AILALink FAQs
Topics
About AILALink
Subscribing to AILALink
Researching on AILALink
Help and Training
About Fastcase Premium
Disclaimer
About AILALink
What is AILALink?
AILALink is a subscription research database created and maintained by AILA. It is intended to be a one-stop shop for immigration law research.
What resources does AILALink contain?
AILALink contains an electronic copy of most AILA publications, including popular publications such as Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook, AILA’s Immigration Law Practice and Procedure Manual: A “Cookbook” of Essential Practice Materials, Business Immigration: Law and Practice, AILA's Asylum Primer, Immigration Consequences of Criminal Activity, AILA's Toolbox series, and many more.
While AILA publications might be the first resources users think of when they think of AILALink, there are many other resources available as well, including:
- Up-to-date, searchable versions of the INA and the immigration-related portions of the CFR
- BIA/AG/AAO/EOIR Director precedent decisions back through Volume 1
- Selected immigration-related case law
- Memos and letters from the various immigration-related government agencies
- AILA Liaison minutes
- Selected immigration-related reports and practice advisories
- Searchable copies of immigration-related government manuals, including the Foreign Affairs Manual, USCIS Policy Manual, EOIR Policy Manual, and many more
- Copies of AILA Monthly Mailings from 1981-1999
- Included access to the Fastcase Premium case research system
- And more!
How long does it take for books to go up on AILALink after they are published?
To allow time for the coding process and for contractual reasons, books usually go up on AILALink a few months after they are published.
Are there any AILA books that aren't available on AILALink?
There are a few AILA books that are not available on AILALink. These include:
- AILA's Focus on EB-2 and EB-3 Degree Equivalency
- The I-9 and E-Verify Handbook
- The Physician Immigration Handbook
Are previous editions of books available on AILALink?
As a courtesy to subscribers, previous editions of some AILA publications are saved on AILALink. When available, previous editions will remain on AILALink until one year after the release of the new edition of the same publication on AILA Shop and will then be removed from AILALink.
Please note that any notes or bookmarks you make remain tied to the edition of the book that existed when you made your notes or bookmarks, so please update notes and bookmarks accordingly when new editions come out.
Is AILALink a case research system?
AILALink does have a “Court and Administrative Decisions” section. This section contains BIA/AG/AAO/EOIR Director precedent decisions going all the way back to Volume 1, as well as selected immigration-related Supreme Court and circuit court cases and a selection of BALCA cases. Since (other than the BIA/AG/AAO/EOIR Director precedent decisions) these are selected cases only, we do not recommend that AILALink itself be the principal source for your case research.
However, every AILAlink subscription comes bundled with a subscription to Fastcase Premium, which is a comprehensive case research system containing federal court cases, BIA decisions, state case law, and five immigration-related administrative databases (AAO, BALCA, DOL ALJ and ARB, and OCAHO).
Is AILALink a forms management program?
No, AILALink is a research database and does not have a forms management component.
Subscribing to AILALink
How much does an AILALink subscription cost?
Please see our pricing information on our AILA.org website
Do you offer short-term subscriptions?
Yes, subscriptions are available in increments of three months, six months, or 12 months. Please see our pricing information for more details.
Is it possible to get a free trial of AILALink?
Yes, please contact us at ailalink@aila.org if you would like to sign up for a 30-day trial. No credit card information is required.
Does AILALink offer IP access for academic law libraries?
Yes, please contact us at ailalink@aila.org for more information on subscriptions for libraries.
May I share an AILALink account with others?
An AILALink account provides access to AILALink for one individual user. Firms or organizations that wish to provide AILALink access to multiple people should purchase a multi-user subscription, which provides a separate AILALink account for each individual included on the subscription. Please see our pricing information for more details.
May I share content from AILALink with others?
The contents available on AILALink are copyrighted by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) unless otherwise indicated. All rights are reserved by AILA, and content may not be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, published, or transferred in any form or by any means, except with the prior written permission of AILA, or as indicated below. No copyright is claimed on unaltered U.S. government materials. Copyright infringement is a violation of federal law subject to criminal and civil penalties.
