Five years ago, I posted a review of Immigration, an app by San Francisco immigration attorney Josh Adams that lets you access the text of the Immigration & Nationality Act and related law and resources such as the Code of Federal Regulations. I recently received an email from New Jersey immigration lawyer Paul Gilbert telling me that the Immigration app is more useful than ever due to some recent updates. Although I don’t practice immigration law myself, I — like much of the rest of the country — now have a heightened interest in immigration law as a result of the policies of the Trump administration. Paul was nice enough to volunteer to write a guest review so that iPhone J.D. readers could hear about this app from someone who actively uses the app in a law practice. Take it away, Paul!
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The Immigration app was first reviewed in iPhone JD in 2014, where I first heard about it, and I have been using it ever since. I recently asked Jeff to consider an updated review due to some new features, and he asked me if I would be willing to write a guest review.
Disclaimer: I did receive a free copy of the app when the pricing scheme was a onetime payment of $25 (it is now offered as a free app with a subscription plan for additional features – more on that in a minute), because I did some early bug reporting and helped to spread the word among colleagues, and I am mentioned in the Credits Section of the app for this.
This app is for iPhones and iPads and is designed to be a tool for attorneys practicing immigration law (in private or government practice), law professors and students, and anyone else who needs to refer to immigration law primary materials. It contains the text of the INA (Immigration and Nationality Act), Title 8 of the CFR, and the Immigration Court and BIA (Board of Immigration Appeals) Practice Manuals.
The first screen of the app is the INA:
Swiping to the left will reveal the 2 PMs.
Tapping the screen opens a box showing several options, depending on where you are in the app:
The Show Section option presents this:
Similar boxes appear when tapping on sections of the CFR or PM screens.
I find it useful to have this app open on my iPad while I’m on the computer drafting a document. Having the ability to jump to a corresponding section of the CFR while viewing the INA is very helpful, as is the ability to search for a particular term using the search box at the top of each screen (results are highlighted in red), and to copy and paste text for insertion into a document (I usually open my Word document on my iPad using OneDrive and just paste the text there, and then go back to the document on my computer, or you could copy the text you need into Evernote or a similar app, or email it to yourself, and then open it on the computer and copy it into your document).
I also use Immigration in Immigration Court if I need to refer to a primary source. (Unfortunately, I cannot currently do this when appearing before a USCIS Officer due to their policy of no electronic devices during hearings – hopefully this will change soon.)
I find the interface to be simple and intuitive. It is possible to save bookmarks for sections that you find yourself referring to regularly, and the developer recently updated the app to include a feature where text can be highlighted, and the highlights saved, for future reference. This will be useful when you are trying to go back to a particular section buried deep within a sub- sub- section of CRF (e.g. 204.2(d)(2)(vii)(D)).
There are also customizable settings and a help screen.
The developer of the app is a former ICE attorney and is now a full-time app developer (he worked as a software developer prior to going to law school). He is very responsive to suggestions and the occasional bug report (when I suggested the highlighting feature, he wrote back to me within 10 days with a sample of what he would be providing in the next update, and the update appeared as promised).
The current version of Immigration (Version 3.2) is a free app. To get updates to the primary source materials you must subscribe ($1.49 / month, auto renewing but can be cancelled at any time). All of these primary sources are available elsewhere of course, whether in print or online, but it is certainly much more convenient to have all of them in one app which updates them regularly. I would recommend Immigration to any anyone who has to refer to these materials on a regular basis.
Paul Gilbert is a life-long resident of New Jersey, and a graduate of Rutgers College and Rutgers-Camden School of Law. He has been practicing immigration law since 1977, first as a General Attorney with the (then) INS, and for the past 37 years in private practice. He is doing his best to go, if not paperless, than at least “less paper”, which would not be possible without an iPhone and an iPad.
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A big thanks to Paul Gilbert for taking the time to write this review, and thanks to Josh Adams for his continued development of this app over the years. We need good immigration attorneys in this country, and hopefully this app will help them to be more effective in their practice.
Click here to get Immigration (free): 