Our editorial standards

Who we write for

We write for people trying to understand U.S. immigration: workers, students, families, investors, employers and anyone helping them. Our aim is accurate, practical general information. We do not write legal advice for individual cases, and we say so when a question really needs an attorney.

Sourcing

We rank sources in this order:

1. Primary official sources: agency websites and policy manuals (for example uscis.gov, travel.state.gov, dol.gov, cbp.gov and justice.gov/eoir), official forms and instructions, the Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations, statutes on congress.gov and court records.
2. Reputable secondary sources: university international offices, bar associations, established legal publishers and law firm alerts. We use these to find and understand primary sources, not as a substitute for them.

We do not rely on forums, social media posts or unattributed claims for facts. Every guide lists the official sources it depends on, and we link to them so you can check them yourself.

When we cannot confirm a figure, date or rule from an official source, we leave it out rather than guess. We do not invent statistics, quotes, case names or fees.

How we write

• Answer first. The opening paragraph answers the page's main question directly.
• Plain language. We define legal terms and use the official names of forms and programs so you can find them on government sites.
• No guarantees. Eligibility depends on facts we cannot see. We use words like "may," "generally" and "often," and we never tell readers they qualify or will be approved.
• Calm and fair. We avoid hype, fear and political commentary. When a rule is contested in court, we describe what is in effect and what is pending, with dates.
• Original writing. We write in our own words and credit the sources we use.

Review process

Updating and dating

Immigration rules change through new regulations, agency announcements, court decisions and monthly bulletins. We handle that in three ways:

• Visible dates. Each page shows when it was last updated. Figures that change, such as fees and processing times, are stated "as of" a specific month and year.
• Change monitoring. We follow official announcements and the Federal Register and update affected guides. Significant changes are summarized on our policy tracker.
• Scheduled review. We revisit guides periodically even when nothing obvious has changed, because small details drift.

We change the "updated" date only when we have actually reviewed or changed the content, not to make a page look fresh.

Use of AI assistance

We use AI writing tools to help with research organization, first drafts, translations and summaries. AI tools can make mistakes, including confident-sounding errors, so we do not publish AI output as-is. Our editors check facts against the official sources cited on the page and edit for accuracy and clarity before publishing.

We are open about the limits of this process. Editors catch most problems, but no process is perfect. That is why we cite sources, show dates and run a public corrections policy. AI tools do not make editorial decisions and are not used to decide anyone's eligibility. Our tools run fixed rules and calculations that we write and test.

Translations

Our Spanish pages are translated from the English versions, sometimes with machine or AI assistance, and then reviewed. Official form names, program names and quoted legal terms are kept in English where that helps readers match them to government documents.

Conflicts of interest

USVISA.com earns revenue from immigration attorneys who advertise on the site. We manage that conflict openly:

• We tell readers how we make money on our About page and in our advertising disclosure.
• Our guides describe free and low-cost options, including nonprofit legal services and DOJ-accredited representatives, even though those options do not earn us money. See free and low-cost legal help.
• We tell readers when a task can reasonably be done without a lawyer.
• Anyone who writes, edits or reviews a guide must tell us about personal or financial ties to the topic, and we will disclose relevant ties on the page.
• Attorney reviewers review for legal accuracy. Reviewing a guide does not make them a recommended attorney, and reviewers do not receive placement in exchange for review.

Separation of advertising and editorial

• Advertisers do not see, review, approve or edit our guides before publication.
• Advertisers cannot pay for coverage, links within guides, favorable descriptions or removal of information.
• Paid attorney placements are labeled "ADVERTISING" and are visually separate from our guides.
• Our guides do not recommend or rank individual attorneys.

Feedback

If you think a page is wrong, outdated or unclear, please tell us at info@usvisa.com or through our corrections page.