Any reprinting of any content on AILALink (including reposting of AILALink content on a private website) is by permission only. Reprint permission can be obtained from AILA. E-mail your request to books@aila.org.
Subscribers to AILALink may download or print pages or other content for their own use or for their client’s use, consistent with the mission and purpose of AILALink and consistent with the license agreement. However, no part of such content may be otherwise or subsequently reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, published, or transferred in any form or by any means, except with the prior written permission of, and with express attribution to AILA.
Researching on AILALink
How do I browse a book on AILALink?
Each book has a landing page that lists the chapters in the book as well as any appendices. You can use the landing page to see which chapters or appendices are of interest to you.
What options do I have for searching on AILALink?
There are five different ways to search through AILALink. You can find the five different search tabs by clicking on the "Search" button in the blue navigation menu at the top of AILALink. The five tabs are:
- Advanced Search: Here you can craft searches using precise search terms and filter your search by document type.
- Boolean Search: Here you can use Boolean operators to tailor your search even further. For example, you can use the Single Character Wildcard operator "?" and search for "wom?n" to bring up results with both the word "woman" and the word "women." This search tab contains a chart explaining which Boolean operators to use when.
- INA/CFR Search: Here you can search for an INA, CFR, or U.S. Code citation to quickly read the relevant section of law.
- Find a Case: On this search tab, you can search for a case by case name or by citation.
- Saved Searches: You have the option to save any search you run on any of the four search tabs described above by clicking on "Save Search" under the "Manage Search" menu. To run a saved search again, use the "Saved Searches" tab. Please note that the "Saved Searches" tab is not available when using an IP subscription.
I ran a search and pulled up a result, but the document is very long (for example, a book chapter). How do I find my search result within the document?
You can easily find where your search term is located within a long document by using the "next match" and "previous match" buttons. This is a set of two buttons that look like small green arrows located in the menu on the right side of your screen, right below the "toggle highlights" button. Using the "next match" button will jump you to each new instance of your search term, which will be highlighted on the page. "Previous match" will allow you to jump backwards to find search terms earlier in your document. (You can turn off the highlights if you wish by using the "toggle highlights" button.)
I used the index of a book on AILAlink to find a specific page number I want to go to. How do I go to that page?
As an example, let's say that you use the index of the sixth edition of Representing Clients in Immigration Court to look up expert witnesses, and you see that this topic is covered on pages 495-96. Go to the landing page of the book and you will see that each chapter has the page numbers that it spans listed under the chapter name.
You will see that pages 495-96 are found in Chapter 13. Open up Chapter 13. You can then do a Ctrl + F search (or a Command +F search on an Apple computer) for the words page 495 to quickly jump down to that specific page.
The subject matter index for the 17th edition of Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook contains hyperlinks, so for this book, you can just click on the page number you want to go to and you will automatically be taken to that page.
Can I add notes and bookmarks in AILALink?
Yes. When looking at any HTML-coded document in AILALink, you can use the button that looks like a notepad with a plus sign, found in the menu running down the right side of the screen, to add a note.
Use the button that looks like a flag in the top right corner to add a bookmark to a whole document. You can also add a bookmark to specific page within a book chapter by clicking on the blue bubble around the page number.
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You can edit the names of your notes and bookmarks.
You can also add the notes and bookmarks you create to folders to keep them organized.
You can find all the notes, bookmarks, and folders you have created by clicking on the applicable buttons in the blue navigation menu along the top of the screen.
Please note that at this time, you cannot add a note or bookmark to a PDF document in AILALink. Notes and bookmarks are not able to be used when accessing AILALink via a library's IP subscription.
Can I use AILALink to check to see whether a case is still good law?
AILALink itself does not contain a feature to check to see whether a case is still good law.
