What's the Difference Between AILA’s Website, Fastcase, and AILALink/Fastcase Premium?

If you have an immigration law question that you need to research, where should you turn? Learn more about AILA’s online research resources.

 

AILA's Website: AILA.org

 

AILA's website, AILA.org, is a great place to start. Access to the Research Library on AILA.org is one of your key member benefits and consists of over 40,000 immigration-related documents, including federal agency memos, court cases and decisions (published circuit court decisions, Supreme Court decisions, and select unpublished decisions forwarded by AILA members, among others), bills and public laws, legislative analyses and congressional updates, practice advisories, and AILA statements and issue papers. The Research Library also provides a keyword search, topical and type filters, and date filters to meet your research needs. Plus, the My Research feature offers bookmarks, notes, and saved searches to help you easily keep track of and manage your research.

 

Fastcase

 

You can also turn to Fastcase, the AILA member benefit that provides free access to a comprehensive database of federal case law and Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decisions. Fastcase features customized searching and a mobile legal research app. Fastcase provides many resources to help you get started, including online webinar trainings, on-demand tutorials, live help and email support, FAQs, and a downloadable user guide. To learn more, visit AILA's Fastcase page.

 

AILALink

 

For your holistic research needs, AILALink is AILA's fully searchable, web-based immigration law library filled with practical guidance and authoritative resources that are key to the practice of immigration law. Available through flexible subscriptions, AILALink contains both primary and secondary legal resources, including the INA, immigration-related sections of the CFR and the Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM), immigration-related Federal Register rules and notices, immigration-related Supreme Court and circuit court decisions, BIA and Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) decisions, official liaison minutes, agency memoranda and correspondence, and much more. It also provides exclusive access to over 30 of AILA’s books from our intensive, peer-reviewed publishing program, including Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook, which is widely known as the go-to legal reference on U.S. immigration law, and AILA’s Immigration Law Practice & Procedure Manual, which provides the reader with thorough, how-to guidance on preparing and filing many of the more common immigration applications and petitions. Conference handbooks from AILA’s Annual Conference and other conferences hosted by AILA National are also available on AILALink. To learn more about AILALink or to sign up for a complimentary trial subscription, please visit our AILALink informational page.

 

Fastcase Premium

 

Included with an AILALink subscription is access to Fastcase Premium, which includes all of the decisions available through AILA's all-member Fastcase benefit, plus state statutes, state codes, state court opinions, the U.S. Code, and the Code of Federal Regulations. Fastcase Premium also gives you access to five administrative databases containing AAO decisions, BALCA decisions, DOL Administrative Law Judge decisions, DOL Administrative Review Board decisions, and Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) decisions. To learn more, visit AILA's Fastcase page.

 

How To Use These Different Databases

 

As a general rule, you can think of AILA.org as your resource for materials specifically curated for the everyday needs of immigration practitioners, while Fastcase is where you can turn if you need to conduct in-depth federal case law research.

Adding an AILALink subscription with its upgraded access to Fastcase Premium helps you take your research to the next level. You will have searchable access to the INA, CFR, and most AILA publications, as well as access to statutes, codes, and case law from all 50 states and a selection of databases targeted to the immigration practitioner.

 

See the chart below for details on which of our research databases to turn to for specific reference materials.

 

¹Including Supreme Court cases back to 1 U.S. 1, U.S. Courts of Appeals cases back to 1 F.2d 1, and Federal District Court cases back to 1. F. Supp. 1.