Immigration software news and updates.

If you own your immigration law firm, or partner with others in ownership, you are a business owner. And as a business owner, you are responsible for driving the growth of the business while providing the core of its deliverables - immigration services.

There is a lot from the business world that, as an immigration lawyer, you can find useful to learn about, such as developing marketing strategy, setting growth goals, and creating an overall experience that leaves your clients happy. Sometimes, however, business content that’s available online uses lingo that isn’t well-known to immigration lawyers, and it certainly doesn’t have the immigration law context in mind either.

Thinking about how to take all this valuable information and help you find relevance for it in the immigration law space, so we’ve put together these 20 sales and marketing terms that can help you think more strategically about the growth of your business and establishing better relationships with your prospective and existing clients.

Top 20 business and marketing terms you should know as an immigration lawyer

Here's our list of 20 of the top business and marketing terms you should know. Of course this list is not exhaustive, and we always recommend you continue to study and learn about the business and marketing side of your practice. But hopefully this is a great place to start.

1. Application Programming Interface (API)

API stands for Application Programming Interface. In technical terms, it’s a “piece of code that acts as an intermediary between two different pieces of software and enables them to communicate with each other”. An API is an intermediary between a client and the action they want to execute on a software, and the backend of that software and its ability to execute that action for the user. Most of the work that can be done with an API falls under the expertise of a software developer, but even as a non-developer, it’s helpful for you to know what API integrations are available to you on your tech stack.

The most important thing that APIs do for you is that they allow you to integrate a service without having to learn how to build that into your website or platform. That way, you can put unrelated pieces of software together, sometimes developed by two different companies, and have them work seamlessly. For example, Docketwise has a Quickbooks integration, meaning that if you use Docketwise as your forms, case management, or CRM tool, invoices created and payments recorded in Docketwise are automatically pushed to Quickbooks. If you want to explore this particular integration more closely, check out our support guide.

2. Client Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a term that typically refers to software that helps you consolidate all the information about your clients into one place, and follow their interactions with your firm step by step. In other words, it’s a database of prospects and existing clients.

In our other post about why immigration law firms need a customer relationship management tool, we discussed the advantage that having all the information concerning a client in one place represents, especially when multiple staff members need access to that information. All of this information together can be used to run reports that can help you make decisions in areas like marketing or profitability based on the data of what’s actually happening in your practice.

3. Call to Action (CTA)

A Call to Action is a prompt included in a piece of content asking potential clients to take a specific action. Some examples of CTAs can be:

• Asking readers of a LinkedIn post to tell you their impressions in the comments
• Ending a blog post inviting readers to subscribe to your blog to get updates
• Reminding viewers of a video on YouTube to like, subscribe, share, and turn on their notifications so they don’t miss a new video
• A “Sign Up” button included in an ad

As you can see, not every CTA leads to an action that costs money. Many CTAs are designed to keep the client engaged with your content, in order to continue building a relationship that, at the right time, makes you the first option for a service when the client needs it.

4. Conversion

Conversion is the process of turning a prospective client into a paying client. The conversion process is not just the persuading of the client to sign up with you. In immigration law practice, it usually takes more than a visit to your website or one look at an ad for a client to decide to choose you as their lawyer, making conversion a multi-step process.

Successful conversions also involve your online presence. With more and more people searching for services online, the reviews your firm has online, how easy it is to contact you, and how responsive you are become crucial factors. Be sure to ask your past clients for reviews whenever possible! Some tips to facilitate your potential clients converting to paying clients as easily as possible include:

• Make sure your website is user-friendly and loads properly. If it’s clunky or doesn’t look good, your potential client is likely to leave quickly and find a better-looking website.
• Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Keep in mind that many people access websites on their smartphones, and just because it looks good on the computer doesn’t mean it’ll look good or even be legible on mobile devices.
• Establish trust through your online presence. Share quality information on your social platforms and encourage your clients to leave reviews. This will help your potential clients to see what their experience could be like based on what you know and the experience others have had already.
• Focus on a specific niche to make it easier for your ideal clients to take action and sign up with you. Ideally, the entire experience they have with your online presence will address their needs through the expert knowledge you’ve shared through your digital marketing, the positive reviews of your past clients, and a website that is easy to use and doesn’t distract them with options that don’t apply to them.

At it's core, client conversion is simply finally getting a prospective client to pay you for your services.

5. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

This is the cost to a company in bringing in a new customer. Knowing this number can help you calculate the return on investment you will get from onboarding new clients.

Traditional recommendations dictate that a business should set aside about 7-8% of its revenue for customer acquisition costs. With the availability of free online platforms you can incorporate into your digital marketing strategy, marketing costs are not the same as they used to be. Your online presence and the value you provide through it in platforms that are mostly free to use, or come at low yearly costs, may cost far less than 7-8% of your firm’s revenue and bring more clients for a lower cost. Be sure to check out our two-part series on digital and social media marketing for immigration lawyers if you haven’t already.

6. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Shopify, the largest host of online stores around the world, defines Customer Lifetime Value as the amount of money a customer can be expected to spend on your business throughout their lifetime. This is an important metric to know when you’re considering the investment you will put into acquiring new clients and retaining existing customers.

To calculate CLV, multiply the average value of a purchase (in immigration law, your rate for a specific type of case) by the number of times the customer will buy each year by the average length of the customer relationship (in years). It’s important to remember that in immigration law, the timeline of one client spans periods of time during which no action is needed and they are not eligible to apply for any additional immigration benefits.

When it comes to immigration law, start by looking at the first kind of case you’re handling for a client and then consider any other benefits the client may become eligible for over time.

7. Inbound marketing

According to HubSpot, a leading marketing software company, “Inbound marketing is a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them.” Think about it this way: this very article is part of an inbound marketing strategy. The purpose here is to educate you, the reader, about business concepts. If you learn something from it and never reach out to us as a potential client, that’s perfectly OK. But if you do decide you’d like to learn more about Docketwise for your immigration forms and case management, and reach out to us, you would be coming in-bound to us as a potential client.

One way to start with your inbound marketing strategy is to address the common problems clients in your target market face and create digital content and experiences that address those problems. For example, look at most common search terms for these common problems, like, “RFEs for adjustment of status,” and address possible solutions in your digital content.

8. Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are sets of hard data you can use to see track and measure goals within your practice. With KPIs, you can determine what’s working well, what could be improved, and what isn’t working at all. There are specific ways in which you can categorize your Key Performance Indicators to look at your firm’s performance overall.

In immigration law, some important key performance indicators to look at could be:

• Your case approval rate, or output indicators: What percentage of your cases in specific categories are approved versus denied? Are there patterns that you see emerging in cases that are not approved that could explain why they are not successful? This will allow you to see whether those factors are within your control.
• Process indicators: Are there parts of your process, like your case filing process, that need adjustment or can be made more efficient? With that information, you can implement changes in a way that addresses challenges more effectively instead of trying an unfocused solution.
• Marketing indicators: How are people reacting to your digital marketing and engaging with it? Are people spending time reading your blog or LinkedIn posts, for example, or clicking away from them? Are your posts reaching your target audience through relevant hashtags? Are you engaging with your ideal clients in the platforms they use most often? Marketing an immigration law firm can be a time consuming effort, and if you’re on your own at your firm, it’s an investment of time that you could be spending on your case work, so make sure to use indicators in order to see whether the things you’re doing to grow your business really fit your goals.

Tracking and measuring KPIs will ultimately allow you to take a data-driven approach to understanding and growing your practice.

9. Lead generation

Lead generation is the process of consistently attracting prospects to your firm through nurturing (more on that below) with the goal of turning them into a paying customer. How do you generate leads?

Once again, we return to digital marketing. Given how widely you can cast your net by cultivating an online presence that focuses on your knowledgeable and helpful interactions with others and relevant content shared. Some ways in which you can generate leads can be through an email newsletter, a live event (in person or online), or a free guide, webinar, newsletter or blog updates that someone needs to sign up for to access. When you generate leads, in order to establish the level of trust in you and your expertise that leads to signing up with you, you need to nurture them.

10. Lead nurturing

It’s not enough to get leads - those leads have to be nurtured in order to get results. According to leading creative software company Adobe, nurturing a lead involves “developing and reinforcing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel”. Successful lead nurturing involves listening to the needs of your potential clients and understanding their pain points, providing relevant answers that portray you as a reliable source of information, with the goal of persuading your potential clients that you are the best provider of immigration law services in your niche.

How do you nurture leads in immigration law?

Let’s take an example from employment-based immigration. Imagine you work with H-1B visa clients. In the “off-season,” put out “how-to” guides on the H-1B visa process, helpful tips on completing the Labor Certification process, and updates as the H-1B application window opens and the cap is reached.

