Immigration Evaluations: Be Prepared

The immigration process can be very confusing and stressful for applicants.  The best way to combat these feelings that cause anxiety is to be prepared before you walk into your meeting with a mental health clinician.  Here is the truth about the referral to a clinician most of you don’t know. 
An attorney will often recommend you seek out the expertise of a clinician who specializes in conducting immigration evaluations, because your case may lack some of the concrete evidence needed to substantiate a defense.  No medical records, police reports, or other supportive documentation to submit for evidence leads many attorneys to rely on the clinical knowledge a well-trained clinician possess.  These well-trained clinicians can pull past childhood experiences, life stressors in adulthood, and most recent legal proceedings together to clinically articulate the current or potentially future mental health challenges if an individual is removed from the country (United States).   Typically, the interviewee is a family member or the applicant petitioning to the courts.
5 tips to help your case!

1. Know what your application is. Many of the clients who come into our offices seeking an evaluation are unclear why they have been referred are do not know the details of their petition.  You need to have some awareness of the petition your attorney is submitting to the court (i.e. Asylum, U-Visa, Extreme Hardship, VAWA, DACA, etc.).  This information is extremely useful in helping the clinician navigate the interview process and decipher what assessment tools to administer for session two if appropriate.
2. Bring copies of any supportive documents you submitted to your attorney in regard to your petition.  When providing these materials, a clinician can reference concrete evidence submitted to the court for consideration.  This avoids making decisions from “He said, she said during the interview…”  These evaluations are from the premise of clients telling the truth.  When documents are provided, this may help solidify claims by the interviewee.
3.  Inform the clinician if there are any pertinent deadlines in which the report needs to be submitted. Waiting to have these evaluations completed nearing the date of your next court appearance is a huge concern for the clinician who faces that much more anxiety making your report expedited.  Let the clinician know in advance when your next court date is, which leads me to tip number 4.
4. Allow access for the clinician to have direct lines of communication with your attorney.  This closes the gap in communication and helps with having your specific needs met. Questions that may be asked are:
   1. Why do you (the attorney) think an evaluation might help the case?
   2. What type of Visa are you pursuing?
   3. What areas of the client’s life experiences would you like the therapist to focus on?
5. Be Honest.  The worst thing you can do is try to deceive the clinician during your evaluation. Honesty is the best policy for these evaluations.  If the clinician probes and interviews well, they can link the mental health symptoms or potential challenges to your case.  Therefore, you trust and invest in us (clinicians) to do this work on your behalf.

Just a friendly reminder these evaluations are not to assess if you are mentally unstable or “Crazy.”  These evaluations are to help clinically articulate symptoms, or the potential of mental health challenges faced if you or a loved one is removed from the country (US).  For immigration evaluation questions you can contact M2M where “We help people turn their minor setbacks into major comebacks.”  
 
By: JereMy J. Rankins, MA LPC
 
 

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