The immigration and asylum-seeking process in the U.S. is Complicated and stressful. When you are seeking safety and comfort, immigration paperwork and legal hurdles can be overwhelming. At Ubuntu Psychological Services, our team members understand how difficult this process can be, and we want to do our part to support immigrants and asylum seekers. Whether that means providing immigration evaluations or the support of a therapist, our team is here for you. On this page, you can learn more about the immigration evaluation process. Don’t hesitate to contact our team if you have questions.
Immigration assessments may be requested if an individual is seeking asylum or needs supportive evidence that they experienced hardship or persecution that caused them to leave their country of origin. Most people have factual evidence that discrimination or persecution occurred, but proving an event or events occurred is not the same as providing evidence of the psychological and emotional impact of these events. For that, a psychological evaluation is required.
Almost all immigration lawyers will recommend an immigration evaluation to provide legal support of your hardship petition. While you may be on the fence about seeking this form of evidentiary support for your immigration case, a 2008 Study from the determined that the difference in successful immigration for those with and without evaluations is dramatic. Only 37.5% of asylum seekers are granted approval. However, those with immigration assessments in support of their petitions are 89% successful. For this reason, your legal counsel will likely recommend an immigration evaluation for you and any members of your family on the immigration petition.
In most cases, the asylum and hardship immigration evaluation will focus on just talking.
This may be referred to as a clinical interview, but it is simply a guided conversation where we discuss your immigration experience and the reasons you have for immigrating. Our trained psychologists understand that there may be trauma related to these experiences, and we partner with you to make the interview feel safe and comfortable. If the discussion becomes too painful, we may recommend visiting over several sessions.
These sessions are designed to give us some of the important information we need to write your immigration evaluation report, but we will also work with you to process traumas and other challenging emotions that arise. If we notice you are struggling, we may recommend ongoing therapy after immigration assessment to allow you to continue making progress toward healing. You can also discuss your experience transitioning to your life in the U.S. We know this can be difficult. It can be helpful to talk through your plans moving forward, including education or career as well as family and friends who offer a support system.
Change can be very difficult, and talking to a therapist can make this transition a little easier to navigate. In addition to clinical interviewing, we may ask you to complete questionnaires and rating scales that help us to better understand your emotional wellbeing and mental state. We may also have you take computer-based tests to determine a range of factors. Once we have completed your personalized testing battery, we’ll provide a comprehensive report that can be used by your legal counsel as part of your immigration case. You can also use it to find ongoing support and resources.
We understand that the immigration and asylum-seeking process can be overwhelming, stressful, and downright scary at times. Our team is dedicated to helping immigrants and asylum seekers understand the way their mental and emotional health and wellbeing factor into decisions made by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Department. We offer immigration evaluations as well as general therapy support for immigrants and asylum seekers.
When you’re ready to get started, please reach out to our team to schedule a discovery call. This short introductory conversation helps our therapists get to know you a bit better, and it gives you the opportunity to ask any questions you have before getting started with a full session.
