Contract Immigration Attorney (Remote, U.S.-Licensed) — Family, Humanitarian & Removal Defense

Job description We are a U.S. immigration law firm with offices in Illinois and Wisconsin, serving clients in all 50 states. Our practice is family-based immigration, humanitarian relief, and removal defense. Our client base is overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking. We are looking for one licensed U.S. attorney to work with us on an ongoing part-time basis as a contract drafting attorney. This is a substantive legal role — briefs, motions, waiver arguments, RFE and NOID responses, declarations, and case-strategy memos — for a firm that will give you a steady stream of interesting work and pay on time. This is a behind-the-scenes engagement. You will not file a G-28 or EOIR-28, will not appear in immigration court, and will not be counsel of record. Our attorneys remain counsel of record, review everything you prepare, and sign and file all of it. You work with us, not in front of the client. You may be located anywhere. Immigration practice is federal. What we require is that you are eligible to practice law in, and a member in good standing of, the bar of the highest court of any U.S. state, possession, territory, or commonwealth, or the District of Columbia, and not under any order suspending, enjoining, restraining, disbarring, or otherwise restricting your practice — the standard at 8 C.F.R. § 1001.1(f). Where you physically sit is your business. We have contractors in three countries and we care about your work, your responsiveness, and your judgment. To be direct about one thing: a law degree or license from another country is not a substitute. If you are not admitted to a U.S. bar, you are not eligible for this role — though you may be an excellent fit for our paralegal postings, and we mean that sincerely. What you'll do You do not need all three practice areas. Tell us which ones are real for you. Family-based immigration • Draft and quality-check petition and adjustment packages: I-130, I-485, I-129F, I-751, I-864, consular processing and NVC submissions. • Build extreme-hardship arguments for I-601 and I-601A provisional waivers — the qualifying-relative analysis, the evidence architecture, the brief itself. • Draft I-212 consent-to-reapply requests and inadmissibility analyses. • Draft RFE and NOID responses, including bona fides of marriage, I-751 waiver requests where the marriage ended, and § 204(c) allegations. • Handle Stokes interview preparation memos and post-interview submissions. Humanitarian relief • Draft I-589 asylum applications and supporting briefs, including one-year-bar and particular-social-group analysis, with country-conditions integration. • Draft I-918 / I-918 Supplement B U visa packages and I-914 / I-914 Supplement B T visa packages, including the substantial-harm and cooperation narratives. • Draft I-360 VAWA self-petitions — battery/extreme-cruelty showing, good-faith marriage, good moral character. • Prepare I-821 TPS filings and re-registration issues. • Draft client and witness declarations from attorney-provided fact sheets and interview notes. Most of our declarations originate in Spanish. Removal defense (drafting only — we appear) • Draft EOIR-42A and EOIR-42B cancellation applications and the exceptional-and-extremely-unusual-hardship brief. • Draft motions: to continue (8 C.F.R. § 1003.29 good cause; Matter of L-A-B-R-, 27 I&N Dec. 405 (A.G. 2018) where the continuance awaits collateral relief), to terminate, to reopen, to change venue, to suppress, to administratively close — with the legal standard actually briefed, not recited. • Draft pre-hearing statements, trial briefs, and witness outlines for individual hearings. • Draft BIA appellate briefs (EOIR-26) and motions to reconsider. • Conduct criminal-immigration analysis: categorical and modified categorical approach, CIMT, aggravated felony, and controlled-substance consequences, with the resulting relief map. • Perform case audits on inherited or stalled files: what relief is available, what was missed, what the deadline is. What you will NOT do • No G-28 or EOIR-28. No appearances at master calendar, individual, or bond hearings. No BIA oral argument. • No direct client contact, no consultations, no fee quotes, no signing or filing. • No holding yourself out as representing our clients or as being "at" our firm. Required qualifications • Active license to practice law in any U.S. state, territory, commonwealth, or D.C., in good standing, with no pending or unresolved disciplinary matter and no order restricting your practice. We verify this before any offer. • 3+ years of substantive U.S. immigration practice in at least one of our three areas — and real depth, not exposure. You should be able to name the last five things you drafted and what the hard part of each was. • Demonstrated legal writing at filing quality. This role is 80% writing. We will read a sample. • Independent judgment. We will send you a fact pattern and a deadline, not an outline. You need to spot the issue we didn't flag. • Reliable availability with meaningful overlap against 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM U.S. Central, Monday–Friday, and the ability to turn a same-week deadline. We will not chase you. • Dependable high-speed internet with a real backup plan, and your own computer. Immigration deadlines don't move for an outage. • A private workspace. You will handle asylum claims, abuse histories, and criminal records. Nice to have • Professional Spanish — reading client declarations in Spanish and drafting in Spanish is a significant plus and will affect your rate. Not required if your writing is excellent. • EOIR practice history, even though you won't appear here. Attorneys who have stood in front of an IJ write better motions. • BIA or federal circuit brief-writing experience. • Immigration case-management software (Docketwise, INSZoom, MyCase, Lawlogix, Eimmigration, Clio — we use AILaw). • Familiarity with USCIS online accounts and EOIR ECAS as a reader. • Prior contract or of-counsel work for another firm — you already know how this arrangement works. Engagement, rate & terms • Rate: $55–$75/hr (USD), set by practice-area depth, writing quality, and Spanish. Paid weekly through Upwork. • Start: a paid drafting task (2–3 hours at your full rate) on a fictional file. Everyone who reaches this stage gets paid whether or not we move forward. • Then: 10–20 hours per week, ongoing. We are looking for a long-term working relationship — several of our contractors have been with us for years — and we would rather build to full-time with the right person than churn through five. • Independent contractor engagement. You are responsible for your own taxes, benefits, insurance, and equipment. This is not employment, and no attorney-client relationship is formed between you and our clients. • Flat hourly. No fee-splitting. No percentage of fees, no per-case bonus, no compensation tied to signed retainers or case outcomes. Any variable compensation would be a discretionary firm-wide bonus. • Conflicts. Before you start, and again for any matter that looks close, we run a conflicts check. You will tell us about other firms you work for and other immigration matters you are handling. If a conflict appears mid-engagement, we address it immediately. • Confidentiality is non-negotiable. You will sign a confidentiality and data-security agreement outside of Upwork. Firm-issued accounts, MFA, firm-approved systems only. Never personal email, personal cloud storage, or an unapproved AI tool. Some of our clients' safety depends on this. • Bar verification and a background check are required before you receive access to any client file. • Attorney supervision. Our attorney of record reviews and signs everything. You are supporting our representation, not conducting your own. Where we're hiring from Anywhere. The bar admission is the requirement, not the address. U.S.-based attorneys, U.S.-licensed attorneys living abroad, and attorneys admitted in Puerto Rico or another U.S. territory are all equally welcome — we will not treat any of these as a lesser candidate. What we need is the license, the writing, and the reliability.