How to Become an Immigration Lawyer
There are different types of jobs in the law field, out of which the job of a lawyer or an attorney is a prominent one. There are different types of lawyers, each specializing in their own field of expertise. For example, business lawyers, tax lawyers, criminal lawyer, family lawyer, immigration lawyers, and so on. An immigration lawyer is a profession who has a wide expertise in the immigration procedures and laws of a country. In the following section of the article, we are going to discuss about the duties of an immigration lawyer and how to become one.
Career as an Immigration Lawyer
As the name suggests, an immigration lawyer is an expert who is aware of the national and international processes and formalities of immigration to and from his country. He is a person who helps potential immigrants in carrying out the visa paperwork, obtain visas, and assist in addressing various issues that may arise during the process. These attorneys help illegal immigrants to follow appropriate procedures for becoming citizens of a country by naturalization. Immigration lawyers may even handle serious deportation cases of clients.
They visit clients, discuss requirements, obtain the necessary documents, and defend their clients in the count of law. This law specialist may be required to coordinate with other departments such as the Department of Justice and Department of Labor. There are many other duties that an immigration lawyer needs to perform as per the client’s requirement. Along with the educational qualifications, an immigration lawyer needs to possess excellent communication, interpersonal, public speaking and problem solving skills to interact with different clients and other professionals. The general steps in getting into this career are mentioned in the following section.
How to Become an Immigration Lawyer?
The first step in becoming an immigration lawyer is to know about what the career entails. Coming to the education, a four-year bachelor’s degree is the basic requirement to opt for a career in this field. Next is to seek admission in a recognized law school. In order to get into the law school, you need to qualify in the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). A candidate should obtain good LSAT score, to gain admission in one of the best law schools.
Make sure that your degree is recognized by the American Bar Association. After you gain admission in a law school, the first-year curriculum would usually include general law studies like constitutional law, real estate law, legal writing and formalities, and similar others. In the second year of the course, you would mainly focus on studies relating to immigration law. This is a very good time to get involved in internships at agencies and small firms which deal in immigration counseling and procedures.
After successful completion of the course, you will be awarded with the Juris Doctor (JD) degree. If you are thinking to start practicing immigration law, you mandatorily need to hold a state license. You will then need to appear for the state bar exam for obtaining the state license. In addition to the bar exam, you might also be required to give the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), Multistate Performance Test (MPT), and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). Once you have the license to practice, you can do a full-time job at the agency where you completed the internship. As an immigration lawyer, you are supposed to update your knowledge from time to time regarding policy changes and recent developments in the national and international immigration regulations.
The immigration lawyer salary is believed to be around $46,000 per annum; but this largely depends on the type of employer and the number of clients, if one is practicing independently. During your education, you can seek for internships at the national immigration administration facilities such as the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the US Department of State. To excel in this career, you can even gain additional knowledge about the immigration processes of other countries as well.
Substantive and Procedural Aspects of Criminal Law
The criminal law is a body of rules that is part of the laws of the land that defines crimes and provides for its punishment. This branch of law specifically focuses on the crimes and punishments. This law, like all other laws, has procedural and substantive aspects. The Rules on Criminal Procedure under the Rules of Court provide for the procedures of prosecuting and defending criminals before the courts of justice. The substantive laws on the other hand define and provide for the essential elements of the crimes. It explains the requisites for an act or omission to fall within one crime or another. The elements of the crime are explained under the substantive aspect of the criminal law. According to the list of definitions of crimes, the commission of acts prohibited by law and the omission of certain conducts required by law constitutes a crime.
To prove such crime as committed by the accused, the prosecutor should comply with the rules provided for trial. These rules set forth the guidelines for filing a complaint, trying the case, arresting the accused, search and seizure of places and persons, the rights of the accused, and the powers of the prosecutors to conduct investigations in finding probable cause to indict the accused. Since every crime is a violation not only against the private complainant’s rights but it is also an outrage to the moral senses of the public and society, hence the government through the district prosecutors are given the authority to conduct criminal investigation and file proper charges if warranted according to the facts and evidence gathered.
The substantive aspect of criminal law is the meat of the law itself. The substantive penal laws define the crimes by providing the essential requisites or elements of the crime without which the act cannot be considered illegal or criminal. It is also the aspect of law that lawyers base their arguments to substantially convict or acquit the accused. These substantive laws are usually logically twisted and reasonably understood in various ways depending on the nature, facts, and circumstances of the accusation.
The procedural aspect guides the lawyers on the technicalities of prosecuting and defending the accused from the moment of its investigation, indictment, promulgation of the decision, up to its finality and execution. On the other hand, the substantive part of criminal law defines the crimes by providing the elements that would qualify an act or series of acts as a specific crime. These procedural and substantive aspects of criminal law are essential in determining the guilt or innocence of the accused and in the pursuit and administration of justice. Failure to comply with these rules, misapprehension of facts, and misapplication of the law results in the blatant miscarriage of justice. This allows the real criminals run scot-free while innocent accused are rotting in jails and the victims still seeking the truth and justice. This situation does not only prevent justice form being served but it also renders injustice to more persons such as those innocent persons wrongfully accused of the crime in addition to the already private complainants.