Professional background
I am a California-licensed clinical psychologist (PSY28494) with more than nine years of clinical experience in high-acuity settings. My day-to-day clinical work has been with people who carry severe trauma, psychiatric decompensation, and the kind of complex post-traumatic presentations that don't fit a textbook. That background sits underneath everything I do in forensic immigration work. My reports document psychological harm for a legal reader, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers and immigration judges, which is a different job than therapy notes do.
The clinical history is straightforward: nine-plus years in high-security settings with serious-mental-illness populations. That experience shapes how I run evaluations. Precise symptom documentation. Validated testing, not impressions. Cultural sensitivity built in, not bolted on. Trauma-informed interview pacing that aims to keep the process from re-traumatizing survivors. Structured reports that show where each finding comes from: the interview, the testing, or the records.
Areas of practice
Right now our focus is immigration psychological evaluations across the full range of humanitarian and defensive relief types:
- Asylum, withholding of removal, and Convention Against Torture (CAT). Documentation of persecution-related trauma, post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and the trauma-related memory problems that can make testimony look inconsistent.
- Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) self-petitions (Form I-360). Documentation of battery or extreme cruelty, with full attention to psychological abuse and coercive control patterns that physical-injury evidence misses.
- U-visa crime victim petitions. Five-factor substantial abuse documentation under 8 Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) 214.14(b)(1).
- T-visa trafficking evaluations. The psychological effects of the coercion and control a survivor reports, including traumatic bonding, with the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II) dissociation scale when dissociative symptoms are part of the picture.
- Extreme hardship waivers (I-601 and I-601A). The psychological impact on the qualifying relative in the separation and relocation scenarios, the health side of the Cervantes-Gonzalez factors.
- Cancellation of removal (EOIR-42B). Exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (LPR) qualifying relatives (ordinary non-permanent-resident cancellation; the VAWA special rule differs).
- N-648 disability waivers. Medical certification asking USCIS for an exception to the naturalization English and civics requirements. Only licensed medical doctors, doctors of osteopathic medicine, or licensed clinical psychologists can sign these.
- Immigration competency evaluations requested by an attorney, documenting the abilities Matter of M-A-M- looks at.
Evaluation methodology
We run a structured standardized battery on every case. The core instruments are the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). Where the referral question calls for it, we add specialized tools: the Dissociative Experiences Scale-II (DES-II) for trafficking cases, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) for N-648 disability waivers, and the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) when the case has malingering exposure. Each report carries a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) diagnostic formulation, a detailed mental status examination, a trauma history timeline, and a description of functional impairment relevant to the questions in the case.
Reports are flat-fee engagements. Standard turnaround is usually 5 to 7 business days. Priority rush is 3 days for an extra 50 percent; emergency rush is 24 hours for an extra 100 percent. Reasonable revisions within the scope of the evaluation are included in every engagement, as is a written addendum when a USCIS request for evidence asks for more on issues the report addressed.
Credentials
| Credential | Detail |
|---|---|
| Doctoral degree | Doctor of Psychology, Clinical Psychology |
| State license | California Board of Psychology, PSY28494 |
| NPI | 1821420217 (Psychologist, Clinical, taxonomy 103TC0700X) |
| Languages | English, with professional interpretation available for almost any language |
| Service area | State of California (telehealth statewide) |
Independent verification
Every credential on this page can be checked from a primary source. Attorneys and referring clinicians: please verify before referral. That is what these links are for.
- California Department of Consumer Affairs license lookup. Search PSY28494 for current status and any board actions.
- NPI registry. The federal National Provider Identifier record.
What this practice does not do
So referring counsel knows up front, here is what sits outside our scope:
- Expert witness testimony in court. Reports are the deliverable; we do not testify.
- Out-of-state clients. My license is a California license, and California is not a Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact (PSYPACT) state, so I evaluate people who are physically in California at the time of the evaluation.
- Child custody or 730 evaluations. That is a different specialty that demands family-court fluency and regular courtroom availability.
- Insurance-billed or Medicare/Medi-Cal evaluations. This practice is private pay.
Professional standards and compliance
We work under the American Psychological Association (APA) Ethics Code, the Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychology, the California Business and Professions Code for licensed psychologists, the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) where it applies. Communications and records are kept confidential under the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act and applicable privacy law, and an immigration enforcement subpoena is not self-enforcing: if a records holder does not comply, the agency has to ask a federal court for an order (Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) 235(d)(4)). Because a forensic evaluation is prepared for submission in an immigration case, the psychotherapist-patient privilege recognized in Jaffee v. Redmond, 518 U.S. 1 (1996) may not fully apply, so ask your immigration attorney about the protections for your specific records.
How referrals work
Immigration attorneys and pro-se applicants can request an evaluation through the contact form or by writing to contact@drmantonya.com. There is no charge to reach out. We personally review every inquiry, confirm whether the case is a fit, and reply with next steps and a timeline. Full fee schedule and case-type specifics live on the services page. Background reading sits in the resources hub.
Contact
Phone: (818) 351-3354 (iPlum Professional, HIPAA BAA in place; phone tree active for spam filtering)
Email: contact@drmantonya.com (Google Workspace, BAA in place)
Location: Santa Clarita, California (telehealth statewide)
Languages: English, with professional interpretation available for almost any language