Three categories of people will offer to help with an employer-sponsored petition, and only two of them can lawfully advise you on the substance of your case. The distinction matters most at the moment you are least equipped to see it: early, when a colleague forwards a name, when the fee sounds reasonable, when the office has a printed sign that says immigration services. Verification takes about fifteen minutes and costs nothing. Skipping it can cost a filing fee, a priority date, and in the harder cases an admission on the record that follows you into every later application.
Check the license first, and check it in the right state
Every state licenses attorneys through a state bar or a supreme court disciplinary body, and every one of them publishes a searchable member directory online. Search the attorney's full name, confirm the record shows an active status rather than inactive, suspended, resigned, or administratively ineligible, and read the disciplinary history if the state posts one. Immigration is federal practice, so an attorney licensed in any one state may represent you before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services regardless of where you live. That is a feature, not a warning sign. What you are confirming is that the license exists somewhere and is currently in good standing.
Do the search yourself rather than accepting a screenshot, a framed certificate, or a bar number recited over the phone. Names repeat, and a middle initial or a suffix sometimes separates two records with very different histories. If the person tells you which state licenses them and the directory for that state returns nothing, ask again and search the neighboring states before assuming an error. A licensed attorney will not be irritated by the question; the ones who are irritated are telling you something useful about how the rest of the representation will go.
What accreditation permits a non-lawyer to do
The Board of Immigration Appeals, through the Executive Office for Immigration Review, recognizes certain nonprofit organizations and accredits individuals within them to represent people in immigration matters. These accredited representatives are not attorneys, and their authority is not personal in the way a bar license is: it attaches to their work at a recognized organization, which must charge only nominal fees or none at all. Accreditation comes in two grades. Partial accreditation permits practice before USCIS. Full accreditation adds representation before the immigration courts and the Board itself.
EOIR maintains a public roster of recognized organizations and accredited representatives, and that roster is the thing to check, not a business card. A properly accredited representative working at a recognized nonprofit is a genuine option, competent and often experienced in exactly the filings you need. The limits are practical rather than reputational. Recognized organizations serve populations they define, employment-based petitions are frequently outside their program, and their caseload is finite. Ask early whether your matter fits what the organization actually handles.
The form-filler is not a bargain
A notary public in the United States witnesses signatures. That is the entire office. In much of Latin America and elsewhere, a notario público is a trained legal professional, and the mistranslation has supported a long-running trade in unauthorized practice: consultants, tax preparers, travel agencies, and multiservice storefronts that select a visa category, complete the forms, and file them for a fee. They are not permitted to advise you, they carry no malpractice insurance, they answer to no bar, and they are not obligated to hand you your own file. The Federal Trade Commission is responsible for policing deceptive practices of this kind, and state consumer statutes reach them too.
The damage is rarely the money. A misidentified category, an omitted prior overstay, or an answer checked without understanding produces a denial with a written record, and later filings are read against that record. Typing services do exist lawfully: someone may transcribe answers you supply without choosing a form or interpreting a question. The moment advice enters, the line has been crossed. Ask directly whether the person is a licensed attorney or an accredited representative, ask which state or which organization, and verify the answer before any money changes hands.
What the paperwork should show
An attorney or accredited representative appearing in your case signs Form G-28 and it is filed with the petition, which means their name and status become part of the record. Ask for a copy for your own files. Ask, too, for a written fee agreement identifying the individual and the firm or organization, since a signed engagement letter gives you something to point at if the relationship sours. Careful readers keep their own copies of every form filed on their behalf, complete with the signature page, receipt notice, and the address the notices were sent to.
Verification is a habit rather than an event. Check the license before the first payment, check the G-28 when the petition goes out, and check again if the person handling your file quietly changes.