Volunteer to Assist at Albany Asylum Clinics in February and March 2024

This is an all call for help in upstate New York! As housing becomes more dire, empty beds in hotel shelters upstate continue to fill with migrant families evicted from NYC shelters after a 30-60 day limited stay. Legal service providers in Rochester, Buffalo, and Albany are stretched very thin, and migrants from New York City are arriving in serious need of legal and social services.

Ensuring no one falls through the cracks is difficult enough in the strong support networks of the city—these difficulties compound far away from such resources.

We need your help! Legal service providers across New York State are working with Immigrant ARC and the New York Immigration Coalition to conduct rapid response legal clinics focused on helping hotel shelter residents outside of New York City apply for asylum, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and work permits. Local service providers will coordinate these services, and Immigrant ARC and NYIC will support them with logistics, training, and materials. 

We are currently looking for both legal and non-legal volunteers for in-person asylum clinics in Albany, in partnership with Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, which will be regularly scheduled for the following Fridays:

  • February 9, 2024
  • *THURSDAY* February 15, 2024
  • February 23, 2024
  • March 1, 2024
  • March 8, 2024
  • March 15, 2024
  • March 22, 2024
  • March 29, 2024
  • April 5th, 2024

All volunteers must complete an orientation and training before attending a clinic! 

Language requirements: A second language is helpful, but not required for this opportunity. High-need languages include: Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Russian, Arabic

Note on liability and limited scope: Immigrant ARC will provide liability insurance for all clinic days, and all clinic applicants will sign a limited scope agreement. Each asylum application will include form EOIR-61 (Notice of Entry of Limited Appearance for Document Assistance Before the Immigration Court). Non-attorney volunteers will sign EOIR-61 as a reputable individual, and attorneys or law students without an EOIR number will have a supervisor sign as the application preparer.

Sign Up and Volunteer Shift Schedule Here

If you are traveling to Albany, please ensure plenty of travel time before and after your volunteer shift.

Application Prep Volunteers:

  • Non-attorneys, law students, and attorneys without asylum application experience

  • Intake and asylum eligibility screening for hotel shelter residents using an in-depth questionnaire

  • One-on-one application preparation for the demographic and travel portions of the asylum application (pages 1-4)

    • May also include supplemental forms such as the Motion to Change Venue and Change of Address

  • No prior experience with asylum needed—training and legal supervision will be provided

Interpretation Volunteers:

  • Fluent in English and one or more other languages (including, but not limited to the ones below). No professional certification necessary.

  • Work one-on-one with Application and Legal Volunteers to interpret for applicants

  • Simple document translation (templates and examples provided)

  • High-need languages: Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Russian, Arabic

  • Additional languages: Pular or Pulaar, Fulani, Wolof, Mandarin Chinese, Turkish

  • Interpretation volunteers will be cross-trained on application prep

Legal Volunteers:

  • Attorneys, DOJ Accredited Reps, paralegals, law students, or others with asylum application experience 

  • One-on-one application preparation with hotel shelter residents for the asylum claim portion of the asylum application (pages 5-12)

  • Volunteers must have some experience with the asylum application process in addition to the training provided

Supervising Attorney Volunteers:

  • Attorneys with a high level of asylum application experience

  • Provide final review of asylum application packets for hotel shelter residents

  • Assist with the check-out process, giving an overview of next steps once an application is submitted

  • Sign EOIR-61 for attorneys and law students without an EOIR number

If you have any questions, please email volunteer@immigrantarc.org.