Now accepting applications for Summer 2023 at VIA in Ottawa, Illinois.
Each summer, Valley Immigrant Advocates will offer law students and law graduates the opportunity to work with us as we provide immigration legal services to clients in historically underserved immigrant communities in north central Illinois. Our challenges are many and varied and our clients are diverse, deserving, and in need. Our internships and clerkships include work with both affirmative and defensive immigration matters. Our work at VIA runs the gamut from providing legal screenings and case investigation to preparing client applications for Asylum, U-visa, T-visa, VAWA visa, Adjustment of Status, LPR renewals, DACA, Naturalization and Derivative Citizenship applications, among myriad other areas.
Our interest in providing these opportunities is two-fold. We need assistance in providing services to our clients, and we want to offer committed people the chance to experience immigration legal service work in a rural, not-for-profit setting, with hands-on work alongside dedicated and committed professionals. We need to grow as an organization, and we seek to plant the seeds for our growth with this program.
We ask that our Law Graduate Interns and Summer Law Clerks commit to a minimum of 10 weeks with us. This time span helps us ensure they receive a well-rounded experience that takes them through various aspects of the immigration process. Accommodations for law graduates to dovetail internship work with bar review studies can be made by arrangement.
Law students and law graduates will receive one-on-one supervision by attorney and accredited representative staff members. Students and graduates can work directly with attorneys and clients for initial screening and intake interviews, case strategy sessions, case research and development, and drafting of filings with DHS, USCIS, DOS and other immigration-related entities.
Because a high percentage of our clients have Spanish as their first language, Spanish speaking and writing ability and Hispanic-American cultural awareness is a plus, but not required.
Applications will be accepted until positions are filled. Interviews will be conducted in timely fashion after application, and firm commitments will be made as soon as possible. To Apply: Please fill out our volunteer application and submit along with a cover letter, resumé, and writing sample to contact@valleyimmigrant.org with “internship/clerkship interest” as the subject line.
