This manual continues to be one of ILRC’s best-selling resources because it contains a unique combination of legal analysis and practical tips. Consisting of six chapters and extensive appendices, this indispensable guide thoroughly addresses how to prepare a hardship case. This manual describes in detail the different standards applicable in hardship law, as well as the factors involved in that analysis; and it demonstrates how to work with clients to elicit and to convey the information that will win a hardship claim. In addition, the appendices include sample non-LPR cancellation cover letters and index lists; sample waiver cover letters and index lists, including sample provisional waiver materials; declaration guides; sample support letters; a FOIA practice advisory and sample FOIA requests; a provisional waiver practice advisory; a summary of hardship case law; and many other essential tools for both private attorneys and practitioners working on cases that require a hardship showing.
The manual also includes detailed and up-to-date explanations of the following issues in order to best prepare the reader for applying for and winning hardship cases:
- common hardship factors and what those factors may entail, with practice pointers and case examples, based on case law, regulations, and the 2016 USCIS hardship guidance;
- in-depth discussion of certain forms of relief from removal that require hardship, including non-LPR cancellation of removal, suspension of deportation, VAWA cancellation of removal, and NACARA suspension and cancellation of removal;
- thorough explanation of the different waivers of inadmissibility and deportability that involve hardship; information about how to determine whether a client is subject to the grounds of inadmissibility or the grounds of deportability, what those grounds are, and what conduct will trigger some of the more common grounds;
- practice tips for working with clients to strengthen their cases, including tips on how to draft a declaration, pointers on presenting the case, and an introduction to evidentiary rules as applied to hardship cases; and
- overview of the application processes for the types of relief described in the manual, including the different filing procedures for immigration court and USCIS and the distinctions between the I-601 and I-601A waiver processes.
