Writing Style Guide

For our purposes, we will utilize apostrophes to indicate possession. For example, if Mr. Banks is the owner of a company, then we will refer to it as “Mr. Banks’ company.”

You will note how, because Mr. Banks’ name ends with an S, we place the apostrophe after the S and do not add an S after. This is in contrast to how we would write the phrase above if Mr. Carrera owned the company. In that instance, we would write “Mr. Carrera’s company,” where the apostrophe is followed by an S to indicate possession.

If you have a name that ends with the letter Z, you may either end with an apostrophe or a letter S to indicate possession. Both are technically correct, and you may be advised to do one or the other by your attorney.

The rules of capitalization work differently in English than they do in other languages. For the most part, you will not be capitalizing nouns unless they refer specifically to a name or place.

You will generally NOT need to capitalize the “the” or “a” preceding a name. Thus,

When it comes to degrees, you will want to capitalize the degree when it’s referring to a specific degree. If it is referring to the degree more generally, then you will leave it uncapitalized.

Some words that commonly get capitalized incorrectly are:

These words should not be capitalized, since they are referring to a general concept rather than a specific place or organization.

Commas can get a little complicated, but there are some simple rules you can follow to make things easier.

As covered in the “Commas” section of this style guide, conjunctions used to separate two independent clauses must be preceded by a comma.

Coordinating conjunctions cannot be used at the beginning of sentences. However, conjunctive adverbs can.

You may also use subordinating conjunctions to begin a sentence with a dependent clause. However, this must be followed by an independent clause for it to be a complete sentence.

In the example above, the bolded word is the subordinating conjunction, and the underlined phrase is the independent clause.

Leaving a sentence with a dangling participle can sound informal, so it is best to change your word order to avoid dangling participles all together.

If you are referring to a book or magazine, its name will be in italics. If the client has written an article in magazine or a chapter of a book and you would like to talk about it in the PSL, you should italicize the name of the magazine or book but put the title of the article or chapter in quotations.

Quotations should be utilized for direct quotes from any source as well as for any article or book chapter.

Quotations should always go outside of any punctuation except for colons and semicolons.

You will use United States and U.S. at different times throughout the support letter. United States should be used when you are referring to the nation as a noun. U.S. should be used when you are using it as an adjective.

In the example above, the first instance of “United States” is talking about the United States as a noun and in the second, it is used to describe “workers” as an adjective.

When using “U.S.” you should always use periods to separate U and S so that it is written as “U.S.” instead of “US.”

Our citations are standardized to correspond to match the Table of Contents (TOC). When you are citing something from the TOC, you should refer to it as an “Exhibit.” Exhibit numbers are sequentially numbered so your citations should look something like this:

Exhibit 1, Exhibit 2, Exhibit 3, etc.

The only exception to this is the Substantial Merit and National Importance section. In this section, exhibit numbers are subdivided. They’ll look something like this:

Exhibit 12.1, Exhibit 12.2, Exhibit 12.3, etc.

You’ll note that the examples above are italicized. This is because all of our citations must be italicized, so the USCIS officer who reads the PSL can clearly see where the citations are located.

Citations should be placed at the end of the paragraph where the reference is made. Say that you are discussing a client’s work history and you are referring to their CV, which is Exhibit 17. Your citation would look something like this:

If you have a citation following a bulleted list or a quote, the citation should be in line with the list or quote rather than the paragraph that follows. Both of the following examples are acceptable.

Please refrain from using informal language in any writing that you do for the firm. This includes contractions, informal word choice, and incomplete sentences.

When you introduce a recommender or an interested party, you will typically follow the Table of Contents with regards to their name and position at their company or relevant education.

For example, if the TOC states the following:

Letter of Recommendation from Dr. Adriana Vasquez, PhD in Psychology and Owner of Evergreen Psychological Practice in Orlando, Florida, and CV.

You will introduce the recommender as such:

Dr. Adriana Vasquez, PhD in Psychology and Owner of Evergreen Psychological Practice in Orlando, FL, (…)

Please note that it is not necessary to include “the” or “a” before the person’s title.

Our goal is to make our clients sound impressive and capable. We want to avoid language that makes it seem like they haven’t led projects or created things throughout their career.

Your sentences should be short so that they are as clear as possible. Remember that the USCIS officer has a limited time to read each case, so clarity and brevity are incredibly important.

When you are discussing the Petitioner and what they will do, be firm about their future. Stay away from words like “has the potential to,” “can,” and “may.”

Titles are an important part of writing a good PSL. Because our clients read our PSLs, it is important to make sure that you are referring to them and their recommenders correctly.

Unless a client specifically requests it, we do not refer to anyone as “Mrs.” You should only use “Mr.” and “Ms.” The sole exception to this is when a client has a PhD or an MD. Then you will refer to them as “Dr.”

A widow is the last line of a paragraph left by itself at the top of a page. An orphan is the first line of a paragraph left by itself at the bottom of a page.

You’ll see orphans most often at the start of a new section in the PSL with section headers. To fix it, move the section header to the following page.

Widows are most often found at the end of a PSL when the last few lines (or even just the attorney’s signature) are left on their own page. To fix this, move the last few lines of the support letter to the last page.

Take a look at the examples below.

The examples above demonstrate how to fix an orphaned heading.

The examples above demonstrate how to fix a widowed line.