11. Net Promoter Score

Your “Net Promoter Score” is the answer to the question “how likely are you to recommend to a colleague/friend/family member/etc?”. Most of the time, this question is asked on a scale of 1 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely). A simple formula to calculate your Net Promoter Score, based on the responses to this question is NPS = % of Promoters ( — ) % of Detractors. Depending on the score, results can be qualified as promoters, or people that are very or extremely likely to recommend your services, passives, who are neutral and who may or may not recommend, usually involving scores between 7 and 8, and the detractors, who have scores that fall between the neutral-negative and the very negative end of the spectrum (0 to 6).

Why is this important? According to Bain and Company, companies that are seen by their customers as delivering value in their services and are achieving sustained growth over time have higher NPS scores than the average company. Your NPS can help you evaluate the full scope of your client loyalty too - if your clients are very or extremely likely to recommend you to someone else, that means that client may be generating leads for you possibly long after their own immigration timeline is over, resulting in more business for you in the longer term.

12. Pain Point

Pain points are, in simple terms, client problems. This term is used often across industries to refer to the difficulties and frustrations encountered by the potential client for which they seek a solution, and while there isn’t usually any actual physical “pain” involved, your job is to be aware of what pain points your clients, or potential clients, may have in order to focus on providing solutions that address them. In some cases, you may actually have to first make the potential client aware of their pain as they may not have it consciously formulated in their mind or be able to articulate it.  Pain points typically fall under problems associated with money, time, support, and process.

Here are some examples of how you can address specific pain points in immigration law:

• Pain points related to money: most immigration lawyers work with flat rates, so reaffirming to clients that there are no hidden costs associated with your fee reassures them and  addresses this pain point. In addition, explaining to clients what their flat rate gets them can help them see the value in working with you more clearly.
• Pain points related to time: if you foresee that your clients may be challenged with time to meet with you, for example, providing virtual conferencing options could be a way to address that pain point.
• Pain points related to support: maintaining communication with your clients is incredibly important, and feeling supported, or not, could influence a client’s decision to work with you versus another lawyer.
• Pain points related to process: using a CRM software like Docketwise that allows you to provide actionable items like forms to complete with a simple email can help things move forward and ensure that everyone involved in your client’s case has access to the same information at the same time, making processes more efficient. When clients see that everyone working on their case is well-informed and ready to take action when needed, it reinforces the trust between you and your clients, reducing the possibility of other pain points showing up.

Solve your clients' pain points, and they're more likely to come back.

13. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

Instead of paying a fee for putting up an ad for a specific number of days (like a traditional billboard) or on a specific part of a website, Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) allows you to pay only for the number of clicks on your ad, hence the “pay-per-click” moniker. PPC is viewed as a way to drive more traffic to your website.

One of the most popular ways to use pay-per-click advertising is search engine advertising. This shows your website as a top result for specific keyword searches, like when you see search results on search engines or e-commerce sites like Amazon, with the words “Ad” or “Sponsored” next to them. PPC advertising is a good option for small firms with a limited advertising budget, though beware that the more popular or general a search term, the more expensive it may be. Still, with the right keywords leading to an appealing landing page, PPC advertising can help improve your online visibility overall.

14. Prospect

A prospect is, in simple terms, a potential client. Whether it’s an individual or an organization will depend, in immigration law, largely on the kind of law you practice: in family-based immigration, for example, your prospects are mostly individuals, whereas in employment-based immigration, it may be a combination of individuals and companies.

This is one of the reasons why focusing on a niche within immigration law is important: it helps you determine who your ideal clients are, which allows you to focus your marketing efforts on people that have the characteristics you’re looking for in a prospect. It’s also important to remember that a prospect is anyone who could potentially be a client, based on the type of immigration law you practice, not just the people that express interest in working with you.

Some of the ways to engage your prospects include putting time into your digital marketing, encouraging your past clients to refer others, meeting prospects in community events, and reaching out to clients cold (this last one applies more to higher volume, business immigration clients).

15. Return On Investment (ROI)

You may have heard the term Return on Investment or ROI in the context of actual investments (like in the stock market, for example), but ROI also applies to business and marketing. When you’re calculating your law firm’s ROI, you’re looking at the amount you spend on a particular case type versus the revenue you obtain from it over time.

The same happens with marketing your law firm. In that context, your ROI is the money you spend on your marketing versus the revenue those initiatives generate for your firm. Understanding this concept is extremely important if you want to ensure that you’re paying for the kinds of advertising that really brings in clients. It’s also smart to consider ROI in immigration law in light of the Customer Lifetime Value, as that can affect the ROI calculation. The more revenue a single client generates for your firm over time due to multiple status filings, dependents included in petitions, and future sponsored petitions, as well as referrals, the more ROI you get from that single client.

16. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it may be one of the most pervasive business and digital marketing terms used in everyday business discussions, no matter the field. SEO has to do with the visibility your online presence has, and how searchable it is in relation to all the online searches conducted using specific keywords. Even if SEO is an imperfect science, as no one outside of search engine companies really knows how their algorithm works, understanding how to find and use keywords in a way that is SEO friendly, using links to reputable sites in your content to enhance your site’s searchability, and making your online presence friendly to search engines can help your visibility online tremendously.

One simple way to improve your website’s SEO is location. If you’re serving clients in your niche in a specific area, make sure to feature that location in your website and the digital content you share. That way, you will come up as an option when people are searching for immigration lawyers in your niche in that specific area.

For example, if in addition to finding your website, a potential client finds engaging, easy-to-understand content when they search, for “H-1B visa lawyer in St. Louis, MO,” that helps you build rapport with the client even before you have a conversation with them, as your content, positive reviews, and engagement online can help establish you as an expert. Better yet, if you’re one of the top results coming up on the first page of a search, it’s very likely that a potential client will click on your link and become part of your sales funnel.

17. Sales Funnel

A sales funnel is a multiple-step process that goes from the time a potential client discovers your services to the time they become a paying customer. Sales funnels are used to track the way in which prospects are responding to your marketing and client outreach strategies, and whether they need adjustments along the way to make the process more efficient. The reason the term “funnel” is used is because on the top of the funnel, you have all the people you attract as potential clients, which then trickle down to the ones that remain to become paying clients.

The most important thing to remember is that your sales funnel should be personalized to the area of immigration law you practice. Stay engaged with your ideal clients, and get feedback from existing and past clients in order to ensure you are consistently delivering helpful content to your audience online and your communication during the process itself with a client is as helpful and clear as possible.

18. Social Proof

Social proof is both a psychological phenomenon where individuals look to others for cues on correct or socially acceptable behavior, and a marketing term that refers to people finding value in a product or service based on the value others have found. You can capitalize on social proof by showing potential clients how well received your services are, through a variety of evidence.

Some examples of social proof include:

• Having a book on a reputable bestseller list, like the New York Times.
• Specific numbers that show the popularity of a product, for example, the number of downloads a podcast has reached.
• Customer testimonials and search engine reviews. For example, you can add the number of 5-star reviews your firm has on Google to your landing page as an example of social proof.
• Features on press mentions. For example, if you’re frequently invited to comment on immigration policy to a specific news channel, showcase your position as a trusted expert in your field on your website.

Social proof is important to clients because it helps them feel reassured that they are making the right decision.

19. Technology Stack

In simple terms, a technology stack (usually called a “tech stack” for short) is all the software you use to do your job. It includes software that you purchase, subscribe to, rent, or have an account with. Your tech stack includes your email client, your website host, your social media platforms, your bookkeeping software, your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, your digital payment integrations, and so on. If it’s tech you use, it’s part of your tech stack.

It’s always important that you spend time evaluating whether the tools in your tech stack are working for you or against you. Check whether the tech tools you have in your firm are being used, how much, and whether your clients have requested anything specific that your current tech doesn’t offer. We’ve put together a quick guide on what to consider when you’re assembling your tech stack, including recommendations that are particularly friendly to use and specifically tailored to the immigration law space.

20. User Experience (UX)

User experience (UX) covers every aspect of the interactions a client has with your firm, including, but not limited to, what they see when they reach your website, how easy is it to use, what kind of service they receive when they contact you, whether you meet the level of communication they can expect after agreeing upon terms, and how they feel throughout their experience working with you. As with many others of the terms we’ve covered in this glossary, the focus here is in understanding the needs of your clients, what’s important to them, what challenges may arise as you work together, and what their expectations are.

Docketwise is a tailored business solution for the immigration lawyer.

As a business owner, understanding the key concepts that drive growth through marketing, communications, and client interactions can make a significant difference in the growth your immigration law firm’s business.

