Margaret Wong and Associates Ripped off helpless Air Force member and wife! Cleveland Ohio *EDitor's Comment
Margaret Wong and associates began by telling us that they could help us file for a K-3 visa even though I informed them that our current petition for an IR-1 was already under investigation.
They assured me they could help my wife and I so we wouldn't have to be separated again. Even though the $2,500 fee seemed exhorbitant, we agreed because we had been saving our money for a year to hire a lawyer.
After they began taking payment for services they hadn't even rendered, I learned from the embassy and another immigration attorney that they were lying and advised to get my money back. This was before they had taken any action on my behalf.
I asked for an immediate refund and explained the situation to them. Since they had not done any work on my case I didn't see a problem. However, as soon as I mentioned that I wanted a refund they stopped answering my e-mails and I can't seem to get through on the phone either.
Being a low ranking Air Force member serving in South Korea I make very little money. Wong & Assoc. took advantage of our desparation and stole our money! Now, as I am scheduled to return to the United States and must send my wife back to the Philippines, we don't have enough money to pay for our many expenses.
Do not do any business with these people and please spread the word. I am here defending the many freedoms that all Americans enjoy, including the right to defend ourselves against vicious parasites like Wong & Associates!
Eric
Kunsan AB, Other
2 Updates & Rebuttals
EDitor's Response
#30
Tue, November 05, 2002
Most breached contracts are accompanied by a penalty. You did not do what you assured this Airman that you could do. It is not enough to just return his money. You made it impossible for him to accomplish what he wanted to do. What do you intend on doing?
ED Magedson
EDitor@ripoffreport.com
David
Cleveland,Ohio,
Chief of Operations
#3UPDATE Employee
Mon, November 04, 2002
In response to the posting on October 13, 2002, the legal services that were initially contracted and considered were delayed due to the request of the client for us not to send paperwork to be signed. Without signed paperwork from the Airman and his wife, we are unable to represent a client or contact any Immigration and Naturalization Service or American Consulate on behalf of the client.
All contact with the client was via e-mail and he refused to provide the Office a mailing address. We, however, did contact the American Consulate and left a message to see if general information would be available, but no return call was made within 5 business days. We also located other general information for the client and relayed this information to the client.
The client himself, due to the suggestion of Mrs. Wong in an initial email communication, was able to speak to the American Consulate himself in order to determine what the delay was for his own filing, and whether there would be a possibility of the K-3 filing, as our office had suggested. He learned that there was an investigation of his own marriage based filing that he had filed without representation or counsel, prior to hiring our office, and that the investigation would hinder any subsequent K-3 nonimmigrant visa application.
(A K-3 application, filed on a form I-129F for the spouse of a United States citizen, must first be approved by the INS in the US, and then later forwarded to the Consulate for visa application. Even if an I-129F is approved by the INS in the U.S., the American Consulate can and will deny processing the nonimmigrant K-3 visa application, if there is a simultaneously processing I-130 immigrant petition already at the US Consulate stage or an immigrant petition under investigation.)
Therefore, it was our determination that since we had been unable to mail to him the documents we had prepared for the I-129F filing, we had been unable to subsequently speak directly to the US Consulate concerning this client, and that he had sought legal advise and representation from other attorneys, we would refund the full amount of money paid for our legal services. We did not charge for any consultation, any email communications, nor did we charge for subsequent information provided concerning the processing of K-3 visas.
Our accounting department acted within a fifteen day time period, a reasonable amount of time, in order to return funds. We certainly understand the stress that this gentleman encountered but, unfortunately, there was little we could do without cooperation from the client.