Unitarian Universalist Refugee and Immigrant Services and Education
What We Do
Legal Services
UURISE provides low-cost and no-cost immigration legal services to help clients access the protections and benefits available under current immigration laws.
UURISE provides no-cost CARE (Connections / Advocacy / Resource Navigation / and Emergency Safety Planning for Immigrants) services to individuals and families.
UURISE responds to the needs of a wide variety of communities and partners by providing services and resources designed to support and further justice for immigrants.
UURISE provides low-cost and no-cost immigration legal services to help clients access the protections and benefits available under current immigration laws.
UURISE professional legal staff provides one-on-one counseling and representation that always starts with a comprehensive consultation to assess current immigration status and potential immigration relief. In the community, UURISE hosts group workshops to provide no-cost assistance for naturalization and DACA renewals.
Immigration legal services
We would love to help you with your immigration legal needs. Our services include:
Consultations
Family Petitions
DACA Renewals
Adjustment of Status
Work Permit Renewals & Replacements
Consular Processing
Advance Parole
Waivers
Naturalization & Citizenship
Parole in Place
Green Card Renewals & Replacements
TPS
FOIAs (obtaining government records)
Removal of Conditions of Conditional Green Card
Services for Victims of Domestic Violence & Other Crimes: VAWA, U-Visa, T-Visa
Accessing services
Services are available by appointment only.
Service locations
UURISE Main Office 1600 Buena Vista Dr Vista, CA 92081
UURISE Chula Vista Satellite Office 970 Broadway, Suite 101 Chula Vista, CA 91911
Justice Portal / Ventanilla de Justicia 2201 Lawton Ave San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Services for victims
North County Family Justice Center / One Safe Place 1050 Los Vallecitos Blvd San Marcos, CA 92069
Additional options
Services offered remotely via Zoom Video Communications.
UURISE provides no-cost CARE (Connections, Advocacy, Resource Navigation, and Emergency Safety Planning for Immigrants) services to individuals and families.
CARE services start with a simple screening that helps identify and assess current needs related to food security, housing, safety, and health. Using this screening as a guide, UURISE provides:
Connections to organizations, providers, or programs that can help clients meet needs and reach goals.
Advocacy with and on behalf of clients to a third party in support of immigration needs.
Resource Navigation to help clients access services and resources that won’t have a negative impact on their immigration goals or status.
Emergency Safety Planning for Immigrants (ESPI) which includes an assessment, tools, and a plan to help individuals and families avoid catastrophic loss in the event of detention or deportation.
UURISE responds to the needs of a wide variety of communities and partners by providing services and resources designed to support and further justice for immigrants.
Our services include:
Community Education
For immigrant communities, UURISE provides education services on a variety of issues related to immigration and human rights, including possible protections available to those without a pathway.
Free information forums include topics such as:
Know Your Rights
Pathways to a Green Card
Emergency Safety Planning for Immigrants (ESPI)
Naturalization and Citizenship
Partner Education & Resources
For partner organizations*, UURISE provides no-cost and low-cost trainings, workshops, presentations, and technical assistance to help our partners best support their immigrant and mixed-status clients, community, and constituents.
Current presentation topics include:
Know Your Rights as Community Partners
Possible Immigration Relief for Victims
Current Immigration Laws, Policies, & Enforcement
Current trainings & workshops include:
Resource for Educators – UURISE Educators Toolkit
How to access and use UURISE’s Educators Toolkit. Designed for education administrators, faculty, and staff of K-12, and higher education institutions.
Train the Trainer for Emergency Safety Planning for Immigrants (ESPI)
How to access UURISE’s Emergency Safety Planning for Immigrants (ESPI) tools and provide ESPI services to your organization’s or community group’s clients, community, and constituents.
Current Technical Assistance offering:
Technical Assistance for Emergency Safety Planning (ESPI) Services
One-on-one or group support, guidance, and supplemental training for people and institutions who have completed Train the Trainer and are providing ESPI services or are preparing to provide ESPI services as a part of a community group or organisation.
We also provide our partners access to digital tools and can offer technical assistance to help them implement these tools as a no-cost service to their own clientele/community.
UURISE helps congregations and small group ministries deepen and broaden their work on immigrant justice through education, discernment, and technical assistance (TA). We work with them to develop or deepen an anti-racist/anti-oppressive perspective. To be of service to the immigrant community, congregations (particularly those that are majority-white) must work to recognize and dismantle privilege and oppression. This work facilitates moving away from a savior mindset and toward a collective liberation framework. This process helps congregations cultivate humility, embrace listening to and trusting impacted communities, and move toward partnering with the people in their communities already doing the work.
Our Faithful Justice model is designed to do more than train a group of people in how to advocate for others: it is intended to create radically welcoming, resilient, relational spaces that serve our congregations and their wider communities far beyond the immigration work that might be their initial goal.
To accomplish this, we can offer a variety of tools, resources, and connections with partners in order to facilitate learning, cultural change within congregations, and increased capacity for immigrant justice work.
Opportunities for discernment and technical assistance include:
Sanctuary and immigrant accompaniment
Developing accountable community partnerships
Developing and maintaining anti-racist/anti-oppression based immigrant justice programs
Justice Portals / Ventanillas de Justicia where UURISE leverages technology and relationships to bring immigration-related services to congregations and their partners in underserved areas
Faithful Justice services also include:
Worship & lifespan Religious Exploration (RE) resources
Pulpit supply
Congregational generosity
Getting in touch
We would love to work with you toward justice and equity.
To request an educational forum, presentation or training, or begin a conversation, please contact us using the form below:
