Frequently Asked Questions
A note before the questions: this page is general information about how my practice works and the kinds of legal questions I help clients with. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you have a specific situation, the right next step is usually a conversation.
💬 Have questions? Try Sunny's Assistant.
A bilingual AI helper for general questions about the firm — available 24/7 in English and Mandarin. Click the chat bubble in the corner to ask about practice areas, scheduling, or how Sunny works with clients. Not a substitute for legal advice.
About the firm
-
My office is at 7380 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Suite 215, San Diego, CA 92111. I serve clients throughout California and, for cross-border matters, internationally. Many of my consultations are by phone or video, so clients in other parts of California (or other parts of the world) work with me regularly without ever needing to come to the office.
-
English and Mandarin. I'm a native Mandarin speaker and one of California's first Mandarin-speaking attorneys to specialize in estate planning. Many of my clients work with me specifically because they want their legal matters handled in the language they think and feel in.
-
The initial 15-minute consultation is free. It's a chance for both of us to understand whether your situation is something I can help with, and whether we're a good fit. If we decide to move forward, the next step is a longer working process, we offer both flat fees and hourly fee services.
-
It depends on the matter. Most simple estate plans, prenuptial agreements, naturalization applications, and uncontested dissolutions are flat-fee — meaning you'll know the cost up front. Complex matters (international estate planning, investor immigration, contested probate) are quoted on a case-by-case basis. Probate fees are largely set by California statute. I'll always tell you what something costs before you commit.
-
Yes, generally. Whether I can take on a new matter depends on the type of case and current capacity. The fastest way to find out is to schedule a free consultation.
-
I'm licensed to practice law in California. For matters that involve other U.S. states, I work with co-counsel licensed in those states. For international matters (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and elsewhere), I have working relationships with practitioners abroad. Cross-border work is a meaningful part of my practice.
Estate Planning
-
For many California families, yes. A will alone usually means your estate has to go through probate — a court-supervised process that takes 12–18 months for a simple probate and costs a percentage of the estate. A revocable living trust avoids probate entirely, keeps your affairs private, and makes things much simpler for your family, and often provide asset protection for your beneficaries. Wills still play an important role (especially "pour-over wills" used alongside a trust), but for anyone who owns real estate or has significant assets, a trust is often the better foundation.
-
A revocable trust can be changed or revoked during your lifetime. You stay in control of your assets, and the trust is mostly used to avoid probate and provide for smooth succession. An irrevocable trust generally can't be changed once it's set up. It's used for more specific purposes — asset protection, estate tax planning, special needs planning, or sheltering assets from long-term care costs. Most clients start with a revocable trust; some add irrevocable trusts for specific goals. However, a revocable living trust may become irrevocable when certain things happen - incapacity, death, etc.
-
Significantly. If you have real estate, bank accounts, or family members in another country, your estate plan needs to account for cross-border tax issues, foreign inheritance laws, and the practical reality of administering assets in two jurisdictions. This is one of the most common reasons clients come to me — many estate planning attorneys aren't equipped for it. The earlier you address it, the more options you have.
-
Almost always before, if you have meaningful assets. Once you become a U.S. resident, you become subject to U.S. estate and gift tax rules — and the planning options that were available to you as a non-resident largely close. Pre-immigration planning is a specialized area, and the savings can be substantial. If you're contemplating a move to the U.S., it's worth a conversation as early as possible.
-
It’s recommended review the estate plan every 3–5 years, plus an immediate review whenever something significant changes — marriage, divorce, birth of a child, death in the family, a move to a new state or country, the sale of a major asset, or a substantial change in your finances. Estate plans aren't one-and-done documents. They need to reflect the life you're actually living.
Have an estate planning question that isn't here?Schedule a Free Consultation
Immigration
-
For a green card application based on marriage to an US citizen and already in the US., the adjustment of status process typically takes 12–18 months from filing to green card approval, sometimes faster. For someone abroad, consular processing through the U.S. embassy in their home country usually takes 8–14 months. Specific timelines depend on the home country, the case type, and current USCIS and consular processing times — which change frequently.
-
Both are investor visas, but they're very different. EB-5 is an immigrant visa — it leads to a green card and eventually U.S. citizenship. It requires an investment of $800,000 to $1,050,000 (depending on the location) and creates 10 jobs. E-2 is a non-immigrant treaty visa — it's renewable indefinitely but does not lead to a green card. It requires a "substantial" investment (typically $100,000+) and is only available to nationals of treaty countries. (China is not a treaty country; Taiwan is.) Which visa is right depends on your goals, your country of nationality, and the size of investment you can make.
