client guide to VAAP

  • Yes, you have the right to seek legal counsel to represent you in immigration court but a lawyer will not be provided for you. Having an attorney can significantly improve your chances of a favorable outcome. VAAP can help connect you with pro bono legal assistance.

    You can ask a judge for more time to help you find a lawyer before going forward with your court case. However, if you have already applied for asylum and have not yet received your first work permit, asking the judge for time to find a lawyer may stop your "clock" toward earning time for work permit eligibility.

  • Requesting legal help involves a few key steps. First, carefully review our website and the resources we recommend to help you clarify your questions and make sure we are the right organization for you. Then visit our Get Legal Help page to learn about our current intake processing as well as our Calendar page to learn about upcoming legal orientation, legal intake, and legal help clinics.

    We are a small, volunteer-led organization managing a high volume of requests for legal help. Most people wait several weeks to hear a response from us regarding their request for legal help. While you wait to hear from us, make sure to attend any and all immigration appointments or court dates the government has scheduled for you. Missing an immigration appointment or court date can cause the government to close or deny your application or order you removed from the United States.

    Additionally, if you intend to apply for asylum, the law requires you to submit your application to the government within one year of arriving in the United States in most cases. Do not miss this deadline while you are waiting to hear a response from us. For guidance on how to file your own application, review our resource library.

  • VAAP provides various forms of assistance, including: 

    • Connecting you with pro bono attorneys outside of VAAP who will offer you free help.

    • Offering limited legal representation on some or all of your asylum or related humanitarian immigration legal matter. 

    • Providing support and resources to help you navigate the immigration process on your own. 

    We are are a small staff and coordinate services that are volunteer-led. This means we lack resources to represent most clients ourselves. Instead, we train and supervise volunteer advocates to offer no-cost assistance to asylum seekers who contact VAAP. Sometimes, we invite clients to meet with our advocates at “clinics” and other community events. Sometimes we invite clients to meet with advocates at our offices or on the phone. For every client we consult with, we will offer you a private meeting with a trained advocate to help you fill out your asylum or related immigration application or guide you as you represent yourself in your immigration legal case.

    Long term, our goal is to connect individuals with volunteer advocates who can help with a person’s entire immigration case. When we finish a legal consultation, we invite you to contact us again to ask for more legal help when you need it.

  • VAAP offers three types of clinics:

    Legal Orientation Clinics. These are walk-up tabling events we will host at community events around the state. An example is the legal orientation tabling we did at the June 2024 Mobile Mexican Consulate. If you have general questions about understanding your immigration paperwork and what your rights are in the immigration system, come find our table at the events we will advertise on our Calendar.

    Legal Intake Clinics. These walk-up or call-in intake events are going to be the only way to request VAAP's legal help beginning fall 2024. In our first six months of incorporation, we learned that a legal services organization of our size cannot respond meaningfully to rolling intake requests in balance with our existing professional responsibilities. Beginning fall 2024, we will be publicizing regular intake events on our Calendar during which immigrants seeking individualized legal advice or assistance can walk-in or call-in to our intake clinic without an appointment to receive assistance with completing our legal intake and screening form. We will then refer individuals to an upcoming VAAP Legal Help Clinic or to a more appropriate partner provider or self-help resource.

    Legal Help Clinics. These legal assistance clinics are by appointment only on referral from an earlier VAAP Legal Intake Clinic. An example is the June 13th I-589 Asylum Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School. Monitor our Calendar to request a Legal Help Clinic appointment by attending a Legal Intake Clinic.

  • At VAAP, you can expect private and respectful communication about your asylum case in the language you are most comfortable speaking.

    We will try to communicate with you quickly but are currently experiencing an overwhelming number of requests for immigration legal help. We prioritize responding to requests for help based on the order received and the legal urgency.

    As above, it is taking us several weeks to respond to new requests for legal help. When we respond, at most we are able to offer advice and help with getting asylum applications filed on USCIS Form I-589. We may refer your request to another, more appropriate provider. We may request to schedule a call or meeting with you to gather more information.

    Once we clarify your legal options with you, we will either invite you to one of our Self-Help Consult Clinics, refer you to another provider who we think can help you, or seek your permission to summarize your case for our legal volunteer base and hope someone will volunteer to help you with your case for no cost.

    After we offer you with assistance, we will welcome you to contact VAAP again for further services when you need them (for example, to apply for or renew your work permit; to prepare for an asylum interview or court hearing; etc.).

  • VAAP hosts Self-Help Consult Clinics where volunteer advocates meet privately with clients to give advice and fill out asylum application paperwork. If you accept our offer to host you for a legal clinic, you can expect a private meeting for one to three hours with one or more representatives from the VAAP team. The VAAP team includes VAAP staff, new volunteers who have received training, and experienced advocates who oversee the process.

    During this meeting, volunteers may discuss with you your goals, answer any questions you may have, or help you to prepare and submit application forms for immigration benefits. Additionally, you can receive feedback on your asylum application or any supporting evidence that you have already prefilled and brought with you. If necessary, we will also provide referrals to other resources or partners who may be able to assist you further.

    It's important to note that the purpose of clinics is not to establish an ongoing attorney-client relationship. The purpose of clinics is to help you file your asylum application and begin your journey toward applying for a related work permit.

    You can indicate whether you would like to be contacted about future clinic opportunities. These opportunities would allow you to receive feedback on other aspects of your case, such as your personal statement or witness statements.

    Our goal is to assist as many individuals as possible in starting their asylum cases on time and with a strong foundation.

