own applications for me, for my family, for friends, but I never charged for it. I just did it as a hobby like, well, I’m an attorney. I have people that want this service. Let me see how I can help them. 2012 come comes around, Hurricane Sandy or super storm, standing, whatever you want to call it, and all of a sudden, no power. No electricity for three weeks. Courts close, there are no new traffic violations. Some courts don’t reopen because of flooding and damage. They’re like, Oh, I got a problem. So marketing, there’s no more violations for the discernible period. What do I do? That’s the same time the DACA was initiated, and I had a seminar at a school. People where Congressman came to speak, I got 65 clients out of it for a specific type of immigration case, and from them, I got all their family and their needs, and it grew from there. So the more I resonated with my clients, the more I realized their challenges, their frustrations, their difficulties. I realized that there was nothing more rewarding for me than to help someone achieve legal status. You know, helping somebody with a motor vehicle violation, getting them the compensation that they need for their medical needs. That’s rewarding. Helping somebody who for child support or divorce that wasn’t rewarding, because there it’s in the worst time of their life, even if you get a fantastic outcome for them, their life sucks. I hated that. It didn’t do nothing for me, helping somebody DUI or to avoid going to jail, sure they were thankful, they were happy, but it didn’t ultimately change their life. It just avoided a bad outcome, getting someone legal status avoids a bad outcome of deportation, helps them and their family and others that they might be able to file for and bring to the United States to live with them at the time, you know, so I was already living away from my family 1214, years. At that point, I was married, I had two kids, but none of my parents were here, none of my siblings were here. It was just us. So helping them kind of make me feel better about what I did and the sacrifices that I made, and today, it’s all we do. So we used to do what you call everything that walks in, the door, lock. You have a problem. I have a solution. That was then. Then we narrowed it to five practice areas. Then it became three, you know, family law, criminal law and immigration. That’s the trifecta for immigration. And I became a specialist in the interrelationship between immigration and other areas of law. And now it’s just immigration, and not even every kind in immigration it’s just certain ones that I know we do well that we can get good outcomes for our clients. And I enjoy doing that. Was a long answer to a quick question.

Chad Franzen 12:10

Very nice. That’s That’s great. That’s great. So you know, based on your experience then doing immigration law, what are some common misconceptions that people often have, maybe potential clients, or with regard to immigration, or with regard to immigration law,

Andres Mejer 12:25

well, so two different things, and you have to break it down, right? There’s our clients misconceptions, and then there’s, let’s just say, American society misconceptions. So let’s deal with American society, right? The and I’ve had probably 15 TV appearances already talking on this issue alone. I’m actually in the middle of the media tour. I have 45 TV appearances, and at 11 scheduled. So elect. You know, immigration is kind of a hot topic right now. The past couple of years, I’ve been really busy, which is on the speaking side, which is exciting. But misconception, biggest misconception, number one is, well, just being in the United States for a certain period of time, you’ll automatically achieve status. Nothing could be further from the truth. Second common misconception is that immigrants don’t pay taxes, when in reality, they pay billions every single year, and unlike others, they don’t get any benefits. There’s no unemployment insurance, there’s no social security insurance. For them, there’s no benefits at all. They pay into the system and they can’t get anything back. So government loves it. IRS has something called an ITIN Individual Tax Identification Number. They know that every single person that’s that has an ITIN it’s because they don’t have social security number, which, chances are, means they don’t have legal status. They’re happy to give that number and happy to accept, to accept the tax, the taxes that don’t require anything if they buy a property sales tax. So immigrants played billions every single year. Third common misconception is having a child in inside United States, meaning a US citizen child. Some people call them anchor babies, that that will automatically result in legal status. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is, you have to qualify for something, and your child might be able to help you 21 years from now, but if you entered legally, if you entered illegally, meaning without permission, they can’t so for the majority of people, so there’s 11 to 17 million undocumented immigrants, depending on who you believe and what those stat and what those are. But either way, there’s a lot. 40% of them qualify for something and either don’t know about it or had bad advice, meaning they tried something, they were giving the wrong information, whatever it is, but 40% of them have some path and are doing nothing about it, but just being in will not translate into legal status. No. Matter how long they’re here, and just having a child also will not help them.

Chad Franzen 15:07

So what advice would you give to immigrants who are navigating the US immigration system?

