Resources
Publication Date
07/11/2023
This quick guide shares how to check your Selective Service registration status. For various applications with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), providing proof of registration with the Selective Service System is a vital part of qualifying for immigration relief. Learn more with this step-by-step guide.
Resources
Practice Update: Issuance of Notices to Appear (NTAs) in Denied Humanitarian-based Immigration Cases
Publication Date
06/21/2019
Over the last month, some practitioners have reported that USCIS has issued a number of NTAs in connection with denied U and T visa applications. Given these reports, ILRC, ASISTA, CAST, Freedom Network USA, American Association of Immigration Lawyers (AILA), and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles created a practice update to address some of the actions practitioners can take in individual cases as well as to support policy-level advocacy efforts.
Resources
Publication Date
05/25/2012
These notes were taken at the May 18-19, 2012 conference and contain lots of important practice questions, updates and filing tips for U visa cases.
Resources
Publication Date
03/12/2015
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status is a unique, hybrid form of immigration relief that requires the involvement of state courts before a child is eligible to apply for a special immigrant juvenile visa with U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. This guide includes an overview of the process of requesting SIJS findings in different types of state courts in California, providing answers to common questions about this process as well as practice pointers for different types of proceedings in California.
Resources
Publication Date
12/16/2021
In certain immigration cases, you may want to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Department of State (DOS), such as to try to find information about previous visa applications and passport records. This Practice Advisory will go over the DOS FOIA process in detail and provide practice tips for obtaining personal records from them, including best practices.
Webinar
We will review the role of parole in immigration law and its potential benefits, particularly regarding any post-election changes. This webinar covers three main types of parole: advance parole, humanitarian parole, especially as it relates to its use for children of U and VAWA derivatives, U visa applicants outside of the country, and the in-country refugee/parole program for certain minors, and parole in place. You will receive practice tips for applying for each form of parole.
Webinar
This webinar will cover the different ways that U petitioners can include derivatives, including at the time of filing the principal application, after the principal application has been filed, and after the principal application has been approved. Using hypotheticals, the webinar will also discuss common challenges that arise in U derivative cases, such as after-acquired relationships, extensions of status, and U derivatives abroad.
Resources
Publication Date
12/22/2020
On December 22, 2020, the ILRC submitted comments in opposition to EOIR’s notice of proposed rulemaking regarding what constitutes “good cause” for a continuance in removal proceedings. The proposed changes severely restrict the circumstances in which respondents can obtain continuances in removal proceedings, as well as the number and length of continuances. These changes will have a devastating impact on respondents’ due process rights, essentially eliminate protections from removal for VAWA and U-visa petitioners, further interfere with the independence of immigration judges, and curtail administrative efficiency.
Resources
Publication Date
09/08/2021
On August 18, USCIS provided information on the new bona fide determination process for U visa petitioners and their family members on a webinar hosted by ASISTA and ILRC. These notes include information shared during this event, including additional analysis. These notes are not vetted nor endorsed by USCIS, but prepared by ASISTA and ILRC.
Webinar
This webinar will focus on cutting-edge and complex issues in U visa cases, including updates on crimes and conduct that might trigger a denial, revocation, deportability, derivative issues related to marriage or qualifying family status, and the latest in adjudications and best practices.
Webinar
This webinar will focus on cutting-edge and complex issues in U visa cases, including updates on crimes and conduct that might trigger a denial, revocation, deportability, derivative issues related to marriage or qualifying family status, and the latest in adjudications and best practices.
Resources
Publication Date
05/15/2024
As of April 1, 2024, immigrant survivors of abuse, trafficking, and other crimes can now apply for certain immigration benefits for free. This Community Explainer details which survivor-based benefits are covered by the new fee exemptions, as well as other changes that may reduce financial barriers to accessing immigration benefits.
Webinar
This webinar takes you step-by-step through the process of assembling and submitting a successful U nonimmigrant application.
Webinar
This option allows you to register for two family visa-themed webinars for a discounted price:Learning the Basics in Family-Based ImmigrationTackling Advanced Issues in Family-Based Petition Cases
Webinar
Learn about the latest issues in family-based immigrant visa consular processing from expert practitioners Ann Block and Tami Castillo, as well as ILRC attorney Ariel Brown. The webinar will include an update on public charge findings and I-601A revocation issues in light of changes to the FAM, as well as other recent developments. This session will provide tips on how to properly advise clients about issues related to medical exams, tattoos, gangs, controlled substance use, alien smuggling, and other issues.
