Immigration guides and answers
Plain-language guides to the questions people ask before and during an immigration case. Every guide is available in English and Spanish, and Claudette can answer your own questions about what you read.
Asylum
- VAWA, U Visa and Asylum: Your Questions Answered - Plain answers about VAWA, the U visa, the one-year asylum deadline, whether applying for asylum triggers deportation and work permits for VAWA and U visa applicants.
- Affirmative and defensive asylum, and the one-year deadline - Asylum protects people who fear persecution at home. This guide explains the two ways to apply, what you must prove, the one-year filing deadline and its exceptions, and how the application connects…
- VAWA, U visas and T visas: protection for survivors - Survivors of domestic abuse, serious crimes, and human trafficking have their own paths to status that do not depend on the abuser. Here is who qualifies for each, what the evidence looks like, and…
Citizenship
- U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization: Your Questions Answered - When you can apply for citizenship, what is on the naturalization test, traveling while your case is pending, language exemptions and applying with a criminal record.
- Naturalization: the requirements and the N-400 process - Becoming a U.S. citizen takes a green card, time, good moral character, and a test. This guide explains the five- and three-year rules, the 90-day early filing window, travel that breaks continuous…
- Renewing a green card and removing conditions on residence - A ten-year card is renewed with Form I-90. A two-year conditional card is a different matter: you must petition to remove the conditions in the 90 days before it expires, or your status ends. Learn…
Court
- Removal Defense and Immigration Court: Your Questions Answered - Short answers on receiving a Notice to Appear, applying for a green card in removal proceedings, missing a hearing, reopening a case and asking the court to close it.
- Understanding your Notice to Appear (NTA) - The Notice to Appear is the document that starts your immigration court case. Learn what each part means, how to check your hearing date, and the mistakes that cost people their cases.
- Master calendar and individual hearings: what happens in immigration court - Immigration court has two kinds of hearings. This guide walks through what happens at each, what the judge will ask, how long cases take, and the 30-day appeal deadline after a decision.
Detention
- Habeas Corpus for ICE Detention: Your Questions Answered - What a habeas corpus petition is, when it is considered, what a federal judge can order, and how it relates to the immigration court case.
- ICE Detention and Deportation Defense: Your Questions Answered - Answers to the questions families ask first when someone is taken by ICE: finding the person, bond, the first hearing, prior orders and the defenses that may exist.
- Immigration bond and habeas corpus: ways to challenge detention - Detention does not have to last the whole case. This explainer covers ICE custody decisions, bond hearings before an immigration judge, who is subject to mandatory detention, and when a habeas…
- How to find someone detained by ICE - When a family member is picked up by immigration, the first hours are confusing. Here is how to locate them, what information you need, how to contact the facility, and what to do in the first week.
Family
- Green Card and Adjustment of Status: Your Questions Answered - What a green card is, adjustment of status versus consular processing, how long it takes, what changes afterward and whether a spouse or children can be included.
- The I-130 petition and adjustment of status, step by step - A U.S. citizen or green card holder can petition for close family. This guide explains who qualifies, the difference between immediate relatives and preference categories, when you can file the…
- Unlawful presence, the 3- and 10-year bars, and waivers - Leaving the U.S. after living here without status can lock you out for years. Learn how unlawful presence is counted, the 180-day and one-year thresholds, the permanent bar, and how the I-601A…
Juriap
- How Much Does an Immigration Lawyer Cost? Real Prices and Options - What immigration lawyers typically charge by type of case, why quotes vary so much, and every legitimate way to pay less. Includes an honest look at when a lawyer is the right choice.
- Immigration Basics: Common Questions Answered - Straight answers to broad questions: whether you need a lawyer, what it costs, how long cases take, what to do after a denial and whether undocumented people have options.
- What Juriap prepares, what it costs, and what it does not do - A plain statement of what you get: the case types Juriap prepares, how pricing by stage works, what government fees are separate, what optional attorney review adds, and the things Juriap is not and…
- How Claudette prepares your case with you - Claudette is the AI companion inside Juriap. She works beside you from the first conversation to the filed package: interview, document plan, declaration, forms, audit, filing, and court…
Visas
- Work Visas and Employment-Based Immigration: Common Questions - Answers on getting a work visa without a job offer, switching employers, the H-1B cap and lottery, F-1 student work and changing from a visitor visa.
- Employment authorization (work permits): who can apply and how - A work permit, the Employment Authorization Document, lets you work legally for any employer. This guide covers the main categories of people who can apply, timing rules such as the asylum 150-day…
- Extending or changing your status before it expires - If you entered on a visa, the date on your I-94 is the one that matters. Learn how to find it, how to ask USCIS for more time or a different status with Form I-539, what happens while the request is…