When it comes to applying for your citizenship, the psychological evaluation or the clinical immigration report is a crucial component for your application.
Simply put, immigration psychological evaluations - or psych evals for immigration as they are commonly referred to - are assessments of your mental health and wellbeing. It’s primary purpose is to provide a detailed description of any mental health related diagnoses and conditions as well as express how the threat of deportation of another family member would greatly impact the welfare of you and your family.
There’s is no one size fits all approach to conducting an immigration psych eval and each professional will have their own methods. Also, each family situation is unique and therefore can bring a different dynamic to the interview sessions.
We are going to focus on some of the standard components of psych evals as well as share a few stories that may hit close to home.
While you are applying for your legal immigration status you or your lawyer will have to submit several documents containing tons of details on everything from your medical history to financial wellbeing.
Your immigration attorney is working with you to build a strong case proving your right to stay in the United States. But in addition to what he or she is doing for you, your psychological evaluation is an incredibly important part of your immigration filing process.
It’s basically a report that explains you and your family’s history. It can detail things like extreme hardship or trauma that further build on your petition for asylum.
If you’re worried about your psych eval, it just means you’re feeling normal!
Fear of the unknown is common. One of the best ways to cope with anxiety about your psychological evaluation is just to turn the unknown, into the known. That’s why I wanted to cover what can happen during a typical evaluation.
Let’s say you are applying for legal asylum. Did you know that the second you arrive in the United States, your clock starts ticking down? That’s right!
You only have one year to apply for asylum after arriving in the USA. Obviously, you’ll need to schedule a psychological evaluation with a specially licensed and certified clinician, fast!