Webinar
Level: Intermediate
This intermediate webinar will review the nuts & bolts of preparing and filing a family-based immigrant visa consular processing case, as well as cover third country processing, troubleshooting issues with communicating with the NVC and/or consular post, potential red flags to watch out for, and how to prepare clients for these issues, and the latest updates on pandemic consular processing.
Presenters
Ariel Brown
Ariel Brown joined the ILRC in April 2017. After five years in private practice at a well-respected immigration firm in Sacramento, Schoenleber & Waltermire, PC, Ariel brings extensive practical experience to the ILRC. She has experience filing numerous immigration applications and regularly appearing before USCIS, ICE, and EOIR, with cases spanning the areas of removal defense, family-based adjustment of status and consular processing, DACA, naturalization, SIJS, U visas, and VAWA. She was also involved in establishing Sacramento’s rapid response network to respond to immigration enforcement action, and served as an American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)-USCIS liaison.
Ariel contributes to the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day legal technical assistance program, as well as writing and updating practice advisories and manuals and presenting on family-based topics for ILRC webinars.
Prior to joining the ILRC, Ariel also briefly volunteered with the International Institute of the Bay Area in Oakland, and Catholic Charities of the East Bay in Richmond. In law school, Ariel was a student advocate with the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic, assisting with cancellation of removal cases for indigent noncitizens, and an editor for the Journal of International Law and Policy.
Ariel earned her law degree from the University of California at Davis, and her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in anthropology. Ariel is admitted to the state bar in California.
Ann Block
Ann Block is a part-time Senior Special Projects Attorney with the ILRC based in Davis and San Francisco. She has been with the ILRC part-time since 2009 on a contract basis, and in 2019 transitioned to a staff position. She also maintains a part-time private practice in Davis, California. Ann has expertise in family immigration, naturalization and citizenship, VAWA and U visas, asylum, removal defense, as well as extensive experience with immigration consequences of criminal convictions. She provides technical assistance through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program, mentoring and assisting nonprofit attorneys and staff, public defenders and private attorneys with a wide variety of immigration law questions and cases.
She has contributed to several ILRC manuals, including Defending Immigrants in the Ninth Circuit; Naturalization & U.S. Citizenship; Inadmissibility and Deportability; The VAWA Manual; The “U” Visa; Hardship in Immigration Law; Families and Immigration; Inadmissibility and Deportability; FOIA Requests and Other Background Checks; Removal Defense: Defending Immigrants in Immigration Court; and A Guide for Immigration Advocates/ Ann has authored articles, presented webinars, led the ILRC 40 hour basic immigration law training, and has served as a panelist on a number of immigration issues for the ILRC, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG).
Prior to the ILRC, Ann gained extensive private and nonprofit experience as a staff attorney with Park & Associates, Catholic Charities in San Mateo, the International Institute of San Francisco, and her own solo private practice. Ann has additional teaching experience as a former adjunct professor at McGeorge School of Law, supervising the Immigration Clinic and teaching the podium course on Immigration Law. She has also served on the California State Bar’s Immigration and Nationality Law Commission (INLAC), the entity that certifies attorneys as immigration law specialists, including as both vice-chair and chair of INLAC.
Ann earned her law degree from the University of California at Davis where she represented clients through the prison law and immigration law clinics. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she double-majored in psychology and political science. Ann is admitted to the bar in California and is conversant in Spanish, with working knowledge of written French.
This intermediate webinar will review the nuts & bolts of preparing and filing a family-based immigrant visa consular processing case, as well as cover third country processing, troubleshooting issues with communicating with the NVC and/or consular post, potential red flags to watch out for, and how to prepare clients for these issues, and the latest updates on pandemic consular processing.
Presenters
Ariel Brown
Ariel Brown joined the ILRC in April 2017. After five years in private practice at a well-respected immigration firm in Sacramento, Schoenleber & Waltermire, PC, Ariel brings extensive practical experience to the ILRC. She has experience filing numerous immigration applications and regularly appearing before USCIS, ICE, and EOIR, with cases spanning the areas of removal defense, family-based adjustment of status and consular processing, DACA, naturalization, SIJS, U visas, and VAWA. She was also involved in establishing Sacramento’s rapid response network to respond to immigration enforcement action, and served as an American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)-USCIS liaison.
Ariel contributes to the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day legal technical assistance program, as well as writing and updating practice advisories and manuals and presenting on family-based topics for ILRC webinars.
