Immigration law is a very wide field or leg of law which deals with those cases where a person seeks permission to travel outside his/her native company or show interest in residing outside for a permanent time in life. Immigration lawyers are those lawyers who help clients get their visas and travel outside the country either to seek job, to seek education or after getting married.

 Depending upon the type of reason or purpose of settling outside, immigration lawyers are of many types. One of them is a family based immigration attorney who deals with those cases where a person wishes to settle or travel to a country where his/her family members are settled. An immigration attorney must not be confused with an immigration consultant and to help you understand the difference between the two, here are some points:

Points of differences:

•    The green card attorney who helps client go through the process of getting a Visa or a green card to a country where his/her family resides is a family based immigration lawyer. On the other hand, a family based immigration consultant is one who only gives advice and consultation to those who are considering moving out.

•    On one hand where attorneys help with paperwork, filing of immigration petition and advising, consultants only handle cases where clients seek information and wish to know whether they are eligible for getting family based immigration visa.

•    Consultants charge a certain specific fee and usually sign a contract of services when serving the clients but on the other hands, immigration lawyers charge differently for different services and may charge you on the basis of each service that you avail of them.

•    Using services of consultants may charge you less but the services that a consultant provides are also not enough to help you move our or fly out of the country. On the other hand, a lawyer may charge you much more but will ensure that he/she represents you throughout the case and help you with each little bit of issue that arises during the process.

•    An immigration consultant is only bound by a consultancy code of the country he/she represents but a lawyer is bound by the ethical law practices and this is another point of difference between the two.

•    All the services that a consultant provides are also provided by a lawyer but all the services that a lawyer provides are not covered by a consultant and this is the most major difference between the two.

The decision of hiring a consultant or a lawyer is yours and you must take this decision wisely and after enough consideration of the kind of services you want.  It is important to do a bit of research before hiring a family based immigration attorney as the attorney alone may be very instrumental in your immigration process. If you are looking for the services of an immigration lawyer in Maryland, you can visit http://www.marklawimmigrant.com/ and avail the top advice and immigration help.