Finding Legal Help

Government Resources
The two government agencies that are most involved in immigration are:

the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice, and
the U.S. Department of State.

BCIS has an excellent website, accessible in 22 languages, that explains the U.S. immigration law, the procedures, and the paper work involved. The BCIS website should be the place you start for basic, accurate information.

More Information on BCIS

BCIS Field Offices
National Customer Service Center
Toll-free number 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 1-(800)-375-5283

BCIS's Immigration Services and Benefits web page offers information and further links about naturalization, permanent residency, temporary visitor status, asylum, refugee status, emergency travel outside the country, and employment.

A search in the Google web search engine on "immigration United States" produces a list of almost forty-three million web pages of which a third to a half are lawyers or law firms that practice immigration law.

Finding the Law
American immigration law is federal law, so it is the same in all states of the United States.

Text of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (BCIS website) and the applicable federal regulations.

Finding the Forms
All BCIS forms are available online and can be downloaded. See Forms, Fees, and Fingerprint. You can:

download the forms in a format that allows you to then fill out the forms on your computer. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0, which you can download from the BCIS Forms and Fees page.
download the plain forms to fill out by hand.

Topics

Working in the United States

Immigrants and Public Benefits (National Immigration Law Center website) - information about eligibility for food and nutrition programs, health care, subsidized housing, income benefits, and more.
INS Detention Operations Manual -- information about the rights of INS detainees.

Source: Legal Aid Bureau - edited and updated by MLAN, updated by the Maryland State Law Library (MSLL).

Last review (no legal content) 4/25/08 (PLL/M.A.J.)

Is this legal advice? This site offers legal information, not legal advice. We make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information and to clearly explain your options. However we do not provide legal advice - the application of the law to your individual circumstances. For legal advice, you should consult an attorney. See our section on Finding Legal Help.

About this website. The Maryland State Law Library, a court-related agency of the Maryland Judiciary, sponsors this site. The website was developed (1999-2007) as part of an access to justice initiative by the Maryland Legal Assistance Network (MLAN) in collaboration with a number of legal services providers serving low and moderate income Marylanders. In the absence of file-specific attribution or copyright, the Maryland State Law Library may hold the copyright to parts of this website. You are free to copy the information for your own use or for other non-commercial purposes with the following language “Source: Maryland's People’s Law Library – www.peoples-law.org. © Maryland State Law Library, 2007.”

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