-
The path depends on the employee and the role. The most common options are H-1B (for specialty occupations, requires a U.S. bachelor's-equivalent degree), L-1 (for transferring an employee from your foreign office or parent company), and employment-based green cards (for permanent positions, usually preceded by a PERM labor certification). The first step is usually a strategy conversation about which path fits your business and the employee's situation. There are also compliance obligations — I-9 paperwork, prevailing wage requirements, and others — that I help businesses stay on top of.
-
For some matters, yes — naturalization applications and simple family-based petitions can be done by determined non-lawyers. But the consequences of errors are severe: delays of years, denials that affect future applications, and in some cases removal proceedings. For anything more complex (employment-based, investor, contested family-based), the cost of getting it wrong is almost always much higher than the cost of getting it right.
-
It depends on the type of denial. Some denials can be appealed; some can be cured by re-filing with additional evidence; some are final. The first step after a denial is a careful review of the denial notice to understand the basis. In many cases, there is a path forward — but the steps must be taken thoughtfully, because a poorly-handled response can make things worse.
Have an immigration question that isn't here? Schedule a Free Consultation
Family Law
-
A prenuptial agreement isn't about anticipating the marriage failing — it's about being clear, as adults, about how you'll handle finances together. It can protect family wealth, business interests, and assets you bring into the marriage. It can clarify spousal support expectations. It can prevent the most expensive and emotional kind of conflict — the kind that happens when two people who love each other try to figure out money under stress, years later, without ever having talked about it. A well-drafted.
-
In contested divorce, usually each spouse hires their own attorney, and the attorneys negotiate (or litigate) on behalf of their clients. It's adversarial by design. Uncontested is while still go through the court proceeding: the spouses usually reach an agreement on therir own or sit down together with a neutral mediator (often a lawyer) who facilitates conversations to reach agreements. The goal is resolution, not victory. Mediation is usually faster, cheaper, and emotionally healthier — especially when there are children or shared family. It works best when both spouses are committed to a respectful proce
-
My family law practice is focused on the planning and non-adversarial side — prenups, postnups, mediation, uncontested dissolution, collaborative divorce, and similar matters. For contested cases involving custody battles, I'll happily refer you to colleagues who specialize in that work. There's no shame in needing aggressive representation — but it's not what I do, and you deserve a lawyer whose practice is built around what your case actually requires.
-
California has a mandatory 6-month waiting period from the date the divorce papers are served before a divorce can be finalized. So even the simplest, most cooperative uncontested divorce takes at least 6 months. With straightforward cases, the practical timeline is usually 6–8 months from filing to final judgment.
Have a family law question that isn't here?
Probate
-
Maybe — California has multiple simplified procedures that can avoid full probate, and recent changes (AB 2016, effective April 1, 2025) significantly expanded who qualifies. The two main thresholds for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 are:
Personal property (bank accounts, vehicles, investments, personal belongings) up to $208,850 can transfer through a small estate affidavit, without court involvement
A primary residence in California valued at $750,000 or less can transfer through a streamlined "Petition to Determine Succession to Real Property" — much faster and cheaper than full probate
The two thresholds are separate. If a parent left a $700,000 home and $150,000 in personal assets, both qualify for simplified procedures. If the home is worth $800,000, the residence may need full probate even if other assets are minimal.
Other paths to avoid probate include living trusts (assets held in trust pass entirely outside probate), joint tenancy with right of survivorship, and named beneficiaries on retirement accounts and life insurance. Whether your specific situation qualifies depends on how the assets were owned and titled.
-
Don't make any major moves until you've had legal advice. The early days after a death are when well-meaning executors can create personal liability for themselves — paying the wrong creditors first, distributing assets too early, missing deadlines. The most important early steps: secure the property and important documents, locate the will or trust, identify the assets and approximate values, and get a handle on what you're being asked to do. Then talk to a lawyer about how to do the rest.
-
Most full probates for uncontested matters take 12–18 months from filing to close, depending on complexity. Simple probates with no disputes can sometimes close in less. Cross-border probates, contested wills, or estates with complicated assets can take 2 years or more. Trust administration (when a loved one had a living trust) is usually faster and entirely out of court
-
The estate is "intestate," and California law determines who inherits. The order is generally: spouse first, then children, then parents, then siblings, and so on. The estate still goes through probate, but the court appoints an administrator (rather than an executor named by a will) and follows the statutory rules. Intestate estates are often more complex than testate ones, because there's no document to look to for the decedent's intent.
Have a Probate question that isn't here?