Prior to joining the ILRC, Ariel also briefly volunteered with the International Institute of the Bay Area in Oakland, and Catholic Charities of the East Bay in Richmond. In law school, Ariel was a student advocate with the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic, assisting with cancellation of removal cases for indigent noncitizens, and an editor for the Journal of International Law and Policy.
Ariel earned her law degree from the University of California at Davis, and her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in anthropology. Ariel is admitted to the state bar in California.
Ann Block
Ann Block is a part-time Senior Special Projects Attorney with the ILRC based in Davis and San Francisco. She has been with the ILRC part-time since 2009 on a contract basis, and in 2019 transitioned to a staff position. She also maintains a part-time private practice in Davis, California. Ann has expertise in family immigration, naturalization and citizenship, VAWA and U visas, asylum, removal defense, as well as extensive experience with immigration consequences of criminal convictions. She provides technical assistance through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program, mentoring and assisting nonprofit attorneys and staff, public defenders and private attorneys with a wide variety of immigration law questions and cases.
She has contributed to several ILRC manuals, including Defending Immigrants in the Ninth Circuit; Naturalization & U.S. Citizenship; Inadmissibility and Deportability; The VAWA Manual; The “U” Visa; Hardship in Immigration Law; Families and Immigration; Inadmissibility and Deportability; FOIA Requests and Other Background Checks; Removal Defense: Defending Immigrants in Immigration Court; and A Guide for Immigration Advocates/ Ann has authored articles, presented webinars, led the ILRC 40 hour basic immigration law training, and has served as a panelist on a number of immigration issues for the ILRC, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG).
Prior to the ILRC, Ann gained extensive private and nonprofit experience as a staff attorney with Park & Associates, Catholic Charities in San Mateo, the International Institute of San Francisco, and her own solo private practice. Ann has additional teaching experience as a former adjunct professor at McGeorge School of Law, supervising the Immigration Clinic and teaching the podium course on Immigration Law. She has also served on the California State Bar’s Immigration and Nationality Law Commission (INLAC), the entity that certifies attorneys as immigration law specialists, including as both vice-chair and chair of INLAC.
Ann earned her law degree from the University of California at Davis where she represented clients through the prison law and immigration law clinics. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she double-majored in psychology and political science. Ann is admitted to the bar in California and is conversant in Spanish, with working knowledge of written French.
Webinar
This webinar will focus specifically on the process for U nonimmigrants to adjust status and petition for qualifying family members. Incorporating the latest and most accurate information, we will cover the requirements, policies and procedures for adjusting status and dealing with discretionary issues, fee waivers, adjustment processing and family petitioning, possible pitfalls, and practice pointers on what to expect and how to best strategize for winning U adjustment cases.
Webinar
This webinar will focus specifically on the process for U nonimmigrants to adjust status and petition for qualifying family members. Incorporating the latest and most accurate information, we will cover the requirements, policies and procedures for adjusting status and dealing with discretionary issues, fee waivers, adjustment processing and family petitioning, possible pitfalls, and practice pointers on what to expect and how to best strategize for winning U adjustment cases.
Webinar
This webinar focuses specifically on the process for U nonimmigrants to adjust status and petition for qualifying family members under the new adjustment regulations.
Webinar
Level: IntermediateLiberian Refugee Immigration Fairness (LRIF) is a limited-term program that allows many Liberians and their family members living in the U.S. to apply for permanent residence. Applications must be filed by December 20, 2021. This webinar will summarize LRIF eligibility requirements and application process, as well as describing the administrative guidance for the program. The speakers will also provide practice tips.PresentersAnn BlockAnn Block is a part-time Senior Special Projects Attorney with the ILRC based in Davis and San Francisco. She has been with the ILRC part-time since 2009 on a contract basis, and in 2019 transitioned to a staff position. She also maintains a part-time private practice in Davis, California. Ann has expertise in family immigration, naturalization and citizenship, VAWA and U visas, asylum, removal defense, as well as extensive experience with immigration consequences of criminal convictions. She provides technical assistance through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program, mentoring and assisting nonprofit attorneys and staff, public defenders and private attorneys with a wide variety of immigration law questions and cases.
Webinar
Level: Advanced
This advanced webinar will discuss the criteria for automatically deriving citizenship from a U.S. citizen parent under both the Child Citizenship Act as well as former INA 321. Using examples and the ILRC’s derivation chart, we will explain how to analyze the legal requirements in determining eligibility for derivation of citizenship, including for children born out of wedlock and for children whose parents separated.
