Today was my first day at The Law Offices of Omar Baloch. The place I am working at is an immigration law firm and they focus on different cases regarding communication, immigration, DACA, and citizenship. Today I began learning how to talk with clients and gathering there information. I learned how to fill out a client intake which allows the attorney to gain some basic knowledge about the client prior to the actual consultation. I realized that being tri-lingual was going to be very helpful, especially since a lot of the clients are from outside the United States. It was interesting to see the different cultures and different languages that were being showcased at the firm. I used Spanish for the first time since my AP, and I was kind of surprised I would be using it so soon. I learned how to make phone calls in Spanish and communicating with possible and returning clients whose English was not as great as their native language. It was surprising to see the amount of cases the firm has, especially since a large amount of the cases are still on-going.
I also experienced my first interview with a real client. Technically, it was a practice interview that the client had to go through in order to somewhat experience what an actual interview to get your citizenship would be. My mentor went through multiple possible questions that the actual citizenship test could have. Some of the questions were specifically about North Carolina and others were about the federal government, and there were a few that I didn’t even know! Going through APUSH this year actually helped me figure out some of the answers, and helped me understand a lot about the legal system. The client also went through a literacy test that seemed to be fairly simple, yet for some it might be a difficult. It was interesting to see how marriage has a lot to do with immigration, and how the idea of family can give someone opportunities that weren’t present before. A spouse, who is a United States citizen, can help the client in applying for either a VISA, Green Card, or citizenship.
An important thing to note is that there are multiple different types of visas. One of the ones I learned about today was the U-Visa. In order to qualify for a U-Visa, the client has to meet 4 requirements. First, they have to be a victim of a crime. Second, they have to be helping in the investigation of THEIR crime. Third, the client has to have been substantially harmed by the crime. Fourth, the client has to be a person of good moral character. It is really interesting to me that there are so many qualifications and tests and programs that a person has to go through, all just for a Visa. I am very excited to learn more about immigration law and I can’t wait for my second day!