Immigration Psychosocial Evaluations
Licensed in District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Washington
Immigration evaluations help tell your story
Evaluations outline the impact that your immigration experience has had on your mental health. The immigration process is stressful and scary. While I can’t guarantee results, psychosocial evaluations can improve the chance of approval in immigration proceedings.
Share your story safely
As a Hispanic immigrant myself, I provide Spanish-speaking clients a comfortable space to open up. I have extensive experience working with adults, children, immigrant families, and trauma survivors. In addition to being specifically trained to treat PTSD and trauma, my passion for supporting immigrant families developed while seeing the impact of mental health on immigrants during my work in public schools in Boston and a hospital on the South Side of Chicago.
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For extreme hardship waivers or cancellation of removal cases, a psychological evaluation can be used to show that deportation, separation, or relocation of a family member will cause extreme hardship to the qualifying relative (e.g., US citizen children).
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For Asylum cases, a psychological evaluation can assess the emotional and psychological impact of events that led someone to flee their country. The evaluation can also detail evidence of persecution in their home country.
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In Spousal Abuse / VAWA cases, a psychological evaluation can help establish the emotional and psychological impact that the physical, verbal, or sexual abuse had on an individual.
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For U-Visa cases, a psychological evaluation can demonstrate the mental and emotional consequences that an individual experienced as the victim of a serious crime.
For T-Visa cases, a psychological evaluation assesses how human trafficking affected an individual emotionally and psychologically.
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Helping immigrant families tell their story
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Evaluation Process
Step 1:
Schedule Evaluation
Evaluations are approximately 2-3 hours long and can be split into 1 or 2 tele-health sessions.
I will ask you questions about your personal background, family history, and mental health. If relevant, I may ask you to complete questionnaires about symptoms you are experiencing and diagnose any mental health conditions.
You don’t have to share anything you’re not comfortable sharing.
Step 2:
Document Review
I may ask to review additional documents such as medical, mental health, legal, and educational records that are relevant to your case. I will also consult with your attorney to ensure that your assessment is as complete as possible.
It is important to receive these documents in a timely manner in order to complete the report in our agreed time frame.
Step 3:
Report
In most cases, the report will be completed within 3 weeks after our final meeting.
The report will include your personal history, any mental health diagnoses, a summary of my findings, and how findings relate to your immigration case.
Your attorney will use the report as part of your immigration case.
Step 4:
Resources
While immigration evaluations are not therapy, the process of the evaluation may create an opportunity for you to reflect on what you’ve been through and begin the healing process.
If you wish to receive ongoing therapy, I will provide you a list of resources and therapists in your area.
Evaluations FAQs
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Submit a form in the Contact section of this website to schedule an evaluation appointment. Typically clients can be scheduled within 1-2 weeks.
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An immigration psychosocial evaluation is a report written by a therapist who has done a clinical assessment of someone in immigration proceedings. The report is used by the individual’s lawyers as part of their immigration case.
Evaluations are not therapy and services are completed once the report is submitted.
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A well-written and comprehensive psychosocial evaluation can provide objective evidence of psychological effects of trauma, abuse, or potential separation. While an individual’s circumstances are necessary for immigration proceedings, often it can be difficult for someone to understand or even share their story without the support of a clinical therapist.
In addition, the reports can provide expert opinion on: severity of harm, impact of harm, fear of returning to a home country, potential hardship from returning to a home country, and the need for ongoing care.
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I typically meet with clients 1-2 times for a total of 2-3 hours. If needed, we will schedule more time. I charge a flat fee for the evaluations. I do not charge by the hour. It is more important to me that I obtain all the necessary information, even if that takes a little more time.
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In most cases, the report is completed 3 weeks after the evaluation interview and once all documents have been received. For urgent cases: I can have the report completed in a few days for an expedited fee. If, for any reason, a case is expected to take longer, I will keep open and timely communication with you.
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I am a bilingual, native Spanish speaker and can conduct interviews in both English and Spanish. All reports are completed only in English.
For clients who speak other languages besides English or Spanish, I can work with an interpreter to complete the evaluation interview. The interpreter’s fee is the client’s responsibility.
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The fee for an immigration evaluation is $1,200 which includes the evaluation interview, the written report, communicating with your attorney, and any revisions requested by your attorney. I accept major credit cards.
As a courtesy to all clients, I send a copy directly to your attorney as well as a copy to you.
Payment plans are available.
Expedited evaluations are available for an additional fee of $500.
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Payment plans are available and will need to be agreed upon before the first assessment interview.
You can divide the total fee into two payments. The first half is due before the first evaluation appointment and the remainder can be paid when the report is completed. Final payment is required prior to sending the report.
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I am trained to see clients of all ages. I have worked with children and adolescents for over 10 years. My experience with children and families includes clinical work in public schools in Boston and a hospital on the South Side of Chicago.