A client asked us to develop a website to help users prepare their US immigration applications. US Immigration applications are complex, requiring common information at multiple locations in multiple forms. A user is further confounded with a myriad of forms and a user is unaware of which forms they need to submit for their particular case.
The website was designed to enable users to take a screening test and know the forms required for their particular case. A screening questionnaire was designed which would enable the user to provide the required information using simple radio button selections
The system based on the screening test decided the forms required for the user’s specific case. Most cases require multiple forms to be filed. Several of these forms have common information in them – normally information regarding the Petitioner and the Beneficiary, which is duplicated at several locations in the multiple forms.
The benefit of the website was to provide an easy way for the user to provide answers to the required information. Easy to understand questionnaires with help were designed to take the required information for form generation. A user could partially fill the information, save it and return to complete the information.
To ease the form generation, we gleaned out the common information from the various forms. These were first obtained from the user followed by the remaining specific information required for each form. This enabled that the common information was not required to be entered by the user multiple times. This also reduced the chances of data error which was very common in most immigration applications. Several other checks were introduced to reduce any chances of user errors.
Once all forms information were provided in the questionnaires, the user could generate application form PDFs populated by the information entered by them. These could be printed and filed with the immigration authorities.
