Immigration Paralegal

Immigration Paralegal The Right Job For You

Immigration Paralegal

Immigration Paralegal

While immigration paralegals are not exactly a recognized specialty; more and more paralegals are gravitating toward this market, and with good reason. America has never had a dearth of immigrants, and in the last few decades has seen on onslaught of student and working professionals migrating here. They all need an attorney’s services for obtaining their visas, green cards or naturalization. However, most immigrants are not in a state to afford attorneys, and that’s where a large chunk of an attorney’s job can be handled by an immigration paralegal, making the arrangement much more cost-effective.

To be an immigration paralegal does not require any particular degree, other than a regular certificate/bachelor’s/associate’s degree in paralegal studies. Many paralegals working in immigration today do not have formal degrees, but have achieved success solely on experience. However, young paralegals prefer to obtain degrees along with education, and of course education does give one an edge in a competitive market.

To begin working as an immigration paralegal, you will of course need to go to work with an attorney or a law firm that deal with immigration cases. However, in order to get such a job you will first need to familiarize yourself thoroughly with US Immigration Laws. As an immigration paralegal, you will be required to carry out lots of research, be able to draft documents and help an attorney in preparing for cases involving citizenship; naturalization; international adoption; amnesty applications. Therefore you will need to have a thorough knowledge of how the Dept. Of Homeland Security and Immigration and Naturalization Services work. You will also need to keep current of facts and changes in your chosen field.

The success of the immigrations process depends on convincing ‘the powers that be’ to grant a citizenship. Therefore a large part of an immigration paralegal’s job involves drafting pleas, petitions and appeals in favour your clients. Thus, good written & verbal communication, and gentle persuasive abilities are very important to an immigration paralegal.

Typically, because of the time consuming nature of immigration cases and the high cost of soliciting lawyers, attorneys ask immigration paralegal to do more and more of their workload, and this includes meeting with the clients too. Immigration is often a matter of great concern for the immigrants, especially if their financial conditions are not very good. Therefore, soft skills like patience, listening, and interpersonal skills will go a long way in making your work easier and much more rewarding. Similarly fluency in a foreign language will definitely ‘Up’ your appeal to an immigration law firm.