However, Fastcase Premium, which comes bundled with every AILALink subscription, does contain a feature called Authority Check, which displays a hyperlinked list of later citing cases to let you see when your case has been cited and how it has been treated. Authority Check uses language-processing algorithms to identify negative signal information in the citations to your case in later citing cases. Please note that Authority Check does not run on administrative decisions, and that neither Fastcase nor AILA holds Authority Check to be a complete replacement for Shepard’s (which is a trademark of RELX) or KeyCite (which is a trademark of West Publishing Corporation).
For more information about Authority Check, please see the "About Fastcase Premium" section of these FAQs.
Can I print documents from AILALink and Fastcase Premium?
Yes, you can print documents from AILALink and from Fastcase Premium without charge.
Can I change my display settings within AILALink?
For individual subscribers, you can click on the dropdown arrow next to your name on the "Account" button in the blue navigation menu along the top of the page to access your settings page. On the settings page, you can change your font size, choose how footnotes are displayed, change the number of search results you see per page, and more.
Help and Training
Do you offer training on AILALink?
Yes, we offer a monthly webinar training. Please see our training page to view details on when the next monthly training will be and to sign up.
If you have a question about AILALink and would like to chat one-on-one with our attorney-editor, you can also sign up for AILALink Office Hours (fifteen-minute time slots via Zoom).
Whom should I contact if I have a question about AILALink?
Please contact us at ailalink-trainings@aila.org if you have any questions about AILALink.
About Fastcase Premium
What is Fastcase Premium?
Fastcase Premium is a case research system that comes bundled with every AILALink subscription. Fastcase Premium is where you can turn if you need to do comprehensive case research. Fastcase Premium also contains statutes and regulations.
What resources does Fastcase Premium contain?
- Federal court database including 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.
- BIA/AG/AAO/EOIR Director Precedent Decisions (I&N Dec.) going back to Volume 8
- Five administrative databases curated especially for AILALink subscribers: AAO decisions, BALCA decisions, OCAHO decisions, DOL ALJ decisions, and DOL ARB decisions
- Full U.S. Code
- Full Code of Federal Regulations
- State court case database
- State statutes and regulations
How can I access the administrative databases on Fastcase Premium?
On the Fastcase Premium home screen, click on the button that says "Jurisdictions & Sources."
On the screen that comes up, find the "Admin. Ops." section. Click the triangle next to "Federal" under the "Admin. Ops." section. A menu will appear with the choices "US" and "Fed. Cir." Click the triangle next to "US." You will then be able to select one or more of the available administrative databases, including the five administrative databases curated especially for AILALink subscribers: AAO decisions, BALCA decisions, OCAHO decisions, DOL ALJ decisions, and DOL ARB decisions
What is Authority Check?
Fastcase Premium contains a feature called Authority Check, which displays a hyperlinked list of later citing cases to let you see when your case has been cited and how it has been treated. You can open Authority Check by opening a case, finding the flag icon above the text of your case, and clicking on the flag icon.
When you click on the flag icon, the Authority Check panel will appear to the left of the text of your case. Later citing cases are listed in the Authority Check panel.
Authority Check uses language-processing algorithms to identify negative signal information in the citations to a case in later citing cases. If Authority Check has found negative signal information about your case, the flag icon above the text of the case will be solid red in color.
Later citing cases in which Authority Check found negative treatment will show first in the list of Authority Check results.
Please note that Authority Check does not run on administrative decisions, and that neither Fastcase nor AILA holds Authority Check to be a complete replacement for Shepard’s (which is a trademark of RELX) or KeyCite (which is a trademark of West Publishing Corporation).
Where should I turn if I have questions about Fastcase Premium?
Fastcase Premium has a live chat feature where you can chat with a Fastcase representative if you have any questions.
You can also send an email to support@fastcase.com.
Fastcase also has a user guide available.
Disclaimer
Information found on AILALink is not legal advice. Materials found on AILALink are not a substitute for independent legal advice based on a thorough review and analysis of the facts of each individual case, or for independent research based on statutory and regulatory authorities; case law; policy guidance; and, for procedural issues, federal government websites. Any opinions in materials found on AILALink are the opinions of the author and not of AILA. Information on how to use AILALink provided by any representative of AILA does not constitute legal advice.