Presenters
Eric Cohen
Eric Cohen has been with the ILRC since 1988, and has been its Executive Director since 2007. He has extensive experience training attorneys, paralegals, community advocates, and organizers on a variety of immigration law, immigrants’ rights, and leadership development topics. Eric is a national expert on naturalization and citizenship law and is the primary author of the ILRC’s manual entitled, Naturalization and U.S. Citizenship: The Essential Legal Guide. Eric helped develop ILRC's community model for naturalization workshops. Additionally, Eric has worked on voter outreach and education programs for naturalized citizens.
Prior to working at the ILRC, Eric worked with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Labor Immigrant Assistance Project where he worked on legalization and union organizing campaigns.
Eric obtained a B.A. degree in History from Colorado College and a J.D. degree from Stanford Law School. He is conversant in Spanish and is a member of the State Bar of California.
Alison Kamhi
Alison Kamhi is the Legal Program Director based in San Francisco. Alison is a dedicated immigrant advocate who brings significant experience in immigration law to the ILRC. Alison leads the ILRC's Immigrant Survivors Team and conducts frequent in-person and webinar trainings on naturalization and citizenship, family-based immigration, U visas, and FOIA requests. She also provides technical assistance through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program on a wide range of immigration issues, including immigration options for youth, consequences of criminal convictions for immigration purposes, removal defense strategy, and eligibility for immigration relief, including family-based immigration, U visas, VAWA, DACA, cancellation of removal, asylum, and naturalization.
She has co-authored a number of publications, including The U Visa: Obtaining Status for Immigrant Victims of Crimes (ILRC); FOIA Requests and Other Background Checks (ILRC); Naturalization and U.S. Citizenship (ILRC); Hardship in Immigration Law (ILRC); Parole in Immigration Law (ILRC); Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Other Immigration Options for Children and Youth (ILRC); A Guide for Immigrant Advocates (ILRC); and Most In Need But Least Served: Legal and Practical Barriers to Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for Federally Detained Minors, 50 Fam. Ct. Rev. 4 (2012).
Alison facilitates the eight member Collaborative Resources for Immigrant Services on the Peninsula (CRISP) collaborative in San Mateo County to provide immigration services to low-income immigrants in Silicon Valley.
Prior to the ILRC, Alison worked as a Clinical Teaching Fellow at the Stanford Law School Immigrants' Rights Clinic, where she supervised removal defense cases and immigrants' rights advocacy projects. Before Stanford, she represented abandoned and abused immigrant youth as a Skadden Fellow at Bay Area Legal Aid and at Catholic Charities Community Services in New York. While in law school, Alison worked at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, and Greater Boston Legal Services Immigration Unit. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Julia Gibbons in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Alison received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from Stanford University. Alison is admitted to the bar in California and New York. She speaks German and Spanish.
This advanced webinar will discuss the criteria for automatically deriving citizenship from a U.S. citizen parent under both the Child Citizenship Act as well as former INA 321. Using examples and the ILRC’s derivation chart, we will explain how to analyze the legal requirements in determining eligibility for derivation of citizenship, including for children born out of wedlock and for children whose parents separated.
Presenters
Eric Cohen
Eric Cohen has been with the ILRC since 1988, and has been its Executive Director since 2007. He has extensive experience training attorneys, paralegals, community advocates, and organizers on a variety of immigration law, immigrants’ rights, and leadership development topics. Eric is a national expert on naturalization and citizenship law and is the primary author of the ILRC’s manual entitled, Naturalization and U.S. Citizenship: The Essential Legal Guide. Eric helped develop ILRC's community model for naturalization workshops. Additionally, Eric has worked on voter outreach and education programs for naturalized citizens.
Prior to working at the ILRC, Eric worked with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Labor Immigrant Assistance Project where he worked on legalization and union organizing campaigns.
Eric obtained a B.A. degree in History from Colorado College and a J.D. degree from Stanford Law School. He is conversant in Spanish and is a member of the State Bar of California.
Alison Kamhi
Alison Kamhi is the Legal Program Director based in San Francisco. Alison is a dedicated immigrant advocate who brings significant experience in immigration law to the ILRC. Alison leads the ILRC's Immigrant Survivors Team and conducts frequent in-person and webinar trainings on naturalization and citizenship, family-based immigration, U visas, and FOIA requests. She also provides technical assistance through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program on a wide range of immigration issues, including immigration options for youth, consequences of criminal convictions for immigration purposes, removal defense strategy, and eligibility for immigration relief, including family-based immigration, U visas, VAWA, DACA, cancellation of removal, asylum, and naturalization.
