My wife and I had green cards from an excellent Californian lawyer, then we moved to Seattle and before we moved again to Vancouver Canada as, I became ill and lost my job, we asked Ben Tao to... More

My wife and I had green cards from an excellent Californian lawyer, then we moved to Seattle and before we moved again to Vancouver Canada as, I became ill and lost my job, we asked Ben Tao to process the reentry permits for us. He did the first on, we stayed in Vancouver 2 years, the reentry visas expired, so we paid him his fee and asked for a renewal. We had been waiting 3 months and no reentry visas, but we wanted to travel to the US, so we contacted Ben and asked if we could travel. He said sure, just tell them the application is 'under process'. I got to the Blaine crossing and the official said there's nothing on the computer. Then I was sent to secondary where I was told my green card was invalid (it was supposed to expire 2011, this was April 2008). They bullied me and said either I have to voluntarily surrender my card or I would be arrested there on the spot (no, I could not contact my lawyer they said) and I would have to stay in custody until a hearing date before a judge could be set. I surrendered the card (although it is not a voluntary surrender I assure you) here are the facts from immigration: 1. a reentry permit for a green card that expires has NO STATUS 2. GREEN CARD status is revoked while application is 'in process' 3. Any green card holder traveling while an application is in process can and will have their green card seized 4. The presentation of the CIS receipt would not have changed anything. 5. As my lawyer, you gave us incorrect advice on how to proceed under these conditions 6. The amount of the fee we paid was immaterial, we paid the fee and you agreed to provide the service, not only is the service incomplete but there is evidence if misconduct and willful negligence When my wife asked you "can we travel" The correct answer is not "yes, at the border your application will show 'in process' but "yes, but you can and will lose your green card", "so if you want to keep your green card dont travel" You are providing blatantly incorrect and misleading information that most nearly resulted in me being charged as a felon Ben Tao is a thief, he stole fees from us without delivering the permit, he gave us bad advice, he has hung up on me and now he refuses to speak to me. He even wanted more fees to fix the problem he created. A very dangerous, unstable lawyer. Not worth it. Move on.
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