How Legal Aid Organizations Simplify Immigration Case Management

Immigration attorneys are all too familiar with the complexities of immigration paperwork. With a multitude of immigration related forms from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Department of Justice (DOJ), managing these forms and their relation to a client’s case file can be daunting.

LegalServer’s Immigration Forms Module was developed with the input of immigration attorney experts to solve this difficult problem. The Immigration Forms Module is designed to pull in basic client information (name, date of birth, contact information), as well as limited immigration-specific information such as immigration entries, work history, and marital histories that an advocate has collected at intake or through auxiliary forms and processes.

The Immigration Forms feature saves our staff time by allowing them to auto-populate fields rather than manually filling each one out. It is also a helpful tool for working with pro bono attorneys, so we can maximize the time they contribute towards more substantive casework, rather than filling out routine forms.

Once the form is created, users can edit pre-filled information and/or add additional information that could not be directly mapped from LegalServer. The system receives alerts from USCIS when a form is modified, and makes updates to the forms on LegalServer before the current form expires. Plus, having all immigration forms stored in one place for easy retrieval saves time, and allows advocates to focus on more of the work necessary for helping the client.

Here are three examples of LegalServer clients putting this module to good use every day in their case management implementations.

New Mexico Immigrant Law Center (NMILC)

NMILC is a social justice organization that seeks to address a wide range of legal issues affecting low-income immigrants. NMILC partners with other community organization groups in order to ensure programs are responsive to the emerging needs of the community.

NMILC uses several dedicated intake processes to collect data for full intake clients, as well as those helped through legal fairs and immigration detention centers outreach. The flexible and customizable intake processes lend themselves well to detailed reporting for various funders.

LegalServer's configurability allows us to track a wide variety of information needed for different funders, as well as for internal goal-setting and evaluation.

The Immigration Project (TIP)

TIP provides immigration assistance to applicants across Central and Southern Illinois. TIP strives to keep families united, build strong communities, and protect victims of crime.

By analyzing their current data structure and wishlist configuration items, LegalServer was able to provide a more robust, customizable way to collect and report on the various data points necessary for TIP’s work, with the ability to improve and fine-tune those systems in the future.

To learn more about how LegalServer can streamline your immigration forms, contact us.