She has co-authored a number of publications, including The U Visa: Obtaining Status for Immigrant Victims of Crimes (ILRC); FOIA Requests and Other Background Checks (ILRC); Naturalization and U.S. Citizenship (ILRC); Hardship in Immigration Law (ILRC); Parole in Immigration Law (ILRC); Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Other Immigration Options for Children and Youth (ILRC); A Guide for Immigrant Advocates (ILRC); and Most In Need But Least Served: Legal and Practical Barriers to Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for Federally Detained Minors, 50 Fam. Ct. Rev. 4 (2012).
Alison facilitates the eight member Collaborative Resources for Immigrant Services on the Peninsula (CRISP) collaborative in San Mateo County to provide immigration services to low-income immigrants in Silicon Valley.
Prior to the ILRC, Alison worked as a Clinical Teaching Fellow at the Stanford Law School Immigrants' Rights Clinic, where she supervised removal defense cases and immigrants' rights advocacy projects. Before Stanford, she represented abandoned and abused immigrant youth as a Skadden Fellow at Bay Area Legal Aid and at Catholic Charities Community Services in New York. While in law school, Alison worked at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, and Greater Boston Legal Services Immigration Unit. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Julia Gibbons in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Alison received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from Stanford University. Alison is admitted to the bar in California and New York. She speaks German and Spanish.
Publication
Note: On February 24, 2020, new rules governing public charge inadmissibility determinations went into effect. These new rules apply to cases decided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and to cases processed at U.S. consulates and embassies abroad. As a result of these changes, some of the content of this manual no longer reflects the current state of public charge in its entirety. The ILRC is currently in the process of updating this manual to reflect the new changes. We expect to have a new edition of Public Charge and Immigration Law available later this year. For updates on this and other resources from the ILRC, please hit the Subscribe button at the top of this webpage and join our Education listserv. In the meantime, the ILRC will continue to post updates on the state of public charge law and policy at https://www.ilrc.org/public-charge.
Webinar
2012 marked a record number of deportations in U.S. history due to increased collaboration between local law enforcement and the federal government. This webinar will examine the legal authority and limits of immigration enforcement in the context of local law enforcement cooperation with ICE through immigration detainers (also called ICE holds) and ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams. It will provide practitioners with legal strategies to challenge these violations including tips on how to file and litigate a motion to suppress in immigration proceedings. It will also address other actions that practitioners may take outside of immigration court such as filing habeas corpus petitions. Finally, this webinar will provide litigation strategies to create leverage for obtaining a U Visa certification for "false imprisonment."
Resources
Publication Date
08/19/2016
Policy statement in opposition to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's proposal to collect the social media information of individuals entering the United States through the Visa Waiver Program.
Publication
“Public charge” is a ground of inadmissibility that could bar an individual’s admission to the United States on a visa or application for lawful permanent residence if the government determines the individual is likely to rely on certain public benefits in the future.
Webinar
This webinar will examine the legal authority and limits of immigration enforcement in the context of local law enforcement cooperation with ICE through immigration detainers (also called ICE holds) and ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams. It will provide practitioners with tips on how to file and litigate a motion to suppress in immigration proceedings to challenge the legal violations that may have occurred. We will address other actions that practitioners may take outside of immigration court such as filing habeas corpus petitions. Finally, we’ll cover litigation strategies to create leverage for obtaining a U Visa certification for "false imprisonment."
Webinar
This advanced webinar will discuss FOIA requests in immigration cases and provide tips for filing FOIA requests with the Department of Homeland Security (USCIS, OBIM, ICE, and CBP), the Department of Justice (EOIR), and the Department of State. We will also cover FOIA strategies for specific scenarios, including concerns for individuals in removal proceedings and appeal and litigation options.
Webinar
This webinar will examine the legal authority and limits of immigration enforcement in the context of local law enforcement cooperation with ICE through immigration detainers (also called ICE holds) and ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams. It will provide practitioners with tips on how to file and litigate a motion to suppress in immigration proceedings to challenge the legal violations that may have occurred. We will address other actions that practitioners may take outside of immigration court such as filing habeas corpus petitions. Finally, we’ll cover litigation strategies to create leverage for obtaining a U Visa certification for "false imprisonment."