Directory methodology and data sources

Where the listings come from

Listings begin as rows from a licensed public business-listing dataset covering businesses that describe themselves as immigration-related. We keep each row together with the date we observed it, and we print that date on every page that shows it. When two rows describe the same business, we fold them into one listing and record how many rows were merged, so a listing that looks thin may simply be a business with a single public record.

Before a record is published on this site, GovTrack records the data contract under which the fields may be redistributed, along with any attribution the source requires. If that permission is unclear for a field, the field does not appear.

What the labels mean

• Candidate listing. We found a public listing for the business and it met our basic visibility checks: the source says the business is operating, the address resolved inside the United States, there is a name and at least one way to contact it, and no one has asked us to keep it out of the directory. This is a cautious label. It does not mean GovTrack has confirmed that the firm practices immigration law.
• Immigration practice confirmed. The firm supplied its own details and GovTrack approved them, and the practice was confirmed as handling immigration matters. Confirmed facts always show who supplied them.
• Mixed practice confirmed. The same, for a practice that also handles other areas of law.

What we do not publish

We do not publish, guess, or infer any of the following from a website, a directory, or a business category: attorney names, bar admission or license status, languages spoken, services offered, fees, years of experience, court representation, review sentiment, or client outcomes. Those appear only when the firm supplies them and GovTrack approves the exact wording, and the page then says so.

Ratings and review counts come from the imported Google listing. They are third-party numbers, they carry the date we observed them, and they are never presented as a GovTrack rating, an endorsement, or a measure of legal ability. No score of our own is published in this release.

How listings are ordered

Within a city, an exact city match comes first and then listings are ordered by firm name. Nothing else moves a listing: not a rating, not a review count, not whether the source marks the listing as claimed, and not payment. There is no advertising on this site and no way to buy a position.

What a missing value means

When a field is not shown, or when it reads Not yet provided or Ask this firm, it means nobody has told us that fact and we will not fill the gap for them. It never means the opposite. A firm with no published languages has not told us its languages; it has not told us it has none.

Corrections, claims, and removals

Anyone can ask for a correction or a removal for any listing, and a firm can do the same for its own listing. The corrections and removals page explains what to send and what happens next. Until a request is resolved, we do not change a fact because someone asserts it; we change it when we can see the source.

Contact

Write to directory@govtrack.io for anything this page does not cover.