Docketwise is made for the business of immigration law, a system with everything you need to keep track of your client interactions, assign tasks with ease, and see how your business is growing with analytics based on what’s really happening with your clients.

With our CRM, full library of immigration forms, easy-to-use client questionnaires and industry-leading API integrations, Docketwise helps you stay up to date on all your immigration cases, communicate easily with your clients, and otherwise build and manage your immigration law firm.

If you want to learn more about Docketwise, schedule a demo at the link below, or sign up for our Immigration Briefings newsletter for daily and weekly immigration updates!

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Strong client relationships are the foundation of a successful law firm. However, many firms still rely on manual processes to manage these relationships—leading to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and scattered data. Without a streamlined system, important follow-ups can slip through the cracks, and valuable insights into client interactions can be lost. 

Ultimately, client relationships suffer from these poor processes, leading to lower retention rates. For a competitive field like legal and time sensitive practice area such as immigration law, having good client retention is crucial. 

The right technology can remedy these issues. A robust CRM for law firms streamlines client intake, tracks interactions, and automates follow-ups—ensuring your firm stays organized and responsive. Additionally, different types of law firms have different needs for client relationship management due to differences in client type and workload. Using a CRM designed specifically for law firms and even specialized for your particular practice area (such as immigration law) can have uniquely tailored features that will ultimately simplify your lead management, client communication, and case tracking. 

In this guide, we’ll review the basics of legal CRMs, including their most impactful features and benefits, how you can choose one, and the steps for deploying a relationship management application within your firm. 

Common Challenges Faced With Client Relationship Management in a Law Firm

Lawyers face challenges every day around converting prospects into clients: cumbersome manual processes, missed opportunities, keeping client information organized, and limited insights into where new prospects come from and why they're converting. Let’s dive into each of these and how they can bog down your team.

Manual Lead Management

Tracking leads with spreadsheets or paper notes is time-consuming and prone to error. Worse, it is difficult to identify inefficiencies and mistakes within manual processes. Adding a layer of oversight to root out process issues may be counterproductive as well—because it will consume more of your team's time.  

Missed Opportunities

Delayed or missed follow-ups can damage your firm’s reputation and limit potential growth. Your firm likely won't convert a prospect who doesn't get a quick call back, but there is potential for an even more serious outcome. One person can publish a negative review that many others may see—leading to further missed opportunities you won’t have the chance to convert.

Limited Insights

To optimize your client acquisition process, you need data. Manual systems usually do not generate enough data to give much insight into what’s working and what’s not. As a result, you must make strategic marketing decisions with limited information. You end up taking a trial-and-error approach to client acquisition, which can be expensive and ineffective. 

What Is a Law Firm CRM?

A customer relationship management system (CRM) is software that stores client and prospect contact information. This software also tracks client interactions, including emails, telephone calls, and text messages. The tracking may be manual—requiring data entry—or automated. 

The goal of a CRM is to centralize client information so you can make better decisions faster. An accessible and complete client record helps you provide thoughtful service and avoid repetitive information requests. 

Law firm CRMs are similar to general CRMs in purpose but differ in functionality. They have features that cater to the uniqueness of the lawyer-client relationship. Some of these legal-specific features include lead tracking and automated intake features, integrated case tracking, and e-signatures. 

For immigration lawyers who assist clients in their applications for naturalization, your CRM may be able to let you know when they are scheduled to become eligible to apply, and prompt you to send a follow up message to the client with the required information, questions, document requests and more. Ideally, you should send such a follow-up with enough time for the client to gather the necessary documents and file on time.

Key Features and Benefits to Look for in a Legal CRM

There are many benefits to using a CRM for law firms, assuming you select the right application for your practice area. Know that a simple repository for client contact information is not enough to generate office-wide efficiency gains. You will see better results with a legal CRM that incorporates automation, client communication, case management software integration, and reporting. 

Automated Lead Tracking to Improve Conversion Rates

Automated lead tracking records correspondence with prospective immigration clients. The resulting data describes how prospects move through the conversion process. A good CRM for lawyers should provide a clear overview of leads, with dashboards for tracking contact information, communication history, and conversion stages. 

You can use the information to improve the timing and content of your follow-ups. For example, shortening the conversion timeline by addressing common questions in the first follow-up. Your reporting can then show you whether this change improves results. From there, keep testing optimizations to maximize your conversion rate. 

Automated lead tracking also reveals process gaps that create missed opportunities. As your team refines processes and organizes lead follow-up, conversions will increase. 

Centralized Client Data for Improved Organization

Look for a legal CRM that can handle the client journey beyond lead management. Once your leads become clients, the CRM should also be a repository for client information, case details, and communication history. Ideally, the system is secure and searchable. Productivity and efficiency gains result because information is automatically organized, and team members can find information quickly.

Built-in Communication Tools for Streamlined Communication

Built-in communication tools, such as a client portal, can streamline your outreach efforts by keeping team members working within one application. Even a CRM for small law firms should be able to send emails and text messages. This feature makes follow-up easy and fosters quick, personalized interactions that can convert leads into clients.  

Using a CRM system can help you keep your client’s options mapped out so you can reach out to them when it’s time to take the next step in their immigration journey. If you have a CRM that has immigration forms integrated into it, you can follow up with your clients and send the forms corresponding to the next status they’re eligible for right with the follow up so they can start the process right away. 

Immigration law is highly relationship-oriented. By following up with your clients regularly and keeping them up to date (even when there isn’t a big update or action needed), you show that you are committed to their success in the long term and that you see your relationship with them as more than a transaction.

Automated Workflows for Increased Efficiency

Automation creates efficiency and improves results. Look for legal CRM software that captures leads automatically from your website or chatbot, records the data, assigns follow-up tasks to team members, and sends reminders. These workflows ensure no lead is overlooked. 

Automating these tasks with technology also keeps team members fresh and focused on business development, intake meetings, and client communication. 

Integrations With Case Management Software

Seamless integration between your law firm CRM and your immigration case management software saves time and improves accurate record-keeping. When your legal CRM syncs with immigration case management systems, e-filing platforms, and accounting software, your team can operate with one data set. You can avoid manual, error-prone processes such as retyping information into a second platform or updating data in multiple places.

Reporting & Analytics for Business Insights

The best CRM software for law firms provides critical business insights via reporting and analytics. Comprehensive analytics can answer these important questions: 

1. Which marketing efforts are working, and which are not? 
2. Are some lead sources producing better clients than others? 
3. Are leads dropping out of the conversion process? If so, where?
4. Do we have the staff to manage cases coming through the pipeline?
5. Are we producing positive outcomes for our clients?
6. Is the firm growing? 
7. Is the firm profitable? 

CRM-generated reports offer valuable insights into case management, marketing performance, and financial health. They help you track ongoing cases, adjust outreach strategies, and refine marketing based on real data. By analyzing client acquisition trends and conversion rates, reports reveal what’s working and where to improve. 

Additionally, profitability reports assess whether you’re bringing in enough clients and guiding decisions on rate adjustments, staffing, and overall financial strategy.

Choosing the Right CRM for Your Law Firm

Beyond the feature set, there are other considerations when choosing an immigration CRM. Ease of use, scalability, and security are important, as is the application's intended niche—you will realize more efficiency gains by selecting a system tailored to your practice area. 

1. Ease of use: The right application is intuitive. Ideally, the CRM provider will offer free training, but your team should be able to navigate the software without excessive instruction. 
2. Scalability: The best CRM for small law firms is the one that scales with your business. These are usually cloud-based systems that don't limit the clients or cases you can track. 
3. Security: Bank-grade encryption and secure, distributed infrastructure are necessary. The best applications will have continuous monitoring, automated data backups, and failover processes. 
4. Tailored for immigration law: General CRMs may have fewer security protocols than law firm CRMs. They will not integrate as thoroughly with your case management system. On the other hand, immigration CRMs can optimize your intake process by converting a lead record into a client record seamlessly. You then have a full, centralized history of that client from first communication to successful case completion. 

Immigration CRM vs. Generic CRMs

While general CRMs like Salesforce offer broad functionality, they often lack the industry-specific tools immigration lawyers need. Docketwise, designed specifically for immigration law firms, goes beyond case management by offering CRM capabilities tailored to immigration practices.

An immigration-specific CRM streamlines lead management by:

• Capturing leads from multiple sources, including website forms, referrals, and chat integrations
• Tracking follow-ups based on immigration timelines, ensuring no missed deadlines
• Categorizing leads by status (e.g., scheduled consultation, awaiting documents, not ready yet) for better pipeline visibility
• Converting leads into active cases once representation begins, seamlessly integrating intake with case management

By using a CRM tailored for immigration law, firms can better organize their lead pipeline, improve client communication, and ensure timely follow-ups critical to the immigration process.

