Mental Health Immigration Assessments
An Immigration Assessment can be critical for your immigration case
A clinical assessment is an indispensable tool in winning an immigration case. It is a valuable piece of evidence which improves your chance to get your waiver granted.
The absence of an Clinical Immigration assessment in your immigration case can lead to delays which can cause further emotional and financial hardships. This, in turn, can lead to mental and physical health problems for you and/or your family members.
Types of Immigration Assessments
Extreme Hardship Immigration Cases: In this type of immigration waiver, the legal US citizen (spouse, parent, adult child) suffers ‘exceptional hardship’ if the undocumented immigrant had to relocate to his/her country of origin, or respectively if the legal U.S. citizen were forced to leave the U.S. to join the undocumented immigrant in his/her country of origin.
VAWA Cases: In Domestic Violence cases the immigrant (woman or man) is married to a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident. In these cases, the immigrant is being emotionally, physically, sexually, financially, and/or psychologically abused and the spouse is not willing to help the immigrant to adjust her/his status.
Asylum Cases: In this type of immigration waiver, the immigrant has been exposed to extreme deprivation, severe abuse, and possibly even torture in their country of origin due to discrimination, political, religious, and/or ethnic persecution. The immigrant flees his or her country to the United States to escape the intolerable living conditions.
What does a Clinical Immigration Assessment entail?
In accordance to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a Clinical Immigration assessment requires a minimum of 2-4 sessions across the span of several weeks (3-4). After the final session, a written comprehensive final report will be prepared and provided to you and/or your immigration attorney within 2-3 weeks from the last session date.
First Session: Two hour long interview assessing mental functioning, as well some childhood and family history; essentially a biopsychosocial.
Subsequent Sessions: Entails further assessments and diagnostic tests; inquiring further into the client's personal and family circumstances, hardship, challenges, needs, limitations, etc.
Report: As noted earlier after the final session a comprehensive report will be completed in 2-3 weeks. A comprehensive document, consisting of approximately 15 pages, addressing the mental wellness of the immigrants consists of: psychological, physical, familial, emotional, and other relevant information as well as a diagnosis that is needed for the immigration application. If you require an expedited report, it is available for an additional fee.
Forms typically completed by Dr. Arias Shah include, but not limited to:
I-601, I-601a, I-360, & N-648
Schedule your Clinical Immigration Assessment now, before sending your immigration application! If any questions call 1-888-995-ENSO (3676).
WAWA Abused Spouse I-360 Petition
In 2000, Congress enacted the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), initially enacted in 1994, as well as the Battered Immigrant Women Protection Act.
Congress' goal was to prevent abusive spouses from using the petitioning process as a means to control or abuse an alien spouse.
An alien spouse may self-petition to the Attorney General for classification as an immediate relative or a preference immigrant by filing a Form I-360. See 8 C.F.R. § 204.1(a)(3) (2009). Note, though this protection was initiated and titled as such for women, Dr. Arias Shah has evaluated men as well who have met the criteria of an abused spouse.
The abused alien must demonstrate to the Attorney General that:
1. the marriage or the intent to marry the United States citizen was entered into in good faith by the alien; and
2. during the marriage or relationship the alien has been battered by or has been the subject of extreme cruelty perpetrated by the alien's spouse or intended spouse. See 8 U.S.C. § 1154(a)(1)(A)(iii)(I) (2009).
Abuse can be both physical and mental such as:
- Immigration Control Abuse: Threatening to call immigration, making false and fraudulent statements to the victim about their immigration status, and controlling relevant immigration status documents such as marriage certificates to prove a bona fide good-faith marriage
- Verbal Abuse: Yelling, screaming, insulting, or otherwise mistreating the immigrant verbally
- Jealousy Abuse: stalking, harassing at work or other intimate settings leading to public humiliation and anxiety
- Sexual Abuse: Forcing unwanted sexual acts to the abuser as well as to third parties such as in prostitution
- Financial Abuse: Restraining economic freedom to the victim, such as not providing money or other property to live, eat, access to resources such as vehicles, computers, looking for employment, etc.
At Enso Minds, we provide a confidential and complete assessment to determine Intimate Partner Abuse Status by implementing:
- State of mind and emotional well-being analysis throughout the relationship.
- Case-Specific Screenings such as Stressful Life, Intimate Partner Abuse, Victimization, PTSD Screening, etc.
- Beck Depression Inventory assessment typically used for Intimate Partner Abuse and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV, 2000), to identify any diagnosis if applicable.
Schedule your Clinical Immigration Assessment now, before sending your immigration application! If any questions call 1-888-995-ENSO (3676).
