San Diego Immigration Law Office APC
Privacy Policy
Last Updated: June 2024
INTRODUCTION
San Diego Immigration Law Office APC (“SDILO”) wants to ensure our clients, employees, and affected data subjects are informed about the security and use of the personal information that we receive and process on your behalf.
Accordingly, this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) is intended to inform you about SDILO’s privacy practices. This Privacy Policy describes how SDILO collects, uses, and shares your personal information, and the measures taken to ensure its security.
PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOW WE USE IT
SDILO collects certain personal information about you and, if required, your family members and employer for the purposes of providing immigration consulting and legal services. We are not able to provide you the services requested if we are not provided with all relevant personal information. We set forth below the purposes for which personal information is used and examples of the types of information that may be required.
By providing your telephone number to us you consent to receive SMS messages from us at no cost, except as according to your phone carrier's terms and conditions. The SMS messages you will receive from us will only pertain to your individual case and will vary in consistency as well as content. We do not sell or disclose any personal information such as phone numbers or SMS consent with any 3rd parties for any purposes.
CLIENT SERVICES
For purposes of providing client services, including the applicable legal services and/or immigration consulting services you request, SDILO collects and process personal information, including, but not limited to, your name, address, email, telephone number, date of birth, marital status, bank details, passport number, social security number, employment history, educational background, and job title and function.
We may obtain the personal information from a number of sources, including, but not limited to, questionnaires and forms you complete, and other information you provide directly to us, including by email or in conversation with our lawyers, consultants and staff. In addition, we may obtain personal information from third-party sources, such as relatives and government agencies. We use this information to provide immigration consulting and legal services, such as: (1) providing legal and consultative advice as to your eligibility to obtain immigration benefits; (2) analyzing, completing, and processing immigration filings and submissions to relevant government agencies; and (3) sending confirmations, invoices, updates, and administrative messages.
INFORMATION REQUESTS AND NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP
If you request information about our services directly or sign-up to receive SDILO’s monthly newsletter or sign-up to participate in SDILO events, you may choose to provide personal information such as your name, address, email address and telephone number. We will use your information to respond to your request.
OTHER USES OF INFORMATION
We may use personal information we collect for other purposes, such as SDILO’s administration, data analytics, and compliance with applicable laws and SDILO’s policies and procedures.
SENSITIVE PERSONAL DATA
Certain categories of personal information may be considered “sensitive” and are subject to a higher level of data protection. These categories may include race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation, physical or mental health or condition, and data relating to offenses, and/or criminal convictions, and biometric data, such as fingerprints, when used to uniquely identify you.
In the context of the services we provide, SDILO collects sensitive personal data when such data is necessary to provide legal or consultative advice as to your eligibility to obtain an immigration benefit or when the local applicable immigration laws would require such data for purposes of preparing an application or petition on your behalf. For instance, we may need to ask whether you have been previously convicted of any criminal offenses, have certain political affiliations, or other personal matters when determining whether said personal information would bar you
from entering the country.
INFORMATION WE COLLECT BY AUTOMATED MEANS
We use cookies and related technologies on our websites and other web-based interfaces to understand how many users visited our sites and the pages they accessed so that we can best tailor our web services to our visitors.
CHILDREN
You must be aged 18 or over to purchase services from us. Our services are not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect any personal information from children for marketing purposes or any other purposes.
COOKIES
Cookies are bits of text that are placed on your computer’s hard drive when you visit certain websites. We may use cookies to tell us, for example, whether you have visited us before or if you are a new visitor and to help us identify site features in which you may have the greatest interest. Cookies may enhance your online experience by saving your preferences while you are visiting a particular site.Most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to be notified when you receive a new cookie, and how to disable existing cookies. Please note, however, that without cookies, you may not be able to take advantage of all our website features.
LOG FILES, USAGE DATA AND IP ADDRESSES
Log files are web server files (containing information such as domain name or IP address, URL, http response code, or the date and duration of your visit) that are automatically created when an Internet user visits a website. An IP address is an identifier that certain electronic devices use to identify and communicate with each other on the Internet. When you visit our website, our servers log your IP address. In combination with other data, this information helps us understand which features are of interest to our visitors and the regions of the world where these visitors are located. In addition, log files help detect disruptions that may interfere with the provision of our website.
INFORMATION WE SHARE
We do not disclose information except as described in this Privacy Policy. We will not sell, share, transfer, rent, use, or distribute your information for purposes other than those disclosed here or unless required by law or as authorized by you. We may share the information you provide to a third party only when appropriate or necessary in connection with the services.
In addition, as part of the immigration consulting and legal services we have been directed to provide, SDILO may disclose personal information to government agencies. We may also share the information with certain service providers we have retained in connection with the services we provide, such as translators, couriers, or other necessary entities. Where we have knowledge that a service provider processes your personal information in a manner contrary to this Privacy Notice, we will take reasonable steps to prevent or stop the processing. In addition, we may disclose information about you: (1) if we are legally required to do so by law or legal process, (2) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity; (3) if necessary to protect the vital interests of any person; or (4) if necessary to protect the rights and property of SDILO, our agents, customers, and others. Lastly, we may share personal information if we do a business deal, involving the sale, or transfer of all or a part of our business or assets,
such as a merger, financing, acquisition, or bankruptcy transaction or proceeding.
HOW WE PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION
We seek to ensure that any personal information that we hold about you is accurate, complete, current and otherwise reliable based on data you provide to us in order for us to render the immigration consulting and legal services. We seek to collect personal information that is adequate, relevant and not excessive for these purposes.We maintain appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect against loss, misuse or unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of personal information.
We retain personal information for only as long as we need it to provide the services you requested, for our own administration and internal purposes, and for any periods that are mandated by law or otherwise agreed to with our clients, after which, we take steps to delete or anonymize the information.
YOUR CHOICES AND RIGHTS
As set out above, SDILO may collect certain information about you in conjunction with providing immigration consulting and legal services or keeping you informed about immigration developments via SDILO’s monthly newsletter. We will respect your decision if at a later time you inform us that you wish to “opt-out” of having your personal information processed. If you opt out, however, we may still use your information to send you non-marketing emails, such as emails about your case and our business dealings with you, if it is necessary to deliver the requested service, or in accordance with the requirements of applicable law.
You may “opt out” of having your information processed by informing us in writing at the address listed in our Contact Information below or, to stop receiving SDILO’s monthly newsletter, by following the instructions contained in the newsletter.
In the event you wish to solely access or correct your information, we will assist you, or provide you directly, where appropriate, with access to your personal information and, as applicable, with the ability to review and correct inaccuracies, delete unnecessary personal information, and receive a copy of your personal information in a structured machine-readable format.
CONTACT INFORMATION
The controller for your personal information is the SDILO office providing the services to you. We welcome any questions or comments you have about this Privacy Policy. You may also write to us at:
San Diego Immigration Law Office APC
1901 First Avenue, Suite 205
San Diego, CA 92101
UPDATES TO OUR PRIVACY NOTICE
This Privacy Notice may be updated periodically without prior notice to you to reflect changes in our information practices. If we make any changes, we will change the Last Updated date above.