how can i find legal mentors who are also able to help me navigate the path to citizenship in the U.S.?
As an immigrant still on the path to citizenship and a prelaw student, I find it hard to connect with most attorneys and legal advisor-provided mentors because they rarely have resources/advice for students like me. Do you have connections with foreign-born lawyers practicing in the U.S. that could mentor students with a similar immigration background?
- Anonymous
The U.S. immigration system can be doozy to navigate! I had plenty of classmates in law school who had to navigate their job recruiting in tandem with immigration, and while it seemed challenging, they successfully managed it with some thought. Unfortunately, a lot of the resources for legal mentorship starts more at the law school stage rather than prior. Your law school will likely have immigration resources for students, and nonprofit networks like the Legal Mentor Network helps pair law students and new attorneys with more seasoned attorneys. (I believe you can even write in special notes when you sign up, so you could flag the immigration issue specifically.) So while you may be struggling to find the right resources right now, rest assured that there will be more resources available to you in the future.
Moreover, there's nothing that you need to do for immigration right now. Most of my non-U.S. citizen classmates began planning their career/immigration strategy during 2L or 3L. If you can, focus your undergraduate years on just exploring whether you want to be a lawyer, putting aside the immigration issue. I promise you that you aren't behind if you punt the immigration research to after you're in law school.
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