request legal services

In addition to our education, advocacy, and technical assistance work, VAAP provides these direct legal services to immigrants living in Vermont who cannot afford an attorney seeking:

• Representation for unaccompanied children in removal proceedings.

• Representation and advice for Afghans securing and preserving legal status.

• Limited help for anyone filing initial humanitarian immigration applications.

• Advice for self-represented immigrants on how to navigate their processes.

Proposed Collaboration Model for Legal Help Clinics in 2025. Thank you for your partnership with VAAP! As we reflect on last year’s legal help efforts, we’ve identified opportunities to realign workflow with resource/capacity limitations while trying to meet the increasing demand for services. The proposal below is designed to ensure more efficient, high-quality support for a volume of asylum seekers while playing to VAAP and partners' varying organizational strengths/resources in distributing workload. 

Challenges. Over the past months, VAAP has faced a surge in cases nearing critical deadlines, an inability to responsibly balance intake-related communications with existing attorney-client duties, and post-clinic legal work that has taken twice as long as initially anticipated. While we’ve temporarily paused new intakes to catch up, we remain committed to serving NEW asylum seekers this winter and spring. To sustainably reopen intake and deliver impactful help clinics, we’re proposing a new collaborative workflow.

Proposed Solutions. In this model, VAAP and our partners would share responsibility for clinic preparation and delivery as follows.

1. Community Based Organization Responsibilities

   • Drawing on strengths: Partners can leverage the ongoing client relationships they already have, or have an independent interest in building, to connect clients more seamlessly to tangible progress in their legal cases. We'll publish more detailed self-help guidance for partners' reference on the "before, during, and after" of VAAP i589 assistance including a central repository of templates. 

   • Space logistics: Secure a private and confidential location where VAAP volunteers and clients can have closed-door application assistance meetings for about 4-5 hours with internet access. Ideally, this space would also have scanning and printing capabilities, though this is not essential. Your own office may very well be the best and easiest space to work from.

   • Client coordination: Partners will be asked to invite the agreed number of clients to the clinic, confirm their attendance using scripts we will provide, prepare them for their attendance using resources we will share, and facilitate their attendance. 

2. VAAP Responsibilities

   • Drawing on strengths: Rather than squandering limited legal resources into trying to duplicate the relationship-building work that partners already do well - just to limit representation in the event that we are successful in gaining clients' trust - we would like to safeguard VAAP staff and volunteer time to (1) help as many new filers to stabilize their situations as possible and (2) strategize on how to assist individuals with preparing paper evidence for the merits hearings of their cases. 

   • Volunteer recruitment and training: VAAP would continue to recruit and train pro bono attorneys and volunteer interpreters to staff the clinics.

   • Documentation preparation: VAAP could supervise volunteers to utilize information gathered by partners during the "preparation" stage to prefill asylum applications as much as possible before the clinic to make for higher quality end-products after the clinic is over.

   • Clinic supervision: Coordinate live or virtual participation by volunteers, provide substantive legal supervision and troubleshooting throughout the clinic, and ensure all necessary documents gathered and/or signed by clients before they leave.

   • Post-Clinic legal work: Finalize and file applications, ensuring clients receive e-copies of their applications as-filed with "next steps" instructions.

We think this will consolidate/expedite communications for both clients and volunteers and reduce the post-clinic edits-and-signatures burden on partners and VAAP. Our hope is that this workflow will produce file-ready work products after each clinic so we can move through the volume at a faster but still responsible pace AND start planning ahead to "what happens next" for all of these pro se filers. 

Next Steps. If this approach aligns with your organization’s capacity, we would love to schedule a clinic with your constituency. Of course, would also welcome alternative suggestions on ways VAAP could keep intake open while staying compliant with our resource-constrained professional responsibilities! Thank you for your partnership and dedication, and all you do.

Individuals who want to be notified of upcoming legal services we can offer should contact an affinity group or immigrant support service provider in your area and express your need for legal help. Find those groups here.

We will be working to coordinate virtual and onsite legal help clinics with affinity groups and immigrant support service providers statewide. Partner organizations can contact us to request a virtual or in person visit from VAAP and our volunteers to offer immigration legal assistance to your clients and members.

After testing several models in 2024, we are no longer maintaining our own waitlist and cannot respond directly to new requests for asylum legal help. We are, unfortunately, unable to balance the work of managing and responding to a general intake waitlist in balance with our existing professional responsibilities owed existing clients. This is why we removed the “request intake” function from this website at the end of 2024.

We are working to honor all previously submitted requests for help in 2024. If you previously submitted a request for help using our intake request form, we will continue trying to contact you to invite you for clinic-style legal service as soon as resources allow. Due to the high volume of legally emergent requests, we cannot estimate how long that will take us to respond to you or even whether we will ultimately be able to respond and assist you.

We recommend individuals connect with an affinity group or immigrant support service provider in your area and ask for their help with accessing VAAP service.

Exceptions: For 2025, VAAP has project-based funding that allows us to provide direct representation to “unaccompanied children” (under 18) navigating immigration removal proceedings, as well as Afghan nationals seeking immigration benefits and relief from removal. To request this kind of help, email info@vaapvt.org.

We recommend that noncitizens do not miss any immigration court dates or government appointments and let officials know you are looking for legal help. You can continue trying to find other legal help and start working on your case yourself. Unfortunately, the vast majority of immigrants in removal proceedings do not gain access to a free or low-cost lawyer because the need so significantly exceeds available supply.

Be aware that asylum applications must be submitted before the one-year anniversary of your most recent entry to the United States OR the expiration of your Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or parole.

We also recommend you review these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), review our growing resource library, follow recent updates to law and policy, subscribe to our newsletter to learn about new service offerings, attend community education events advertised on our calendar, and follow us on social media.

Unfortunately, no, in almost all cases. We are a small and new organization trying to help as many people as possible to start their asylum cases.

This means we are unable to accompany most people to immigration court or appointments, except for “unaccompanied children” who we have dedicated funding to serve.

Most people who request our help will be offered only limited assistance and/or advice on filing their initial asylum or related humanitarian immigration applications. This can look like help filing an asylum application on Form I-589, help drafting motions for the Immigration Court, or other types of immigration application assistance.

Our ability to provide extended legal representation is growing but remains limited, and individuals should follow our website to be the first to learn about additional service offerings as our fundraising allows.

After receiving VAAP’s limited-scope legal assistance, the case is closed and VAAP is no longer representing you. The ethical rules prevent us from continuing to advise former clients. Former clients are welcome to return to a future legal clinic or consultation day for additional limited-scope service but, again, even in those cases VAAP can only offer to be your lawyer for that day only.

We are working to add community-facing resources to our website to help self-represented immigrants to navigate their court processes after receiving VAAP services.

Again, whether or not you have a lawyer, we recommend you do not miss any court dates or government appointments and let officials know you are looking for legal help. You can continue trying to find other legal help and, if you are comfortable, continue working on your case yourself.

We also recommend you review these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), review our growing resource library, follow recent updates to law and policy, subscribe to our newsletter to learn about new service offerings, attend community education events advertised on our calendar, and follow us on social media.

See below for a complete list of our legal services and private practice referral partners. Unfortunately, the vast majority of immigrants navigate their immigration matters without the help of a lawyer since the overwhelming need far exceeds available supply. Growing Vermont’s immigration legal capacity is central to VAAP’s mission and model. Scroll up for suggestions to make your unmet needs heard!