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Explain status and timeline to a client

Turns a case posture into a plain-language client letter (what you have today, what you can and cannot do, who acts next), using only the dates you verified, with every unchecked processing time left as a visible blank.

About 12 minstarterImmigration, Solo / small firm

Your prompt4,512 characters

Still to fill in: Where the case stands, Timing data you verified yourself, Who is reading this

RoleYou are the lawyer who takes the anxious Sunday-night call. You have learned that clients do not need the procedural history: they need to know whether they can take the job, book the flight, and stay. You write so a nervous non-lawyer understands it on one read, you never state a processing time you did not verify, and you say plainly which things are outside anyone's control rather than implying you can make them happen.What I needA letter to my client explaining where the case stands and what happens next, pitched to Who is reading this. Use only the dates and durations I give you.InputsWhere the case stands: Where the case stands Timing data I verified myself: Timing data you verified yourself Who is reading this: Who is reading this What the client is planning: What the client is planning What the client asked me: What the client askedHow to work this1. Open with what is true today: status, work authorization, travel authorization, and the date each expires. Then answer everything in What the client asked, in the client's own order, each starting with a direct yes, no, or "not until X happens." 2. Use only dates and durations that appear in Where the case stands or Timing data you verified yourself. Where a number is missing, write "I am checking the current processing time and will confirm; please do not plan around an estimate." Never supply a range from memory or from what is typical. 3. Sort the rest into three lists: what you can do now, what to avoid until a named event, what to call me about first, and check each item in What the client is planning against the posture, saying directly what it would do to the case. 4. Give every step an actor and a trigger: who files, who waits, what starts the clock. "The case is pending" is not a step. Define each term at first use in one clause, or avoid the term. Close with what the client does and by when.Close with these four sections, every time, without being askedThese four go to me, in a block headed "Not for the client." They never appear in the letter. Assumptions I made. Marked [verify] or [safe], including every place I gave you no date and you left a blank rather than filling it. Where this is weakest. The two or three sentences this client is most likely to read as a promise or as permission. Quote them. What only you can decide. Options with tradeoffs, not flags. At minimum: give the full picture including what could go wrong (they can plan, but a worried client may act on a risk that has not happened) or cover only the next step (calmer and shorter, but they may make a travel or job decision you never warned them about); and send this in writing (a record, and it can be forwarded to an employer or a relative) or say it by phone and follow with three lines (safer, but nothing to point back to). What would make this materially better. Ranked by impact: the receipt notices, a processing time checked today, the I-94 record, and what the client actually plans to do in the next 90 days.Output formatA client letter in plain language, under 600 words, in the order set above and ending with what I need from you and by when. Then the four sections in a separate block marked "Not for the client."Never do this- If this letter would fit any client with any pending case, it is too generic. It should read as though written for this file alone. - No hedging filler. Cut "arguably," "it should be noted," and "it depends." Do not tell the client to consult an attorney. I am their attorney. - Never state a processing time, fee, interview wait, or priority date from memory. If it is not in my inputs, leave a marked blank. Any legal rule you mention comes from my inputs or is marked [UNVERIFIED - check before sending]. - Where you do not know how long something takes, say so in the letter and tell me what to look up. Do not smooth over the gap with a comforting sentence. - Do not pad. A one-issue update is four paragraphs. Length is not value, and a long letter to an anxious client gets skimmed.Before you answer- Does every date and duration trace to my inputs, or is it a marked blank? - Does any sentence read as a promise about timing or outcome? - Did I answer the client's own questions before explaining anything else? - Would this letter fit another client's file? It should not.

Adds driver's-seat tunes: options instead of answers, questions before work, every citation flagged. Your values come with it.

Pressure-test it

Makes the AI switch hats and attack its own answer.

Everything in this letter is background except the sentences that decide whether to book the flight or take the job. Read the letter as the client whose plans hang on it. Go through line by line and mark every sentence you would read as permission to do something, every sentence that sounds like a date you can book around, and every place you would still have to email the lawyer to find out what to do. Then rewrite those sentences so a worried person cannot misread them.

Go deeper

Pushes the work further once the basics are right.

Clients lose the letter and keep the phone. Produce the two follow-ons: a date calendar pulling every deadline and expiry from the letter, each with a reminder two weeks out and the person responsible; and a three-line text message I can send the client the day the next notice arrives, written so it answers the question they will ask before they ask it.

Before you run it

What to gather first

Receipt notices: form, receipt number, filing date, service center
The processing time and any priority date you looked up today, with the date checked
The client's actual questions, in their own words
What the client plans to do in the next 90 days: travel, job change, marriage, moving
The client's language, reading level, and how they prefer to receive things

Watch for

USCIS processing times, fees, interview waits, and visa bulletin dates change without notice and differ by office and form type. This prompt leaves them blank on purpose. Do not let anything fill them, and never send a letter with an unverified number in it.
A client letter that sounds like a promise becomes one. Read every future-tense sentence for an implied guarantee about timing or outcome before it goes out.
Travel, job changes, and marriage can each damage a pending case. Confirm what the client is actually planning before sending, not after.
Confirm who else has access to the channel you send this through. Employers, family members, and former partners often read a client's email.
Plain language is not permission to simplify the law. Check that any shortened explanation is still accurate, especially on travel, unlawful presence, and job changes.

