By the Templateez Team · Licensed Attorney · June 2026

Immigration Law Intake Forms: What Fields Actually Matter

Immigration cases are deadline-driven in ways that most other practice areas are not. A missed visa bulletin cutoff date or an overlooked prior denial can torpedo a case before you even file. Your intake form is the first and best chance to capture every detail that matters — and the consequences of a sloppy one are severe.

After years of watching immigration attorneys scramble for information mid-case, the pattern is clear: the firms that get intake right spend less time chasing clients for supplemental information and more time actually practicing law. Here is what your immigration intake form needs to cover, and why each field earns its place.

Start With the Visa Category — Not Just "Immigration Type"

A generic dropdown that says "Family," "Employment," or "Other" is not enough. Your intake form needs to capture the specific visa category the client is pursuing or currently holds. There is a world of difference between an H-1B and an L-1A, between a K-1 fiance petition and a CR-1 spousal visa. Each one triggers different evidentiary requirements, different timelines, and different fee structures.

Include a field for current immigration status as well. Someone on an F-1 OPT exploring an H-1B cap case has very different deadline pressure than a lawful permanent resident seeking naturalization. And if the client does not know their status — which happens more often than you would think — that is critical information too.

Country of Origin and Prior U.S. Entries

Country of birth matters for diversity visa eligibility and per-country visa bulletin backlogs. Country of citizenship matters for treaty investor and treaty trader visas. These are not the same field, and your form should not treat them as one.

Prior entries to the United States need their own section. Capture the number of prior visits, the visa type used each time, whether the client ever overstayed, and whether they departed voluntarily or were removed. A single prior overstay can trigger a three-year or ten-year bar under INA 212(a)(9)(B), and you need to know about it before you file anything.

Prior Denials, Removals, and Pending Proceedings

This is the section that separates a professional intake form from a generic one. You need explicit yes/no fields — not buried in a general notes box — for:

• Prior visa denials (with the visa type and approximate date)
• Prior removal or deportation orders
• Pending removal proceedings or immigration court dates
• Prior asylum applications (even if withdrawn)
• Any encounters with ICE or CBP beyond routine entry
• Prior use of fraudulent documents

Clients do not always volunteer this information. A structured intake form with direct questions pulls it out at the start, not three months into case preparation when you are reviewing the I-485 and realize there is an undisclosed 1996 removal order.

Family Members Included in the Filing

Immigration cases frequently involve derivative beneficiaries — spouses, children under 21, and sometimes parents depending on the petition type. Your intake needs to list every family member who may be included, with their own dates of birth, countries of birth, current immigration status, and A-numbers if they have them.

Pay special attention to children approaching age 21. The Child Status Protection Act provides some relief, but the math is specific and the window is unforgiving. Capturing the child's exact date of birth at intake means you can flag aging-out risk immediately, not when the priority date becomes current.

Employer Sponsorship Details

For employment-based cases, you need the petitioning employer's information up front: company name, EIN, number of employees, year established, and annual revenue. USCIS scrutinizes the employer's ability to pay the proffered wage, and a startup with three employees sponsoring an EB-2 has a very different documentation burden than a Fortune 500 company.

Capture whether a PERM labor certification has been filed, is pending, or was denied. If the client is changing employers, document the current employer and the prospective employer separately. For H-1B cases, note whether the client is cap-subject or cap-exempt and whether this is an initial petition, extension, or transfer.

Deadline Sensitivity: Filing Windows and Visa Bulletin Dates

Immigration law runs on deadlines that do not bend. Your intake form needs a section specifically for time-sensitive information:

• Current visa expiration date
• I-94 expiration date (which may differ from the visa stamp)
• Priority date (for employment-based or family-based preference categories)
• Any pending RFE (Request for Evidence) with its response deadline
• Upcoming visa bulletin movement relevant to the client's category and country
• OPT or STEM OPT expiration for F-1 students

Missing a 30-day RFE response window is malpractice. Missing a filing window when a visa bulletin date becomes current means the client waits months or years for the next opportunity. Build these fields into the form so nothing falls through.

Criminal History and Inadmissibility Grounds

You must ask about criminal history directly. Any arrest — even without a conviction, even a dismissed charge — can trigger inadmissibility grounds or discretionary denial. Your intake form needs fields for arrests, charges, convictions, and dispositions, with dates and jurisdictions. If your practice also handles criminal defense matters, you know how critical this overlap is. A DUI that seems minor in state court can be a permanent bar to naturalization if it involved a controlled substance.

Also ask about prior claims to U.S. citizenship (which can create estoppel issues), unlawful presence calculations, and any prior voluntary departure agreements.

How This Connects to Your Broader Practice

Immigration intake overlaps heavily with family law intake when you are handling marriage-based petitions. Domestic violence cases may involve VAWA self-petitions. If your firm handles both, consider how information flows between those two intake processes. Immigration practices also frequently serve clients with limited English proficiency, which makes serving Spanish-speaking clients in your intake process a practical concern worth addressing before the first consultation.

Our immigration law intake form is built with all of these fields structured into logical sections — visa category, personal history, family members, employer details, deadline tracking, and prior proceedings. Every field has a reason. Nothing is there for filler.

If you handle multiple legal practice areas, the Legal Bundle gives you access to all 38 legal intake form sets at a significant discount over buying them individually.