immigration

Immigration Evaluations

Clinical evaluations are required in immigration court to assess extreme hardship, ill treatment or persecution. Depending on a type of evaluation, they are needed when a family member is experiencing psychological trauma when a loved one has to leave the country due to problems with legal status. They are also used to document trauma, threatening circumstances, history of torture, abuse, domestic violence and much more. The psychological assessment helps the court understand the negative consequences of splitting families, provide evidence of threatened identity, assess mental state and the emotional impact of the abuse endured. Consequences may be emotional, physical, educational, financial, and social. Our Immigration Evaluations include meeting with a Licensed Professional and will include an extensive evaluation related to the immigrant’s mental health concerns, history of prosecution, torture, abuse threats, especially related to immigration. We routinely evaluate and assess: trauma, Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, PTSD and a variety of other issues.


To obtain an assessment, clients and their attorneys need to understand some key issues that are not often clear. Not all mental health professionals are qualified to conduct psychological evaluations for immigration courts. Many families in urgent distress have lost time and many working with well-meaning professionals who do not understand the issues at hand and who are not qualified to produce a report that the courts will accept.

What Is Involved

The majority of your psychological evaluation with our team will be a clinical interview. Some patients find this interview intimidating, but you should just think about this as a relaxed talk with a caring professional. In order to gather the information we need to provide USCIS and your legal counsel, we may need to meet with you over the course of three or more one hour sessions. The number of meetings will really depend on the complexity of your case. Because you’re seeking hardship immigration, we’ll want to take the time to discuss any past trauma or any past psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. We also discuss your current living situation and plans for the future as well as any friends, family, or other support systems you have in place to help you successfully immigrate. This may include discussing future employment and/or education plans. The goal of this part of your clinical evaluation is to help you plan to handle stresses that may arise during your transition. During the clinical interview process, the role of your clinician is to collect necessary information for any of your legal documentation

The majority of your psychological evaluation with our team will be a clinical interview. Some patients find this interview intimidating, but you should just think about this as a relaxed talk with a caring professional. In order to gather the information we need to provide USCIS and your legal counsel, we may need to meet with you over the course of three or more one hour sessions. The number of meetings will really depend on the complexity of your case. Because you’re seeking hardship immigration, we’ll want to take the time to discuss any past trauma or any past psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.


We also discuss your current living situation and plans for the future as well as any friends, family, or other support systems you have in place to help you successfully immigrate. This may include discussing future employment and/or education plans. The goal of this part of your clinical evaluation is to help you plan to handle stresses that may arise during your transition. During the clinical interview process, the role of your clinician is to collect necessary information for any of your legal documentation.

We’ll also assess any potential roadblocks to your safe and successful immigration, and help you address them. In addition to this clinical interview, you will also be asked to complete some questionnaires that will use rating scales to help gain further understanding of your emotional and mental processes. These scales as well as the information gathered during your clinical interviews will be used to create the report that we provide to your legal counsel as part of your immigration process. It might take up to four weeks for our clinicians to complete these reports however it will depend on complexity of your case.

We will work closely with your immigration lawyer to ensure your evaluation is completed accurately. You can schedule an appointment from the comfort of your own home. All you need is access to the internet and a device which has a camera and microphone (smart phone, tablet, or a computer). Our clinicians speak English, Russian, and Spanish. We are also comfortable working with translators of your preferred language.

Currently servicing New York and Florida.

To schedule an Immigration Evaluation, please contact our office at  917-650-6325