6 Steps for CRM Adoption in a Law Firm

If your team is ready to deploy a CRM, planning the selection and rollout process is the next step. The six-step action plan below can guide you. 

1. Assess Needs and Set Goals

Start by assessing your firm's needs. You might already know about inefficient processes that can be remedied with technology. It may also be helpful to ask your team about manual lead management and client management efforts.  

With a list of process issues a legal CRM can address, you can define related success metrics. Say your list includes error-prone manual lead tracking and cases that fall through the cracks. Your targeted metrics might be higher conversions, increased client retention, and improved case success rate.  

2. Plan Implementation and Prepare Data

With your top software choice in mind, get the support of key stakeholders—this may include team members who manage leads and clients, plus the firm's business decision makers. 

Once you have support for your choice, create a project team to lead the deployment. Depending on the size of your firm and existing client records, the team could be one person or several. Key action items include cleaning and migrating client and case data, scheduling demos and training, identifying necessary CRM customizations, and setting up user roles and permissions. 

3. Customize CRM to Fit Workflows

In this step, your project lead oversees CRM customization before deployment. Tasks will include configuring intake forms, setting up automation, and customizing case tracking. The lead will also establish user roles and permissions appropriate for your team so secure logins can be created. 

4. Train Staff and Roll Out Gradually

Hands-on training and a phased implementation plan follow. Conduct training sessions and note all questions and concerns. Reevaluate the customizations and adjust them if necessary.

When it's time for implementation, begin with core features. Phase in more features as you realize efficiency gains and the team gets comfortable with the new system. Remember to track progress on your identified success metrics. 

6. Monitor, Optimize, and Improve

Stay in close contact with your team to monitor CRM usage and identify challenges. Workflows and automation may require some adjustment over time to suit the way your firm operates. The more your team uses the new system, the easier it is to identify and implement optimizations that deliver quantifiable results. 

Docketwise is the Best CRM for Immigration Law Firms

General CRMs may not fully deliver for successful immigration law firms—they can be difficult to configure for case tracking and lawyer-specific workflows. 

Docketwise is designed for the work you do—it incorporates the best CRM software for law firms, plus a full library of immigration forms, easy-to-use client questionnaires, and industry-leading API integrations. As the #1-rated case management software for immigration law, Docketwise is committed to helping you stay current on immigration cases, communicate with clients, and grow your immigration law firm with these key features: 

• Lead and case management: Collect leads automatically from your website or chatbot. The lead's contact information is saved to Docketwise instantly. If the lead converts, Docketwise uses the lead information to create a client record—which then stores communication records, filing information, and more. 
• Client communication: Send emails directly from Docketwise. Those communications are automatically tracked within the lead or client record.  
• Workflow automation: Create follow-up reminders so no communication or document management task gets overlooked. 

Docketwise is the complete immigration client management platform. Learn more about how Docketwise can create efficiencies and improve service levels by scheduling a demo today.

Law school provides little in the way of education concerning the managerial and business side of legal practice. One result is that when immigration lawyers want to eventually launch their own practice, many get stuck.

Starting and running an immigration law firm is, in the most basic sense, starting and running a business. And with that comes the need for guidance, mentorship, and the right attitude to help you thrive in a competitive field. Having the appetite to take risks, approaching situations from a perspective of learning, seeing opportunities in challenging situations, and overcoming self-limiting beliefs are all part of a mindset for success.

In this article we’ll look into four important business mindsets immigration lawyers should have to successfully run or grow their firms that law schools don't teach.

1. Expect failure and learn to reflect on it

The word “failure” can sound scary. Thinking about the possibility of “failing” in the immigration law context immediately brings to mind a worst-case scenario where your client finds themselves having to appeal a decision, face a visa denial for an employee they’re expecting, in removal proceedings, etc.

But this isn’t the only way immigration lawyers can “fail” in their practice - you can also fail in ways that won’t hurt your clients but can teach you something about your business. You may be “failing” if you’re struggling to bring in enough clients, or if you can’t get clients with specific types of cases you’re trying to add to your practice. You might land a client for their H-1B but then “fail” to have them come back to you for their Green Card application. You might spend thousands of dollars on a marketing campaign and “fail” to see any return on your investment.

When facing failures, there are two ways you can react:

• Beat yourself up and pick yourself apart regarding everything you did wrong and adopt a negative outlook about the future, or
• See failure as a learning opportunity that allows you to reflect on what may need to change to achieve a better outcome moving forward.

Failure, big or small, is part of being an entrepreneur. The better prepared you are to face it, the better off you will be in moving forward. To prepare yourself for failure without being paralyzed by constantly expecting things to go wrong, adopt these habits:

• Stay close to your support system, personally and professionally. Not only will this help you maintain a sense of belonging, but it can also help you see things more clearly when you’re having doubts or facing a challenge. Reaching out to mentors from school or an old job, or even connecting with other lawyers in a Facebook Group can help you share your concerns and feel less overwhelmed. On the other hand, staying connected with friends and family over things not related to your work can help you maintain a sense of balance.
• Evaluate failure objectively. A setback in your legal practice is not a reflection of how worthy you are of success or your innate value as a person. At the same time, reflecting on whether a setback opens up a new opportunity or is a wake-up call to make changes can also help you see things differently. Instead of dwelling on what went wrong, focus on what’s next and start taking steps to move forward.
• Take care of yourself. Immigration law is a complex, mentally challenging practice that demands high levels of effort and probably produces high levels of stress for most lawyers. Add to that the responsibilities of running your own firm and, if you’re not making a conscious effort to stay balanced, you risk burnout. Keeping yourself balanced could entail something small, like going for your favorite coffee or tea, taking a short walk outside, exercising, meditating, leisure reading or audiobook listening, catching up with a friend, and the like. The important thing is to make room for the things that help you clear your head. Self-care actions can help you keep your stress levels in check, which is good for you and your clients.

2. Cultivate Resilience

In the same way in which legal education largely focuses on the application of rules and procedures, business education often focuses on how to achieve the best results and maximize your firm’s performance and rate of success. But what we’ve seen in the past two years is that systems are fragile, and the environments where we work can be unpredictable.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, lawyers in the immigration field faced extended closures of USCIS field offices, embassies and consulates abroad, and overnight changes in DHS regulation. There are always things that are outside of your control, but there are times, like during the pandemic, where the key to success is on how well you can work around challenges and bounce back. For example, think about what happened at your firm when offices were forced to close in the spring of 2020. How did you communicate with your clients? How quickly were you able to be up and running from the home environment? How much would you say you struggle to adapt to a new working environment, not only in terms of workspace, but also in adjusting to the changes in processing times?

When so much is out of your control, shift your focus from performance to resilience. Think of resilience as “the capacity to absorb stress, recover critical functionality, and thrive in altered circumstances”. In other words, how do you keep going when the waters are at their roughest? How do you make your firm more resilient?

• Look for opportunities in challenging situations. This could be offering services in a new immigration category, teaming up with another lawyer for referrals that can keep the client flow going.
• Consider change a constant as opposed to an inconvenience. Accepting that change is a given and that innovating in your practice can consistently help you create opportunities and adjust to unexpected circumstances when they occur. For example, it was most likely easier for a firm to adjust to closing their office in the pandemic if they had multiple ways to communicate with their clients (email, messaging, social media, etc.) than if they typically communicated with clients by phone calls only.
• Look forward. Think about the changes and adjustments you are putting in place during a crisis that will help you be better off in the future and how they will help you improve your practice in the long term. Resilience comes from embracing challenges as a learning opportunity and being open to what the circumstances you’re in allow you to learn.

You can’t control other people’s actions, and you certainly can’t control the pace at which USCIS works or the decisions DHS makes. Think about how your firm will operate sustainably through changing circumstances and how the resilience you build through your daily actions can help your firm grow and sustain itself in the long term.

3. Take risks, even if they scare you

Being a lawyer, especially an immigration lawyer, probably means you’re more risk-averse than the average entrepreneur. But calculated risks, and the understanding that taking risks is part of growth, can expand your perspective on what’s possible for your law firm.

For many, fear of risk is closely tied to fear of failure out of the belief that the greater the risk, the greater the possibility of failure. Cultivating a growth mindset can help you overcome, even if only to an extent, your fear of risks.Taking a risk could look like starting a social media campaign on TikTok to reach new potential family immigration clients despite not feeling comfortable on camera, or spending thousands of dollars to go to a conference in your specific business immigration industry niche without knowing whether it's going to be worth it. Without those risky moves, you can't grow.

Yes, you might feel a bit embarrassed about the idea of being on TikTok, but if your video gets 10,000 views and you land a few new clients, might it be worth it? If you spend $1,500 on an industry conference and land a new small corporate client that wants you to handle all their H-1B visas and Green Cards, might that be worth it? Risk is important for growth!