Andres Mejer 15:13

So strategy is incredibly important at the end of the day. So for me, there isn’t much in immigration that’s complicated that I should say that’s difficult. That doesn’t mean it, it’s easy to do. So I follow what I call the 953 system. I designed it myself for simplicity sake to train my team. Now I use it in our marketing. But 953 there are nine principle paths to legal status. That’s the first number. The five talks about five common mistakes that could disqualify you. So on the path side, maybe it’s a family based application, like a spouse, maybe it’s an employer, maybe it’s a DACA, right, nine principal ones the five, five common misconception, not misconceptions. Five common disqualifiers, multiple entries without permission from, you know, prior crimes, denied applications, fraud, those are four of the more common ones. Or being in removal, or having an order of deportation. That’s the fifth. Then the three are the three ways to fix those problems. So in order for me to accept the client, they need to have a path. They need to, if they have a path and nothing else, fantastic, if they have a path in something that disqualifies them, they need to have a way to solve it. So if we can’t do all three, we don’t accept them as a client, and we don’t take their money. So we don’t we do no cost consultations, and we only charge when we can help someone. Does that make sense? Sure, sure.

Chad Franzen 16:46

Can you share any, uh, significant challenges you’ve made that you’ve faced in representing immigrants and how you’ve overcome them?

Andres Mejer 16:54

So that’s two different things, right? One, one part. So one is the business of law aspect, you could be the best integration in the world, but if nobody knows you to exist, you’re out of business. So any attorney that works for themselves has to find a way to communicate to the world. I’m here to solve the problem that you have. So in my career, I mean, I opened up my own law firm because I realized I didn’t want to work for someone else. I had to work for somebody like I can trust and I can respect, and I did big law, medium law and small law, and I realized if I don’t find the person I can respect, I can’t work for them. So I realized I got to do it my own way, right? So I learned the business of law and to dovetail on our earlier conversation. Now, I do both the business of law and the practice of law, and I love the business of law. Now, remind me what your question was.

Chad Franzen 17:55

I apologize. What are some challenges that you’ve had, that you faced kind of doing immigration law?

Andres Mejer 18:00

Okay, so on the business side, it’s like I just said, had to learn how to market, just how to find individuals that have a problem that we can solve. Then it’s how do you scale that? How do you replace yourself? So if I’m if I’m a one man shop, well, I could do it all to the best of my ability. Fantastic. But how many people can I help? So if I want to help more people, then I need to find a way to replace myself. So now we have an intake department, a forum that that takes a client, that takes a prospect from they have a problem to we can help them, and they hire us, then we have a process that takes a client that’s hired to getting all their documents, all of their information and their funds, meaning that their fees to for us to help them. Then we have to prepare the application, submit the application, and make sure they get approved. So as we grew, define the figuring out, well, what’s the ideal structure? And it’s a constant challenge as we scale and as we grow. So I started just myself today. We’re three full time attorneys in the US. We have five foreign trained attorneys, and we have 30 staff members in in total, in five different offices. So we’ve gone nationwide, with the home base being in in in the New Jersey area, that’s the main location. But we serve a lot of people in New York, in Philadelphia, we also have clients in over 20 states. So challenge was, well, how to how to learn how to grow the practice. Then once you once I can generate leads, I have to focus on how to manage people, and how do I become a better leader? Because myself, I can maybe manage five to eight people alone. So beyond that, I can’t really do anything well. And initially I was the lead consultant, I was the lead attorney. I was I did the administrative stuff, so I had to replace myself in different functions, and I had to build a team around our skills. So that’s a work in progress. It never ends like we realized that our goal is to be able to help 1000 people a year, 5000 in five years, and every year now we’re growing tremendously in order to be able to achieve that, but along the way, you have to be good at your trade, because if you’re a terrible attorney but a horrible marketer, all you’ll do is convince the world faster how bad you are, but being a fantastic attorney that no one knows about doesn’t get you anywhere either. So, and this is where I find it surprising, right? I’m essentially self taught, not that I didn’t have mentors. I did not that. I did take cles and read books and I did all of that. But things that I find simple and obvious to me are not simple to others, like the 953, method I just explained that came from my seminars, people asking me, do I qualify? So I had this whole speech. I mean, I’ve done not hundreds, but over 100 seminars in churches, from groups of 50 to 500 people, non profits schools. So that became the basis of my book, do you qualify for US legal status? And then I realized, well, just having the qualifications, meaning, do they have a path is not enough. How do I explain to an attorney that’s going to do a a consult for me that it’s not just Are you married to a US citizen? We want to cover everything. We look at it holistically. We want to look at if Chad’s the immigrant, if you’re in that situation. We want to look at all of your options, not just the ones we will serve. So that’s where the 953, method. I needed a simple way to take my knowledge and explain it to somebody else, and now we train our team off of that. I have people who are non attorneys that know more about whether someone qualifies for something or not than practicing attorneys. I was just a speaker at a national conference in North Carolina three weeks ago, and I was talking to an immigration attorney in Seattle. She focuses on employment based particularly working with startups. But she’s from Belarus, so she speaks Russia. She has a lot of Ukrainian clients, and she didn’t know. Okay, so they come in with a parole that’s the Ukrainian humanitarian program. She didn’t know how to get him legal status. Like, what do you mean? You don’t know. It’s a basic thing, right? Ave like, What do you mean? Just because you’ve done this one narrow thing, you don’t understand the other ones. Like, that’s just an example. She’s intelligent, she’s capable. She has a great success, but only in the thing that she does. And again, surprising to me, what things that are obvious to me are not obvious to others. And I have a skill. I call it English to English translation. I take complex things and put it and break it down into smaller component things, component parts that other people can understand. I consider myself an educator. That’s why we have a YouTube channel. Books. We have We make videos every single week. We have 1000s of pages on our website, uh, for content. All of it is to get educated customers, informed customers. That’s the biggest so from the immigration side, for client side, the challenge sometimes is client’s misconceptions, right? Their most common question to me is quiro papeles. I want papers really I want work authorization. But in the US, you don’t just file for work authorization. You have to file for something, of which work authorization is a result. If you don’t have that something, you don’t get the work authorization. So and they think, uh, oh, I have this. Oh, my friend did this, or my friend did that. Why can’t I? Because they don’t look at holistically, and on top of that, unfortunately, a lot of people take advantage of immigrants. It’s not it’s not limited to the Hispanic community. It’s every community. When you go, when you go to another country, you’re going to look for people that can speak your language, and that means you can be taken advantage of. And there are too many people that have been the victim of fraud. You know, they hire somebody they think is an attorney who’s not an attorney, or they hire someone that is an attorney that does everything that works, that walks in the door law, not really a specialist in immigration. It screws their case up all they know it’s an attorney, and now, all of a sudden, their their life is worse off than before they met that attorney. So they’re. Disenfranchised. They don’t trust anyone. They don’t know who. They don’t know how to define is, are you a good person or are you not? Are you a good attorney or not? They just know you’re an attorney. So educating them about who’s a specialist and who is it who to trust and who and who not to trust. So the biggest challenge working with immigrants is their lack of trust? Which comes back to the biggest question every business owner has right. Build trust, build the tribe, and be good at your craft. So the challenge is being known and overcoming clients misconceptions based on poor experiences. Everybody has a friend or family member that has been that that has had either been in removal or has had contact with the immigration space and had a negative experience and trying to build get past that layer of thick skin, for lack of better word, to get to the the root of it, because sometimes they don’t articulate. They don’t come and tell you, Hey, why should I trust you? I wish they would ask that, even if they’re thinking that. So a lot of what we do is try to build in that trust, that, hey, we’ve been where you’re at. We’re immigrants for immigrants.

