Weekly Recap 10/3-10/9

What I did:


3 hours -- mind mapping / immigration process mapping
1 hour -- conversations with immigrant and immigrant petitioner
4 hours -- research
2 hours -- project proposal draft

What I accomplished/ discovered/ encountered:


Talking to an actual immigrant was a huge step.  I didn't realize how helpful talking to an immigrant petitioner would be.  Emilia (GSI for another IP section) petitioned her husband to immigrate from Indonesia.  The petitioner is the person who claims responsibility for supporting the immigrant once they get to the U.S.  They go through the entire process with the immigrant.  She and Emir (her GSI partner) were so helpful.  Emir is from Bosnia and immigrated through Employment based immigration but still had some great suggestions.  They both talked about the "unknown" aspects of the process such as the length of time the entire application process takes, all of the information that is needed from them, all of the translations that need to be made of official documents and countless other things.  They suggested having some sort of "process map" of the entire process so people know what to expect and what is expected of them.

I also emailed two more immigration attorneys/lawyers and hope to meet and/or talk with them next week.

Whats next:


Continue networking, continue talking to immigrants and petitioners, continue mapping.  I feel like I am almost to the point of designing some sort of "process map".  I am still lacking in knowledge about plain language that is used in instructions or descriptions and universal language (such as icons).  I also need to start learning more about web design, coding, and flash.