BYU Continuing Education has launched a new Fundamentals of Immigration Law course designed to help people legally assist immigrants and refugees through the accreditation process.
The course is the result of a collaboration between BYU Continuing Education, the BYU Office of Belonging, the No More a Stranger Foundation and the BYU Law Community Legal Clinic. BYU Continuing Education Associate Dean Carolyn Andrews partnered with Office of Belonging Vice President Carl Hernandez to expand the university’s immigration initiative to the world.
When Hernandez became vice president, immigration was one of his key initiatives. Asking, “How do we get this out to the world?” they turned to Continuing Education — a program accessible to all ages, all over the world.
“We just kind of tag-teamed and took what he had already done, but made it so that we could extend it out to the world,” Andrews said.
For Andrews, the project carried personal meaning. As a Canadian who went through the U.S. immigration process while as a BYU student, she said she developed deep empathy for those navigating the system — especially those facing language or financial barriers.
“It was very challenging,” Andrews said. “I was an English speaker, but try going through that without speaking the language very well, or not at all.”
Andrews said her own experience helped her recognize how important accessible legal guidance can be.
“If I had something like this when I was going through it, it would have been really, really helpful,” Andrews said.
The idea for the course began at an early morning university conference breakfast in August 2022, where Hernandez, Andrews, BYU Continuing Education legal counsel Erin Cranor and former Dean Lee Glines discussed the vision. The conversation continued for nearly two years before the team decided to make it a reality.
“For two years, it was just conversations of, ‘We need to do this.’ And then last August is when we said, ‘You know what? Now’s the time. Let’s do it,’” Andrews explained.
After deciding to move forward, the team looked at existing efforts by the Office of Belonging, the BYU Law Community Legal Clinic and the No More a Stranger Foundation to identify where Continuing Education could fill gaps.
No More a Stranger, a foundation advocating for immigrant, migrant and refugee communities, had already developed an eight-module training program in immigration law for its volunteers. Scott Goodwin, BYU’s director of Belonging Experiential Learning initiatives, stated that the team used the foundation's content as a foundation to expand the training for a broader audience.
“I really caught that vision, and I thought, ‘What a great opportunity at BYU to sort of harness the love that so many students have to help people around the world, and give them the tools to be able to do that,'” Goodwin said.
BYU Continuing Education instructional designer Jeremiah Baker led the professional development team that built the course. Using No More a Stranger Foundation's materials, Baker enhanced the curriculum to make it more interactive and engaging.
“I redesigned the content, designed graphics for it and created different videos and interactive activities that students could do so that they could actually engage with the content,” Baker said. “And each week we would meet and make sure the content was represented legally correct.”
The Fundamentals of Immigration Law course includes two parts: a fundamentals course and a hands-on practicum. The lessons and clinic practice provides the first steps in becoming partially accredited representatives through the U.S. Department of Justice.
The first course features eight modules, each with seven lessons, providing a comprehensive overview of everything related to immigration law in the United States. After passing a final assessment, students advance to the practicum course, where they apply what they’ve learned by working with the No More a Stranger Foundation clinic.
“Once they’ve done that first course, they actually get to work on actual case studies with actual people who are going through the immigration process,” Baker said.
Students have six months to complete the first course, but it is self-paced, allowing students to work at their own speed.
During development, Goodwin and the Office of Belonging also worked to integrate gospel-centered themes into the material.
“[We] integrated these themes from the Office of Belonging, so that students would recognize both parts: the legal part and also the covenant belonging that is focused on in the Office of Belonging,” Baker said.
The course is intended for volunteers, aspiring legal professionals or anyone interested in helping their community.
Currently, more than 900 people have expressed interest in taking the course. However, course creators suspect that once the public receives more details, the admission rate will be lower.
“There are more people interested in this course than I think possibly any other course that Continuing Education has done,” Goodwin said. “I think there’s just a lot of people right now who want to be able to help their neighbors.”
Participants can start enrolling in the online course for $995, and course one is now available. For more information on the course, visit the Fundamentals of Immigration Law Course page.