Chad Franzen 26:15

So you you not only work, obviously, you work with with immigrants, but you also advocate for policy changes that benefit them. What strategies do you take to do that? I’ve

Andres Mejer 26:25

gone to Washington see a variety of times, to talk to senators, congressmen, to advocate for change. I don’t do as much as that now, because this isn’t an environment where I believe much of anything is going to happen right now. So for better or worse, we’re going to have to wait for after the election not to get political but on the political front, there’s a very clear difference between what the Republicans seem to want to do now or are taught, and how they’re talking about immigration and how the Democrats are talking about immigration. So it’s, it’s, it’s a very clear distinction, but for the past 30 years, neither side has really made it a priority to help immigrants. Immigration law really hasn’t changed. Since 1997 there’s been some minor changes here and there some policy changes, but no new laws like you know, people are surprised. Oh, you’re an immigration attorney. You must be against the wall. What do you mean? One, I’m an Israeli citizen. I know the difference of what a wall does. Every country should be able to secure their border, but there is so much misinformation, you know. Oh, prices of the border. You must be making so much money right now. Do you understand that the problem is worse now than it was 20 years ago? So Obama deported more immigrants than Obama, than than Trump, by far. He also had a better control of the border by far. But someone talks about that, because that’s politics. The reality is we have a humanitarian crisis, where no matter what we do in the United States, you have people that are going to be coming here, because they’re like their world, their country is a disaster right now. Some of them are failed states, and they go wherever they go, which right now is north. Most of them have no idea what the political circumstances are in the United States, and if Biden announces something tomorrow, can take him three months to get to the US border. Right? The thought that our policy changes are going to draw like a magnet or repel people is absurd. It’s ignorant and it’s just politics, because it’s not the reality. But most people don’t take the time to learn. They listen to sound bites, they listen to information, to information sources that will give them the information that they want. But they don’t talk to others. It’s, it’s a sad circumstance. Immigration should not be a political issue, right? Other than, do we want immigrants? And what immigrants do we want? That should be the political conversation, because this country was built at immigrants. Bottom line, yeah, how do you stay, how do you stay, kind of updated on all the changes in policy going on. Well, I’m informed, right? So I have to be, because I’m talking to people like you all the time, and I get questions all the time. Now, sometimes I go on TV shows with less than 24 hours notice, sometimes only a couple of hours, because something happened, and they need an expert to discuss it, to describe it and share it with their constituents. I’ve been in almost every major market at this point. What advice would you lose? Shows what’s that?

