CGRS’s Expert Witness Database is available free of charge to all advocates and experts dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers in the United States.

To access the Database, log in to your CGRS account, or register for a new account. Once logged in, you can search the Database here.

When searching, first choose the desired type of expertise. For example, if searching for a country conditions expert, first select “Country Conditions Expert” in the “Type of Expert” field. A field for “Countries of Expertise” will appear. Next, select the desired country or countries from the list, and further narrow your search using the filters.

After carefully reviewing an expert's qualifications, you can contact experts by clicking on "Contact Expert" on the expert's profile. You will then be prompted to select the CGRS case number corresponding the case for which you are looking for an expert. CGRS collects this information for interal tracking and reporting purposes, but it is not shared with the expert.

If you have not submitted a case intake for the case you're contacting the expert about yet, you can do so by clicking on Submit a Case Intake. Once you've done that, your case number will automatically appear in the drop-down list on the Contact Expert page.

After selecting a case number and clicking Contact Expert, you will be redirected to your default email program to email the expert directly.

The definition of an “expert witness” in immigration proceedings is broad. It does not require any specific academic degree or years of a particular type of experience. Per the Federal Rules of Evidence, which are persuasive in immigration court, a person with “scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge” that will help the adjudicator understand the evidence or determine a fact in issue could qualify as an expert. Fed. R. Evid. 702. Expert witnesses can include:

• Country conditions specialists such as scholars, journalists, members of civil society organizations, legal specialists, political analysts, and other individuals with specialized knowledge on particular country conditions or issues impacting asylum seekers (i.e., gender-based violence, gang, religion, political opinion, etc.).
• Mental health experts and forensic medical/physical health experts with the ability to conduct both mental and medical health evaluations, including individuals holding M.D., N.P., and P.A., degrees; and clinicians from the licensed mental health professions (i.e., clinical mental health counseling, clinical social work, marriage and family therapy, clinical and/or counseling psychology, psychiatry, psychiatric nursing).

To register for a clinic or organizational account, first register for a CGRS account by selecting “Organization or clinic providing expert evaluations,” then provide contact information for an individual or general email address at which CGRS staff can contact your clinic. Once registered for an account, select Create Organization/Clinic Profile on the My Account page. The profile creation page will collect more detailed information about the work of your clinic or organization, which will be reviewed by CGRS staff for inclusion in the Database.

CGRS’s Expert Witness Resource Library contains resources intended to support work as an expert witness in immigration proceedings. This includes sample documents to support collaboration with a legal team such as confidentiality agreements and contract paperwork; sample expert declarations, country conditions information, recorded trainings from CGRS and other organizations; and more.

CGRS’s Expert Witness Resource Library is available to all individual experts registered with CGRS. You do not need to be published in the Expert Witness Database to access the Resource Library, but you do need to have a CGRS individual expert account.

To access, log into your CGRS account and navigate to your My Account page, then click on Access the Expert Witness Resource Library.

Yes. For CGRS to publish your profile, you will need to either upload your curriculum vitae (CV) OR provide us with a working link to an online version of your CV.

Please note that advocates are required to submit all documents in immigration proceedings in English or with full and complete English translations. Please fully translate your CV, including the title of publications and the names of organizations you have worked with – even where those titles were originally published in another language.

Yes. Experts supporting asylum applications processed in the Asylum Office typically only provide written declarations and do not have to be located in the United States to do so. In immigration court, the immigration judge in a particular case has the authority to decide whether to allow testimony from a witness who is not physically present in the courtroom, including testimony from experts who are not in the United States. Written and telephonic testimony from experts who are not in the United States can and often is admitted in immigration court.