What comes back

A plain-language client letter under 600 words: where you stand today with expiry dates; the client's own questions answered in their order; three lists (what you can do now, what to avoid until a named event, what to call about first); what happens next with an actor and a trigger for each step; what is outside anyone's control; and an action list with dates. Every unverified timing figure appears as a visible blank. Followed by a separate "Not for the client" block with Assumptions / Where this is weakest / What only you can decide / What would make this better.

See an example of what you’ll get

Dear Mr. Adeyemi, Where you stand today. You are in valid H-1B status through August 14, 2027, and you can keep working for Kestrel Systems on that status right now. Your green card application (Form I-485) and your work permit application (Form I-765) were both filed on January 8, 2026, and USCIS has receipted both. You did your biometrics appointment on February 20. Nothing about your ability to work or stay changes while these are pending. Your questions. *"Can I go to my sister's wedding in Lisbon in June?"* Not yet, and please do not book a non-refundable ticket. Once you filed the I-485, leaving the country without a travel document called advance parole can be treated as abandoning that application. We filed the advance parole request with your package on January 8 and it is still pending. I checked the current processing time on February 24 and USCIS is showing 6 to 9 months for this form, which would put approval somewhere between July and October. That is later than June. There are two things we can do: wait and see whether it arrives early, or file a request to expedite based on the wedding, which requires documentation and is granted at USCIS's discretion. Tell me by March 15 and I will start the expedite paperwork. *"When can I stop working for this company?"* Not yet. Your right to be in the United States right now comes from the H-1B that Kestrel sponsors. There is a point in this process where you gain more freedom to change jobs. Whether you have reached it turns on how long the I-485 has been pending and on whether the new job is in the same or a similar occupation, two things I have to check against your file before I can answer. We are not there yet. Call me before you accept anything, not after. *"Why did my friend who filed later already get her work card?"* Different applications are handled by different USCIS offices with different queues, and the same form can move at very different speeds depending on where it lands. Her timeline tells us nothing about yours. What you can do now. Work for Kestrel. Move apartments in April, and tell me the same week you know the new address. There is a legal deadline for reporting an address change and it is short, but I am not going to give you a number from memory: I am confirming the exact reporting deadline and will send it to you before you move. Please do not rely on a figure you find online. Renew your driver's license normally. What to avoid until then. Do not leave the United States. Do not accept a new job. Do not let your passport expire. Call me first about. Any international travel. Any job offer. Any letter from USCIS, even one that looks like junk mail. What happens next. USCIS decides the work permit and the travel document. We are waiting, they are acting. When either arrives, I will email you the same day. Current posted times as of February 24: work permit 4.5 to 7 months; travel document 6 to 9 months. These are not promises and USCIS changes them without notice. What we do not control. How long any of this takes, or the order the decisions come in. What I need from you. By March 15: tell me whether you want me to file the expedite request for June travel. --- NOT FOR THE CLIENT Assumptions I made. That the H-1B validity date you gave me is from the current approval notice and not the prior one [verify]. That no I-140 portability milestone has been reached. I deliberately did not describe the job-change rule in detail because you did not give me the underlying dates [verify before he gets that offer]. I left one timing blank on purpose: the address-change reporting deadline in the "what you can do now" list. Look it up before this goes out; it is the shortest clock in the letter and the only one that runs on him rather than on USCIS. Every other figure came from your February 24 check and nothing came from memory. Where this is weakest. Two sentences. "Somewhere between July and October" is the one he will treat as a date and plan around. Consider cutting the projection entirely and giving only the posted range. And "There is a point in this process where you gain more freedom to change jobs" will make him research it himself and reach a confident wrong answer by Thursday. What only you can decide. *How much of the downside goes in writing.* This draft gives him the whole picture: that the expedite is discretionary, that the job-change freedom is not available yet, that the projection is not a date. He can plan around it, and a worried engineer who now knows an expedite exists will email you about it weekly until June. The alternative is a letter covering only the next sixty days: calmer, shorter, and it leaves him free to accept the competitor's offer in the fall having never been warned. *Written or spoken.* Sent as written it is a record, and it will be forwarded, to his wife certainly, to a recruiter probably, possibly to someone at Kestrel who will read "there is a point where you gain more freedom to change jobs" as notice that he is leaving. Delivered by phone with a three-line follow-up, nothing is quotable and nothing is provable later. He researches everything, which argues for written; the forwarding risk is real and it is yours to accept, not mine. What would make this materially better. (1) The I-140 approval notice and its filing date, which decides the job-change answer. (2) Confirmation of whether the advance parole was filed concurrently or later. (3) His actual wedding dates, so an expedite request has a documented event attached.

Why this prompt is built the way it is

## Framework 1. **Today first, then their questions in their order.** Status, work authorization, travel authorization, and expiry dates before anything about the future. Each answer opens with yes, no, or "not until X." 2. **No number from memory.** Every date and duration traces to the lawyer's inputs, or it is a visible blank the lawyer fills. This is the whole discipline of the prompt. 3. **Three lists, and the plans tested against them.** What you can do now, what to avoid until a named event, what to call me about first, with travel, job changes, and marriage each checked against the posture and answered directly. 4. **Actors, triggers, and plain words.** Every step names who acts and what starts the clock; every term is defined at first use in one clause or avoided. An anxious client skims a long letter.