Chad Franzen 29:51

What advice would you give, maybe to immigrants who are fearful of the you know, engaging with the legal system.

Andres Mejer 29:58

Don’t be at the end of the. Okay, we’re here to help. But do your research. Find out who’s good and who’s not, right. So do your due diligence. Don’t just go to someone that’s your that’s in your city. Maybe they’re great, maybe they’re not. It shouldn’t be just do they speak your language? It’s can they get results? So what I tell clients is, listen, are they an expert, right? Do they show up on TV? Do they have a YouTube channel? Do they have a book? Do they have good reviews? Do they have content online, on your website, right? How can you learn more about this attorney or law firm without spending your money, and that’s your time, and that’s why we spend so much time, partially doing things like this. Like this is not a good use of my time. I happen to enjoy it. But at the end of the day, number one problem from every every business is how to reach people who don’t know you solve a problem that they have. So to get involved, to get informed, if you are an immigrant, speak to an immigration attorney who’s qualified, read and learn about them in advance, even if you’ve spoken to someone in the past or five people, and they’ve told you, you have no hope. Things do change, and the people you’ve spoken to in the past sometimes are wrong for reasons, because they have a narrow so like my friend in seat app, she knows what she knows, but she doesn’t know outside of her space. So you need to find someone that can solve your particular problem. We’re pretty good at it. But we’re not the only people on the planet. If you don’t know, someone, speak to us right at the end of the day. We’re not going to charge you for a consultation. If we can help you, then we’ll tell you what the investment looks like and what the time commitment looks like. We actually give people a window of time when their case gets filed. We give them deadlines right at the beginning. Here’s what you need to do and here’s where you need to do it. We also meet with our clients every four to six weeks. Every single time we meet with them, we schedule the next appointment, and we have a 48 hour response to any question. So we don’t take someone has a question they can’t just call and automatically speak to their designated person because they’re working on something else, you’re going to leave a message and we’re going to get back to you within 48 hours. How do we know? Because we have a ticketing system, we track our response time now, we happen to respond a lot quicker than 48 hours, but that’s what we tell clients, listen within least two days, you’re going to hear from us. Doesn’t mean we’re going to answer your question, because maybe we can’t, maybe requires more research, but we’re going to speak to you, we’re going to find out what your issue is, and then we’re either going to give you an answer or get back to you with an answer. The number one problem that attorneys have for complaints is client communication or lack thereof, right? So this is how we’ve focused on minimizing that, focusing on the client experience to give to make sure that one, they get a good outcome. Two, they enjoy the process. No one enjoys the process really, right? Everybody wants to get it done immediately. But, you know, we try to minimize the hardships as much as possible. If you’re an immigrant and you don’t know what your options are, or you think you know them, find out for sure.

Chad Franzen 33:23

I have one more question for you, but first, tell me how people can find out more about Andres Maher law.

Andres Mejer 33:29

Even if you misspell my name, you’re going to find me. Just google me. So we have a YouTube channel, the Green Card attorney. That’s that one actually is new, only started this year because that one’s in English. Only. All of our marketing is in English and Spanish, but up until recently, we had one channel with it all. Now we have two el green card in Spanish, the Green Card attorney in English. We have a website, andresmejla.com and we’ll give you a free copy of our book. Do you qualify for US legal status? It’s in English and in Spanish. All you have to do is go to do is go to our website, request it, and if you’re inside the United States, we’ll mail it to you. If you’re outside the United States, we’ll send you electronic copy.

Chad Franzen 34:09

You are obviously very passionate about what you do, what is most rewarding to you about working as an immigration attorney, the solution.

Andres Mejer 34:18

So when someone gets their green card, when so for me, I love challenging cases. About a third of our cases are ones that another attorney or non attorney has screwed up, and they’re like, nobody can help you. I love those cases, and I love being able to come up with the strategy of how to solve their problem. I don’t as much love the implementation of that strategy, but that’s where my team comes in. So I can focus on the things I love. If chat has a problem, I figure out what the problem is. My team gets it done right, and we review it make sure that that before anything is filed, it’s perfect, because once it’s filed. Held. It’s out of our hands. We can modify it and change it 1000 times, but once it’s in immigration hands, it’s in their hands. So for me, there’s nothing more rewarding than taking a difficult case that other people said can’t be done and finding that solution. I love I get a kick out of it.

Chad Franzen 35:16

Okay, awesome. Hey, Andres, it’s been great to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time and all of your insights. I look forward to chatting with you again. Forward to chatting with you again. Absolutely

Outro 35:22

So long everybody. Thanks for listening to 15 Minutes. Be sure to subscribe and we’ll see you next time.