Everyone that you on social media who seems effortlessly confident had a first video or post that they were scared to post at the time, and everyone who confidently walks around conferences and knows everyone went to their first conference years ago and knew no one.

Everybody starts somewhere, and there’s no better day than today.

4. Reach out to customers

Getting clients through word of mouth is great, and many immigration lawyers have built substantial practices that way. But if you want more than that, it's important to realize that you have to reach out to your prospective clients proactively as well, even if the thought of it feels scary or uncomfortable. There are lots of ways to get started, like contacting your existing network and community to collect email addresses through free valuable content, utilizing an email campaign or newsletter, speaking at industry events, and more.

If you want to work with a high volume employment immigration client, for example, it’s unlikely that they will reach out to you randomly, like through a Google search. Which means if you want that kind of client, you will likely have to figure out a way to reach out personally. This might include attending networking events (virtually or in-person) the client might be attending, sharing valuable content targeting the client on more professional social media platforms like LinkedIn, and showcasing your results to establish yourself as an effective immigration lawyer any other way you can.

Let Docketwise simplify your immigration case management so you can focus on growth

We’ve focused a lot on the importance of developing a mindset for growth that focuses on adapting to change, reflecting on what can be improved, and moving forward. If you’re committed to applying these mindset tips and growing as a professional each day, you need a system to manage your cases that can be a constant, reliable go-to in the midst of any changes.

Enter: Docketwise.

Thanks to our client relationship management tools that consolidate all client information and communication, case management tools that streamline form-filling, case status, billing, and communication, and more, you can focus your energy on growing your immigration law practice.

If you want to learn more about Docketwise, schedule a demo, or sign up for our Immigration Briefings newsletter for daily and weekly immigration updates!

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While you’re in law school, there are essentially two routes laid out for your law firm career path: joining an established law firm, or starting your own. For this discussion, let’s leave aside other practice environments such as government employment or the non-profit sector. Typically, most lawyers start with an internship in a firm to gain experience and get an idea of the niche they want to specialize in - including immigration. After that comes the decision to either stay in the law firm environment or go off on their own.

If you do decide to start your own firm, regardless of your level of experience, approaching your immigration law firm venture with the right business mindset is extremely important to your future success. That’s our focus in this article.

How can you benefit from working with a mentor? How can you grow by focusing on a niche? How can you succeed by using marketing to give value to your clients? What is the importance of always being creative? And why is it worth investing in yourself and your business, even if you can’t see the benefits right away?

Most law schools won’t teach you these business mindset traits, but they can make a significant difference in how things play out, so let’s dive in.

1. You don't have to know everything before starting your immigration firm - leverage mentors instead.

Mentors are a fast track to lessons and experience that otherwise may take years, or decades, to learn on your own, so find and leverage a good mentor or mentors as you get started and throughout your career.

State bar associations have seen an increased interest in mentorship programs for lawyers, and veteran lawyers see them as an opportunity to continue building a sense of connection to the profession as it evolves. “What you are going to learn is what I had to learn the hard way, both professionally and personally”, says Doug Ashworth, a coordinator of the State Bar of Georgia’s mentoring program.

A mentor can help you find opportunities in the profession, apply their lessons and experiences while you are building your own career, develop your leadership skills, and even share your own knowledge in areas where your mentor may need help, like new technology skills.

Look for a mentor who has weathered changes and is enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge and experiences with you. There’s no shortage of immigration policy changes today, and mentors are a great way to learn the professional expectations of everyday practice, whether you’re just getting started with your own firm or have been running a practice for some time and want to take things to the next level.

2. Find a niche in immigration law and focus on it.

It’s tempting as a new immigration lawyer to think that it would be better to offer the greatest possible variety of services to appeal to a bigger client base, but it may actually be more effective and growth-oriented to build your knowledge and experience in a market within a specific niche within immigration law, especially if you’re starting out as a solo practitioner or very small practice. To decide on your niche, think about your goals and personal values, including the workload you want to have, the type of cases you want to deal with, and whether there are agencies or departments tied to the immigration system that you’d rather (or rather not) work with, such as the Department of Labor, or the immigration court system.

And if you’re concerned about cornering yourself into just a handful of potential clients, don’t be - there are two ways in which having a niche is a net positive in the immigration law field:

• Immigration law is a federal practice, so you can always take clients from around the US or even from overseas which makes your potential client pool potentially larger than it may seem. Thanks to the availability of virtual tech tools, you can have virtual consultations with prospective clients anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds.
• When you are an expert in a specific area of immigration law, you can also build your client base through referrals. Fellow lawyers who don’t work in that particular niche of immigration may choose to partner with you or simply refer clients to you, and former clients who’ve seen success with you may refer your services to other potential clients they know.

Other than working with clients and building a track record of success in your niche, you establish yourself as an expert by sharing what you know consistently to an online audience.

3. Share your immigration expertise through marketing, and don’t expect anything in return.

Share your knowledge as much as you can through actionable content that people can understand and connect to. The actionable content could be articles in a blog or newsletter, posts, comments, or livestreaming on a social network, a presentation at a community event or a guest appearance on a podcast. Considering all the different (and often free) platforms available nowadays, sharing what you know is easier than ever.

Why is this so important? Not only will a consistent and clear content presence on the internet make you easier to find for potential clients who search for answers that you may have (e.g., “what are the best visa options for chess masters?”), it will also help you establish yourself as an attorney who is committed to helping people, as an expert in your niche, and as a person who has your clients’ best interests at heart.

4. Be creative and take opportunities to innovate, risky as they may be.

2020 and 2021 saw lockdowns, border closures, executive orders, travel bans and restrictions, and of course, COVID. With all of those challenges, many at once, some immigration lawyers questioned whether they would be able to work at all and make it through this time. But with these lockdowns and closures came a shift to a more online-based business model, and many lawyers started to find new opportunities.

From litigation against the federal government due to the restrictions affecting clients to virtual consultations to reach new clients, these unexpected changes opened new ways for many immigration lawyers to survive, and in some cases thrive.

So if you’re a new immigration lawyer, or even an experienced one, approach your work and the situations that surround it with creativity and a mindset focused on seeing opportunities that allow you to withstand challenges as you go. Because the skills you will need to succeed as a lawyer go beyond knowing statutes and regulations - your law firm is also a business, and finding solutions to market challenges, working well with changed circumstances, and handling pressure in a way that lets your creative problem solving take shape in practice, is key to success.

5. Investing in your immigration law firm today is an investment in your success tomorrow

According to the Census Bureau, 99% of businesses in the US are small businesses, and about two-thirds of all jobs are in small businesses. But small businesses often have small budgets, which makes it hard to make investments in the business and lose money today even if those investments promise greater returns and success in the future.

But that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Yes, it can be hard to look at the cost of, say, new tech tools that can help your business grow when you’re getting started or when you’ve been chugging along at a certain pace and you can’t even imagine that level of growth yet. It can be hard to justify adding thousands to your marketing budget when that means thousands less in your pocket at the end of each month. It may seem like a bad idea to hire contractors or freelancers to help you with something you can do today in your business, though you know that keeps you from spending your time getting more clients.

But the time you could save by hiring a freelance or full-time staff member to help with administrative tasks, or the efficient management of your caseload with a tech tool is all but guaranteed to make the investment worth it. Investing in your business, and yourself as a business owner, can help give you back the time, and often peace of mind, to work on expanding your client base, building a larger following, and growing your business.

Use Docketwise to streamline the rest of your immigration practice

When you’re getting started, and as your immigration law firm grows, streamlining your caseload and keeping each of your clients’ timelines in one place is key. Docketwise can help you streamline and digitize your practice so that you can spend more of your time working on your immigration law firm, not in it, and applying your legal knowledge to achieve the most positive outcome possible for your clients.

If you want to learn more about how Docketwise can help you streamline your practice — from client questionnaires to form-filling to case management and more — schedule a demo to talk to one of our team members.

And don’t forget to sign up for our Immigration Briefings newsletter for daily and weekly immigration updates!

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Effective communication is essential in every workplace, but it can be challenging to keep communication clear if you’re talking to your team members on multiple platforms. When information ends up scattered across multiple places, it’s harder for everyone to follow the conversation and refer to important information easily.

Thankfully, internal communication systems that consolidate information and eliminate clutter have become more common over the past few years. So whether you and your firm are looking for a virtual space where you can just talk, or something that provides more structure by team or project, there’s something out there for you regardless of your needs.

6 Modern communication tech tools that immigration lawyers should consider.

Here are some of today's most popular and versatile internal communication tools you can use with your staff.

