By the Templateez Team · Licensed Attorney · July 2026

Immigration Intake Forms: Every Field Your Practice Needs

Immigration law has a particular kind of cruelty to it: a single missing detail on an intake form can torpedo a case that took two years to prepare. A client who forgot to mention a brief overstay in 2014. A prior asylum application they filed pro se and then abandoned. A marriage that technically was not finalized before the I-130 was submitted. These are the things that come back at the interview or, worse, in an RFE that arrives eight months after filing. And by then, the damage is done.

I built immigration intake forms after watching this happen too many times. The issue was never that attorneys did not know what to ask — they did. The issue was that the questions were in their heads, not on paper. A structured intake form forces every relevant question to get asked, every time, regardless of whether the attorney is having a busy day or the client is nervous and talking fast.

Visa category and current status

The first thing you need to establish is what the client has now and what they want. Current immigration status (B-1/B-2, F-1, H-1B, TPS, DACA, undocumented, LPR, etc.) determines what options are available. A client on a valid H-1B exploring adjustment of status is a fundamentally different matter than someone who has been out of status for five years and is facing removal proceedings.

Your intake should also capture: date of last entry into the United States, port of entry, how they entered (with inspection or without), the I-94 number (if they have one), and their current visa expiration date versus the I-94 expiration date. Those two dates are not the same thing, and confusing them is one of the most common errors in immigration practice. The visa is permission to approach the border. The I-94 is permission to stay. A client whose visa expired last month but whose I-94 runs through next year is still in status. A client whose visa is valid but whose I-94 expired six months ago is not.

Immigration history

This is the section most generic intake forms do not have at all, and it is arguably the most important one. You need a chronological record of every immigration application the client has ever filed: type (I-485, I-130, N-400, asylum, TPS, DACA, etc.), filing date, receipt number, outcome (approved, denied, withdrawn, pending), and the reason for any denial.

Prior denials are not automatically disqualifying, but they shape your strategy. A denied I-485 based on a missing document is very different from a denied I-485 based on an inadmissibility finding. A withdrawn asylum application raises different issues than one that was denied on the merits. And if the client had a prior removal order — whether in absentia or after a hearing — that changes almost everything about their available relief.

Ask also about any interactions with immigration enforcement: ICE encounters, CBP secondary inspections, voluntary departure agreements, stipulated removal orders, and any time spent in immigration detention. Clients do not always volunteer this information. Some do not realize it matters. Some are embarrassed. Your form should ask directly and specifically.

Travel history

USCIS and the immigration court both care about travel history, and they check it. Your intake form should capture every trip outside the United States for at least the last ten years: destination country, departure date, return date, and purpose of travel. For LPR clients seeking naturalization, trips over six months trigger a presumption that continuous residence was broken. For clients with pending asylum cases, a trip back to the country they fled can destroy the claim entirely.

Passport information goes here too: passport number, country of issuance, issue date, expiration date, and whether the client holds passports from more than one country. Dual nationality raises its own set of questions, particularly for asylum cases where the client may have a claim to citizenship in a safe third country.

Family relationships

Immigration law cares about family in ways that most other practice areas do not. Your intake needs to capture: spouse (name, date of birth, country of birth, immigration status, and marriage date/location), children (same details, plus whether each child is a U.S. citizen), parents (same, plus whether either parent is a U.S. citizen or LPR), and siblings (if relevant for family-based petitions).

Prior marriages matter as much as the current one. If the client was previously married and that marriage ended in divorce, you need the divorce date and location. If it was annulled, you need to know that too. If the prior marriage was to a U.S. citizen and the client obtained a green card through it, the I-751 removal of conditions history becomes relevant. Sham marriage findings — even in a prior marriage to someone other than the current spouse — are a permanent bar to certain immigration benefits.

For civil rights matters that intersect with immigration — employment discrimination based on national origin, for example — the immigration status and work authorization details collected at intake are directly relevant to standing and remedy.

Employment authorization and work history

Current work authorization type (EAD, visa-specific work permission, unrestricted as LPR or citizen, or none) and expiration date. For H-1B holders, the sponsoring employer, the LCA wage level, and whether a PERM labor certification has been filed. For L-1 transferees, the qualifying relationship between the U.S. and foreign entities.

Work history matters for naturalization cases (five years of U.S. employment and tax compliance), for PERM cases (education and experience requirements for the job classification), and for any case where the client needs to demonstrate they have not worked without authorization. An unauthorized employment period — even a brief one — can trigger inadmissibility bars. Your intake form should ask about it plainly rather than leaving the client to guess what is relevant.

Criminal history

This is the section no immigration client wants to fill out, and the one you cannot afford to miss. Any arrest, charge, or conviction — including sealed records, juvenile records, expunged convictions, and dismissed charges — must be disclosed on most USCIS applications. The standard is "have you ever been arrested, cited, or charged," not "have you ever been convicted." Clients routinely believe that a dismissed DUI or an expunged drug possession from 2009 does not count. It does.

Your intake should capture: offense, date, jurisdiction, outcome, and sentence (including probation, community service, and fines). For controlled substance offenses, the specific substance matters because certain drug convictions are aggravated felonies for immigration purposes regardless of the sentence. A single conviction for distribution of a controlled substance can make a client deportable with no waiver available. You need to know this at intake, not at the interview.

Deportation and removal history

Has the client ever been in removal proceedings? If so, outcome: voluntary departure, cancellation of removal, asylum granted, removal order (in absentia or after hearing), withholding of removal, CAT protection. Is there an outstanding removal order? Has the client ever been deported and reentered? An illegal reentry after a prior removal order carries its own federal criminal penalties and triggers permanent bars to admission that are extremely difficult to overcome.

Even clients who were never formally removed may have had encounters that created records. An expedited removal at a port of entry, a reinstatement of a prior removal order, or a voluntary return (as opposed to voluntary departure, which is a different thing legally) — all of these leave a paper trail that USCIS and ICE can access and will access.

Who uses immigration intake forms

Immigration attorneys and their paralegals, obviously. But also legal aid organizations, law school immigration clinics, nonprofit organizations like Catholic Charities and CLINIC affiliates, and employment law firms that handle I-9 compliance and work authorization matters. Any organization that screens potential immigration cases needs a structured intake process, because the alternative — scribbled notes from a 20-minute screening interview — misses the details that determine whether a case is viable.

For practices that handle multiple case types alongside immigration, having dedicated intake forms for each practice area means the immigration intake asks immigration questions, the family law intake asks family law questions, and nobody is trying to force a deportation defense case into a form designed for a car accident.