  • In addition to coordinating clinics to help orient, intake, and assist as many people as possible, VAAP also encourages our volunteer network to represent asylum seekers for their entire case at no charge. IF a pro bono advocate takes your case and you accept their help, you can expect them to be working on your case with support from VAAP's in-house experts along the way. Our relationship with your attorney or advocate ensures our support for your effective legal representation.

    We work diligently to find attorneys or advocates for every asylum seeker. However, there is high demand and limited supply. Most asylum applicants in Vermont should expect to complete a substantial part of their applications on their own, with guidance and consultation from VAAP.

    In Vermont and nationwide, there is a critical shortage of immigration attorneys and legal advocates. VAAP is a new organization and it will take months or years to build up a larger group of volunteers.

    Meanwhile, we are committed to providing you with as much support and resources as we can, to help you navigate the asylum process and achieve the best possible outcome for your case.

  • We will contact you using the phone number, WhatsApp, or email you indicated in your intake request.

    That said, please beware of phishing scams to try and steal your personal information. If you receive a text message or email request from VAAP asking for your personal information, confirm with us by phone that the request came from us before responding to the request.

  • Basic asylum applications can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to complete, depending. Once you file your case, we will welcome you to contact us again for additional legal help. Let us know if you need to renew your work permit or prepare for an interview or court hearing, and we will let you know if we have the resources to help you again. Also let us know if we can summarize your case for our volunteer base, to see if we can find you an advocate who can offer you with further help besides what we offer at Self-Help Consultation Clinics.

    Note that asylum cases are moving slowly in the immigration system. Most cases take several years to be processed.

  • Asylum is a form of protection that allows you to stay in the United States if you fear returning to your home country. You may qualify for asylum if you have experienced some form of harm (or fear future harm) in your home country based on your (1) race, (2) religion, (3) nationality, (4) political opinion, or (5) membership within a certain social group in your home country.  

    If you believe you do meet any of the above guidelines, VAAP may be able to assist you in filing a USCIS I-589 Application for Asylum. Our advocates are available to assist individuals to understand the asylum process and file your case with the appropriate immigration authorities free of charge.

    You must file your asylum application (Form I-589) within one year of your most recent entry into the United States. This is a strict deadline.  

    There are a few exceptions to this rule for extraordinary circumstances, but they are limited. If you have been in the U.S. more than a year, it is important to notify your advocate to see if you can qualify for the exception or other forms of immigration relief.  

    Asylum applicants can include their spouse and unmarried children under 21 as derivatives on their application. This means if you're granted asylum, your spouse and eligible children can also receive protection and stay in the U.S. with you. To qualify, you must have been married before applying for asylum, and children must be under 21 and unmarried when you apply. 

    We are in the process of building a public-facing resources page as well as a Resource SharePoint available to subscribed legal volunteers. Monitor our newsletter and subscribe to our pro bono email list to learn more!

  • People in immigration court are in "removal proceedings" and have the right to challenge their removability and also apply for relief from removal (including asylum). You are assigned to a specific immigration court location based on your address, which is why it is important to update the court of your new address when you move. Courts meet in person or online depending on the judges' preferences. When you attend immigration court, you will appear before an immigration judge who will hear your case. A government attorney will serve as an opponent in your case. The process can be formal and may feel intimidating. However, it is important to attend all appointments, to respond truthfully to all questions including by saying "I don't know" or "I don't understand" when those things are true, and to ask for more time when you need it. If you miss a court date or even arrive late, the judge can order you deported. A person's first immigration court date is typically an administrative "master calendar hearing" where the court learns what will be the key issues in the case. Eventually the court schedules an "individual merits hearing" which is when the court considers evidence about any applications for relief.

    If you cannot attend a scheduled hearing, you must inform the court as soon as possible and provide a valid reason. Failure to do so can result in a deportation order.

  • Probably no. Immigration court is a place to present your case. Even if the judge denies an application, you have a right to appeal the decision. ICE detains people who have serious conviction histories or who have missed appointments in the past. Many detained immigrants have a right to request bail and be released from detention if they can prove they are not a threat to the community or national security and will come back to their future immigration court dates.

  • Community advocates play an essential role in asylum seekers’ legal cases by helping them build a supportive community and to meet their immediate basic needs such as housing, food, employment, transportation, and trauma support services.

    Community advocates and organizations often refer humanitarian status seekers to VAAP who are in need of legal representation.

    While VAAP volunteer advocates work privately with asylum applicants on their legal cases, you may authorize a community advocate to directly contact VAAP with other questions.

    With supervision from an attorney or accredited representative, a community advocate may help a noncitizen with preparing their own immigration applications. Email info@vaapvt.org to learn more!

  • You can check the status of  your immigration court case using the Automated Case Information  System provided by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).  

    There are two ways to access this information: 

    Online: Visit the EOIR Automated Case Information System at EOIR’s respondent access website. You will need your A-number, which is a nine-digit number found on your immigration paperwork. Enter your A-number without the letter "A" and click "Submit" to view your case status. 

    By Phone: Call the EOIR Automated Case Information Hotline at 1-800-898-7180. This is available 24/7 and provides information in both English and Spanish. You will need to enter your A-number to access your case information. 

    You can also google the phone number for the court clerk's office for the immigration court that is hearing your case and ask for help.

    Similarly, if you have a pending application with USCIS, you can check the status online here by entering the requested information: https://egov.uscis.gov/

  • Please reach out to us at info@vaapvt.org with any additional questions. Thank you for your interest!