Slack

Slack focuses on messaging and the ability to customize your virtual work environment to your needs. Slack revamped its user interface in 2020 to make it more straightforward for new users, and was acquired by Salesforce in 2021. As an example of the kind of traffic that Slack can handle, all 380,000 of IBM’s employees - Slack and Salesforce’s parent company - use Slack for internal communication.

Slack allows you to organize your communications by topics in what they call Channels. Slack also includes video and voice call capabilities, as well as messaging and Slack Connect, which allows you to connect with other companies you may be working with who also use Slack. For example, if you’re working with a long-term corporate client, or an outsourced paralegal, you can invite them to one of your Channels if they’re also on Slack.  

You can see a more detailed breakdown of its features on their website and follow their five tips to get started to see if Slack is right for you and your firm.

Microsoft Teams

If you use Microsoft Outlook to host your immigration law firm’s email account, you may already be familiar with Microsoft Teams. But if you don’t, or if you simply haven’t used Microsoft Teams yet, it’s a bit like Zoom and Slack together in one place.

For example, in addition to video conferencing and text chatting, Teams also lets you and your firm employees work and share files during meetings, save those files with encryption technology, and automatically upload them to the cloud so they can be available across devices from anywhere.

In some of the paid versions of Teams, which you get access to with a Microsoft 365 plan, you also get a transcript of the meeting for future review or to share with someone who may not have been able to join.

(If you’re interested in transcription services more generally, check out our blog post on the topic!).

Microsoft Teams is free to try out with a corporate or consumer email account. Teams meetings allow up to 100 people, which gives you a lot of room to try out the features with your collaborators.

Google Chat

Don’t be fooled by the name. Google Chat is not your typical instant messaging service. The revamp of G Suite into Google Workspace brought new features to Google Chat to make it a more comprehensive internal collaboration tool. If your firm is already using Google Workspace, Google Chat may be an easy fit for you and your team.

Some of the things you can do in Google Chat, beyond sending and receiving messages, include building chat rooms for specific teams to work together (similar to the Slack Channels), sharing documents (similar to Microsoft Teams), delivering presentations and video conferencing, and sharing files from Google Drive.

Google Chats allows you to invite up to 250 people to a video conference, and creates a link on Google Meet from Chats which simplifies the process of joining the meet. To get started trying Google Chat, first check what kind of Google Workspace plan you have to see how Chat  features you already have included. But know that if you have Google Workspace, you already have Chat!

Discord

Discord describes its mission as “making it easier for you to talk regularly with the people you care about.” With a focus on video, voice, and text, Discord allows you to create topic-based channels where you can connect with your team members. One of the best features of Discord is that you can use video and voice without having to set up a link specifically for that purpose. In early 2021, Discord also added Stage Channels, which allows users to broadcast audio to other listeners, as opposed to everyone being able to talk.

Discord became popular through online gamers when it first launched six years ago. During the pandemic, people with different interests started using Discord’s “servers,” which are basically chat rooms similar to Slack’s Channels. Discord prides itself on its open environment and considers itself simply “a place to talk”.

One example of how to use Discord for internal communications is creating a server for Adjustment of Status case discussions, another for Citizenship discussions, etc. if you practice family-based immigration. You can do something similar on the employment-based immigration side too. Asking a team member to moderate is a great way to give others responsibility and evaluate their leadership skills if your firm is growing.

If you’re running a fully virtual firm, Discord could be a creative and next-generation way to collaborate with your team members while you’re all in different spaces, especially if you have a fully remote practice and never really see each other in person.

WhatsApp for Business

You may already have WhatsApp or use it to chat with your friends and family, share pictures or documents, send voice notes, make video calls, or use group chat. All these features from the “personal” WhatsApp version are also part of WhatsApp for Business.

WhatsApp can be used either on your desktop or your phone, and uses your internet connection instead of your cell phone plan, regardless of your location. Conversations and group chats can also be synced across devices, so you have access to the same conversations no matter how you log in.

Installing and using WhatsApp is free. WhatsApp also uses end-to-end encryption so that the only people with access to a conversation are the people in it.

Signal

Almost all of the tools we’ve highlighted above are owned by large companies, which for some people raise privacy concerns or the like. Enter Signal. Signal is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and was born from a desire to create a communication platform that’s independent of “Big Tech” and keeps privacy at the forefront of their service.

Similar to other communication platforms, you can send messages, videos, photos, and voice notes using Signal, whether with one person, or multiple people in a group. Signal uses an internet or data connection to operate, so a phone plan is not needed. Best of all, Signal is free to use and available to download anywhere in the world, and you can feel like a little bit of a tech rebel using it.

Bring it all together with Docketwise for your immigration forms, case management, CRM and more.

Regardless of the communication platform you choose, Docketwise is the case and form management platform for you. With Docketwise, you can streamline your immigration casework so you can focus on what’s most important: ensuring every step of your client’s immigration timeline is successfully completed.

From a full library of immigration forms to client questionnaires in multiple languages to an industry-leading set of API integrations, we help you stay up to date on all your cases, communicate easily with your clients, and otherwise build and manage your firm.

If you want to learn more about Docketwise, schedule a demo at the link below, or sign up for our Immigration Briefings newsletter for daily and weekly immigration updates!

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In March 2020, COVID shut down US workspaces, including immigration law offices. Thousands of immigration attorneys suddenly had to figure out how to work remotely and were forced to start taking virtual consultations.

Even with the pandemic entering a different stage thanks to vaccines, virtual consultations haven’t gone away entirely. And as the world starts to open up, and as many immigration lawyers are adopting a virtual immigration practice, immigration lawyers are now wondering: Should I just make all my consultations virtual?

Let's run through the many pros of taking virtual consultations, and balance that out with some of the cons.

Benefits of taking virtual consultations for immigration lawyers.

There are a number of reasons that immigration lawyers continue to take virtual consultations, whether temporarily or permanently.

Continued COVID safety

Even though hundreds of millions of people have received a COVID vaccine, many lawyers still want to minimize contact with other people when it isn't essential. Now that we are also seeing the spread of more contagious variants that infect the vaccinated (what are called “breakthrough” infections), you may want to continue keeping yourself and your clients as safe as possible by holding virtual consultations. Maintaining virtual-only consultations also creates a routine for you and your potential clients that requires little to no adjustment should your area return to the more stringent restrictions of last spring, as we are seeing in different parts of the world.

You can take immigration consultations with prospects who aren’t local

Given that immigration law is a federal practice and immigration lawyers can take clients from anywhere in the US, virtual consultations make it easier for lawyers to accept and retain clients who aren't necessarily in their area. This can help you expand your practice, especially if you’re a family-based immigration attorney used to relying on local residents.

Virtual immigration consultations can actually be more efficient

Many attorneys have stated that when prospective clients take the trip to meet in person, they tend to come with a lot more questions and have been known to overextend their stay. In this instance, short of kicking a prospective client out of your office, this results in longer consultations which can disrupt your schedule and get in the way of other work. With a virtual consultation, it’s easier to stay on schedule, and the prospective client may feel less inclined to keep asking questions since they didn’t have to make a physical trip to your office. Plus, you can even require an online form for the potential client to fill out to describe their specific issue ahead of time so you can go straight to the issue during your virtual consultation.

You can get supporting documentation virtually, and in advance of the consultation

Having access to any information or documentation electronically, ahead of time, for a virtual consultation means you don't have to shuffle through and make sense of paperwork, on the spot, during the consultation. Instead, you can review them on your own time and before the meeting and then focus on the main issue. You can also save time by sending documents that need to be signed virtually ahead of time and have your clients sign electronically using a service like DocuSign or HelloSign.

You can more easily end a virtual consultation if it's not a good fit

Whether you quickly learn that you don't handle the kind of case the prospective client has, if they're clearly just trying to get free advice, or if for some other reason you can't help, cutting a phone call short, especially if it's a free consultation, is easier than cutting someone off who has taken the time and effort to physically come to your office. With a virtual consultation you can easily save both your and their time without coming off as rude or short.

You can dress more comfortably

If you're not meeting prospective clients in person and instead are taking virtual consultations, you can dress more comfortably or casually at work. Sure you may want to throw on a professional top during the consultation, but that means you can wear jeans, or even sweatpants or pajamas on the bottom and continue to do great work, and no one will be the wiser. This can also help you move between activities such as a school run or tending to a pet more easily without a full change of clothes or shoes.

You can charge more for in-person consultation and have a cheaper virtual option

For immigration lawyers who charge for consultations, some charge more for in-person ones than virtual ones. Many immigration lawyers have shared that this has several benefits. First, by offering a lower-cost virtual version, the higher price of in-person consults pushes more prospective clients to go virtual. Second, for those prospective clients who insist on still coming in person, you can make a bit more money from the additional effort and have that as a revenue source even if not every consult turns into a full client.

Possible challenges of taking virtual consultations for immigration lawyers. 

Despite all the pros, there are always some counterbalancing factors. Here are some potential cons to consider when thinking about whether or not to move to solely virtual consultations.

Virtual consultations may be a good fit for you, but not your ideal clients

If you work with individuals who don't have access to a computer or smartphone, might be less tech-savvy, or otherwise unable to use tools like Zoom or Skype, virtual consultations may turn these individuals away. So depending on your niche, you may still want to consider in-person consultations, depending on the case or type of client you’re looking for.

You lose out on some of the body language inherent in face-to-face consults

In person it's easier to pick up nonverbal cues that can indicate whether you should dive deeper into a certain aspect of a prospective client's comment or, on the flip side, if it looks like they aren't interested in you or your service but you want to convince them to work with you. If you don't have in-person meetings, you lose out on some of the cues that you could pick up in person that might help you lock in a client or make a stronger case.

You end up in front of the computer all day

Talking to a prospective client in person forces you off your computer screen for 30 or 60 minutes which can be, for some, a welcome break. Working in front of the computer all day may not be for everyone: working remotely for extended periods of time may also increase your levels of stress, anxiety, and social isolation, although the evidence is still not conclusive.

Docketwise is the ideal case management platform whether you take in-person or virtual consultations

Whether you decide to only take virtual consultations or go back to seeing at least some prospective clients in person, ensuring that you have the best case management platform is key.

With Docketwise, you can streamline your immigration casework so you can focus on what’s most important: supporting your clients.

From a full library of immigration forms to client questionnaires in multiple languages to an industry-leading set of API integrations, we help you stay up to date on all your cases, communicate easily with your clients, and otherwise build and manage your firm.

If you want to learn more about Docketwise, schedule a demo at the link below, or sign up for our Immigration Briefings newsletter for daily and weekly immigration updates!

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The COVID-19 pandemic launched millions of professionals around the world into the world of remote work, and with that came a long-overdue remote work revolution for the legal industry. Many lawyers and legal professionals that may have not considered the possibility to work remotely were suddenly forced to do so, and, as a consequence, realized that practicing law remotely may not be that far-fetched of an idea.

And while it’s still up in the air to what extent lawyers and law firms more generally will continue to be fully remote, it's important for lawyers, especially immigration lawyers, to know HOW to practice remotely.

Why especially immigration law firms?

Given that immigration is a federal practice, it’s already the case that immigration law firms take cases from all over the country. Many lawyers who practice entirely in the field of immigration actually have their office in, or make appearances in, state(s) other than that in which they are licensed. Moreover, there are a number of US immigration lawyers practicing US immigration law from locations abroad. Nevertheless,  despite rarely, if ever, seeing many of their clients in person, most immigration lawyers were historically working out of physical offices. It was a situation that begged the question whether the business could be done remotely.

Now, even as some lawyers go back into the office, if you’re thinking about staying fully remote or even partially remote, setting up the right remote work environment is the key to success.

This article discusses the merits of running a remote law firm and some tools and processes to explore if you want to do so successfully.

Let’s dive in.

3 Major Benefits of Running a Remote Immigration Law Firm

What legal professionals have noticed thanks to the experience of working virtually during the pandemic is that there are benefits to a remote practice that are worth considering.

Mobility

Thanks to the growth in tools and tech to streamline legal work, the work of legal professionals has become more location-flexible than ever. If working from anywhere is something that you have learned to enjoy during the past year and a half, going fully remote can be an attractive option.

Reducing Costs.

Unless your state requires you to have a physical space to practice (check your state bar rules), the most obvious cost reduction when you go remote is not having to pay for permanent office space and equipment. Going remote also allows you to reduce costs in support staff by outsourcing to professionals such as virtual paralegals and receptionists.

Access to a larger talent pool

Hiring in the immigration space has always been a national exercise since a licensed attorney in any state can practice immigration in any other state. However, not all attorneys are willing to move. Having a remote practice means you can hire from anywhere in the country without asking the candidate to move to wherever you’re located. This makes it easier to find the right candidate and eliminates the cost of relocation.

If the above benefits sound interesting to you, great. But how do you actually make a virtual immigration law practice work? In other words, what tools or processes should you consider or adopt to succeed in a remote environment?

Here are 7 basic things you should have to successfully run a remote immigration law firm.

For immigration lawyers who are looking to go remote, especially those starting their own firms, let’s go through some of the most important things you’ll need for success.

• An updated website. In this day and age, a website would be obvious to most lawyers, but you’d be surprised how many lawyers, especially those early in their career, operate without a website. Others were caught by surprise by COVID and went into lockdown without a proper or up-to-date online presence. A modern and easy-to-use website is simply essential if your immigration law firm is going virtual. If you’re technically inclined you can build a simple website with premade templates on sites like Weebly, Squarespace or Wordpress. If you’d like to outsource this task, finding a marketing or web development agency, especially one that works with law firms (even better if they focus on immigration lawyers), is the way to go.
• Email addresses. Again, another seemingly obvious one that, nevertheless, needs to be called out. Lawyers who are just getting started and might not have a website, or are in the process of creating one, might not have a specific email address for their legal services. Using an email service, whether through your domain provider or an email service like Outlook or Gmail, allows you to have an official email address rather than asking clients to email “PunkRocker85@Hotmail.com” - believe it or not, this still happens. Additionally, you can create alias email addresses like “info@” or “questions@” to organize your emails and, in some cases, add some more legitimacy to your firm’s image.
• A phone number. No, this doesn’t mean you have to give our your personal cell number to clients and prospects, although many attorneys still do. Instead, you can use a VoIP service like RingCentral, Vonage or Phone.com to set up a dedicated phone number for your firm. These Voice over IP services forward calls to your cell phone but without giving away your private number. This is especially important for family-based practitioners whose clients might be most comfortable talking about their immigration case over the phone.
• Video conferencing. Given that you’re not running a brick-and-mortar office anymore, your clients want to at least see your face when talking to your about their case, even if remotely. Using a video conferencing tool like Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, Microsoft Teams or others is a great way to connect personally without being in person. If using Google or Microsoft, for example, for your domain, email service, etc., you can access Meet and Teams as part of the whole suite. Some of these services will also offer transcription services so you can automatically record and get notes from client calls. If they don’t, however, you check out our recommended transcription services.
• Social Media. This is more on the marketing side, but if you have a remote law firm, your marketing should be digital as well. There are a lot of digital marketing best practices for immigration attorneys, but one major piece of advice when you’re just getting started is to pick one social media platform and focus on it, at least at first. Here’s a breakdown of the different platforms, based on the type of law firm you might operate. For family-based immigration law firms, a focus on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok is a good idea. Facebook Groups are an especially good way to connect with specific communities of both lawyers and prospective clients and offer support both ways. Instagram offers a diversity of video-based tools for long and short form content (IGTV and Reels) as well as captioned pictures. And TikTok is quickly becoming a go-to for quick Q&A and niche-based communities in the immigration space.\ \ For employment-based and other business immigration law firms, LinkedIn and YouTube are best, especially when it comes to establishing yourself as an expert in your area of focus and connecting with your target clients, be they investors, entrepreneurs or HR departments.
• Growth tools. Fully remote firms are great for solos, but you can grow your team and remain fully remote too! This means hiring staff that’s fully remote and equipping them with the tools. For internal communication, tools like Slack, Trello, or Microsoft Teams are important to keep everyone on the same page and ensure tasks are assigned and completed in a timely manner. You can find employees by looking on virtual paralegal or receptionist sites, and of course can always advertise job openings on traditional sites like Indeed.com or monster.com.
• Case management. The ABA’s eLawyering Task Force stipulates that as part of keeping their work remote, a law firm needs to use a secure portal for clients and lawyers to access and collaborate. This portal has to be secure, encrypted, and require a username and password to log in. Choosing a case management platform with a secure client portal can help you fulfill this requirement while also managing your practice electronically and in the cloud instead of with paper client files, documentation and applications.

At the end of the day, if your remote law firm is going to be successful, you need the right tools, processes and mindset to work in a remote environment. Your firm’s cases should be accessible everywhere and to everyone via a cloud-based platform. That’s why it’s important to have a robust all-in-one immigration case management platform.

And that’s what we’re building at Docketwise.

Docketwise is the case management platform you need for your virtual immigration law firm to succeed.

Our main goal at Docketwise is to help immigration lawyers do what they do best - focus on doing great work for their clients while knowing that the rest of their practice is streamlined, automated and digitized. Docketwise can help you streamline and digitize your practice so that you can spend more of your time applying your legal knowledge to achieve the most positive outcome possible for your immigration law clients.

If you want to learn more about how Docketwise can help you streamline your practice — from client questionnaires to form-filling to case management and more — schedule a demo to talk to one of our team members.

And don’t forget to sign up for our Immigration Briefings newsletter for daily and weekly immigration updates!

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After many months of hard work, we're thrilled to announce the launch of Smart Forms 3.0 with Packet Assembly. Smart Forms 3.0 is a giant leap forward for immigration form preparation and was built on our core tenets: Collaboration, Simplicity and Accessibility.

The Evolution of Smart Forms

My co-founder James and I designed Docketwise's Smart Forms 1.0 six years ago after James helped me with my green card application.

At the time, it was common for attorneys to hand their clients a questionnaire to complete. The attorney (or paralegal) would then enter the data on the questionnaire either into their immigration software or directly onto the forms.

This double entry seemed like a waste of time. Our core idea was to enable attorneys and clients to collaborate together to prepare immigration applications faster than if they worked on them apart.

Our team accomplished this with a simple online intake that attorneys could share with their clients to enter the information needed for the application. While simple on its face, we built the intake on top of a powerful algorithm that determined exactly which constellation of forms were required for the application and then automatically prepared the full packet based on answers to the intake.

Over the past six years we’ve continued adding superpowers to our Smart Forms. A few highlights I’m especially proud of include:

• attorneys can flag questions that the client didn’t fully answer and reshare only flagged questions
• attorneys and clients can add comments to questions, tag each other and respond to one another’s questions right inside the intake
• we translated the intakes into over 7 different languages
• attorneys can combine any combination of forms into a single intake, save the combinations for later or create their own intake with custom questions

Smart Forms 3.0

With SmartForms 3.0 we shifted our focus from the process of preparing the intake to the finished product our users submit to USCIS:

• a packet assembly feature that allows attorneys to combine forms and evidentiary documents into a single Smart Form
• an automatic table of contents listing all forms and documents
• the ability to share the completed packet (or any part of it) with one click
• plus a beautiful redesign and simpler navigation

We’re so excited for the thousands of law firms powered by Docketwise to begin using Smart Forms 3.0. Meanwhile, we’re hard at work on the next set of innovations. 🚀

Sincerely,
Jeremy Peskin
CEO @ Docketwise

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If you’re just starting your own immigration law firm and can’t keep up with case work, or want to simply get more help so that you can spend less time on case preparation and other administrative tasks, you might be thinking of hiring an immigration paralegal. But for many, hiring and managing a full-time, in-house paralegal may not be feasible financially, or may not be needed on a full-time basis. The solution? Consider hiring a virtual immigration paralegal to augment your staff.

Just like with receptionist tasks, which can be outsourced to a virtual receptionist, paralegal and other administrative case work can be outsourced. These tasks may include data collection, research, interviews, and drafting documents or reviewing forms related to your clients’ cases.

So let’s dive into what a virtual immigration paralegal is, how working with a virtual paralegal can benefit your immigration law firm, and a few specific virtual immigration paralegal companies, and broader immigration support services you can look at.

What’s a virtual immigration paralegal?

A virtual paralegal, is a paralegal that provides paralegal services remotely and often, though not always, as a contractor or outsourced service rather than as a full-time staff member. So, while a virtual immigration paralegal can be a full-time staff member who is simply working remotely, this article is going to focus on companies that provide part-time or as-needed immigration paralegal services remotely.

And in case you’re just getting started on your journey as an attorney and looking to hire your first paralegal, note that depending on your state, paralegals may or may not need to be certified. Make sure you’re aware of your state’s guidelines before you hire anyone. If you’re ever in doubt about the rules concerning working with paralegals, make sure you review the model rules set by the American Bar Association.

How can a virtual immigration paralegal benefit your firm?

One major benefit of hiring a virtual immigration paralegal is saving you time by removing the need to train and directly supervise a full-time employee. Instead, by delegating these tasks to an experienced virtual immigration paralegal, you can free up time to work on more substantial legal or business tasks, or to simply have more time for yourself and your loved ones.

Another benefit is reducing overhead cost. Hiring full-time staff can be expensive and, depending on where your practice is, not sustainable. Given that virtual immigration paralegals are contractors, work remotely, have their own computer setup and have their own benefits, you can get the help of a paralegal without the potentially unaffordable cost of a full-time employee.

Finally, hiring a virtual immigration paralegal gives you flexibility, since you’re only utilizing them when needed. For example, in the employment- based immigration context, certain periods of the year, like H-1B cap season, may be very high-volume in terms of administrative tasks and paperwork. Outsourcing those tasks to a virtual immigration paralegal can be incredibly helpful, especially if your firm is small. However, at times when your workload is manageable, or during times when you’re waiting on action from USCIS, you may not have a need for a paralegal. Working with a virtual immigration paralegal service gives you the flexibility to pay for paralegal support only during busy times only when they’re needed.

Now that we’ve discussed at least some of the benefits for a virtual immigration paralegal, here are a few such services to consider. But before we get to it, please note that Docketwise does not endorse or otherwise have any affiliation with any of the below companies - we are simply providing a non-exhaustive list of virtual immigration paralegal services for you to consider. Always do additional independent research before hiring any professional service!

With that, let’s dive in.

Here are some virtual immigration paralegal services to consider

As we noted above, virtual immigration paralegal services can support immigration attorneys flexibly, affordably and skillfully. In these short reviews, we’re focusing on the types of services each of these firms offer so you can get an idea of whether they are a good fit for your firm.

There are more options out there, since this is an industry still in a growth phase, but here are four options to get you started.

1. Immigration Document Solutions mostly focuses on support services for family-based immigration. With a strong focus on assisting attorneys in completing forms, IDS also assists in translations between English and Spanish, and notary services. All services have flat fees.
2. Paravisa Legal provides paralegal services for cases in both US and global immigration. With previous experience in one of the largest firms in the world, Paravisa’s staff provides support services in family and employment-based immigration in the US as well as work and business visas at a global level.
3. Pocket Paralegal has been providing virtual immigration paralegal services for over 15 years, long before today’s remote work culture. Pocket Paralegal focuses on areas of family-based, employment-based, asylum, VAWA and removal defense cases, specializing in VAWA waivers and asylum and other affidavits - two areas of immigration law that are complex, sensitive and time-consuming.
4. Immigration Paralegal Services was founded by immigrants and their services include family-based immigration, removal and deportation defense and broader legal research and brief-writing. IPS offers a combination of flat-fee and either hourly or per-project pricing, depending on the needs.

Outsourcing other immigration support services

You may be wondering whether there are other outsourced support services you could use to get additional help with non-paralegal work. If you’re looking for more general, legally-focused virtual assistants, check out our blog post on hiring a virtual assistant for your immigration law firm.

But if you’re looking for more specific back-office or secretarial support, here are just a few options to consider. And again, as mentioned above, always do additional independent research to see if these, or other services might fit your needs.  

1. Exigent provides both immigration law support services and general administrative task outsourcing. They do have more traditional visa petition drafting services for employment-based visas and green cards, as well as family-based immigration cases. But they also provide I-9 compliance and immigration court docketing support.
2. While Lawfecta offers paralegal services, their legal secretarial and virtual assistant services make them stand out as an outsourcing service. This may be a better fit for you if you’re on the market to outsource administrative services, but not necessarily paralegal services. One highlight of Lawfecta is that it allows you to pick a specialist to outsource based on their resumes, so you can hire a paralegal, virtual assistant, or legal secretary with the right combination of qualifications and experience.
3. Upwork is an open outsourcing marketplace with thousands of professionals performing every possible administrative task you may need help with. From virtual assistants to graphic designers, proofreaders, copywriters, accountants, customer support specialists, if it’s a job to be done, there is someone in Upwork who can do it for you at a competitive rate. If you’re unsure about jumping into outsourcing legal work, an administrative project through a freelancer you find at Upwork can be a good place to start. If you want to hire a freelancer with experience in immigration law, you can set that specific experience as one of your search filters in Upwork to limit the scope of applicants eligible to apply.

Even if you outsource part of your work, Docketwise keeps your case management in one place

Our main goal is to help immigration lawyers do what they do best - keep track of their work in one place. Docketwise can help you streamline and digitize your practice, so that you can spend more of your time applying your legal knowledge to achieve the most positive outcome possible for your immigration law clients.

If you want to learn more about how Docketwise can help you streamline your practice — from client questionnaires to form-filling to case management and more — schedule a demo to talk to one of our team members.

And don’t forget to sign up for our Immigration Briefings newsletter for daily and weekly immigration updates!

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