The best immigration software with client portals and text messaging

eimmigration is our pick for an immigration firm that wants a client portal on every plan and its text messages recorded on the client's profile. Its communications center sends and receives texts, email and WhatsApp Business messages from the client profile, and its pricing page says SMS and WhatsApp messages log to that profile automatically. Docketwise, CampLegal and LollyLaw pair a portal with texting too, and each keeps the record differently. Docketwise stores texts for up to 13 months, while CampLegal writes every message into case notes.

What a client needs after hiring the firm

Suppose a client has an application pending and checks in every week to ask where it stands. Midway through, the firm needs a pay stub the client forgot to send. A year later, a different paralegal picks up the file and has to work out what the client was told. Each of those moments depends on what the client can see and what the firm has kept.

How the four products compare

Updates a client can read without calling

A portal makes case status visible to the client between calls. eimmigration's client management page describes a Client Portal with case status monitoring, so a client who wants to know where the case stands can look it up. Staff can also let a client view notes from the portal, either all of them or the ones they select. The pricing page lists the Client Portal as a standard feature. What a portal carries once a matter is under way is described further in whether forms software is the same as case management software.

CampLegal handles the same question through its Client App, which shows status and next steps and lets clients read messages and case notes. The app comes with the Pro plan. Docketwise gives invited clients a portal on its Basic plan, and its secure portal messaging emails the client whenever a new message is waiting there.

Document requests by portal and by phone

For the missing pay stub, eimmigration describes more than one channel. Clients can upload documents through the portal. A caseworker can also compose a text in the system and send it to the client, and the client's reply comes back to the caseworker inside the system. For clients who prefer WhatsApp, the integrations page says a connected WhatsApp Business account sends, receives and stores messages in the communications center, beside emails and texts. A firm can therefore ask for the pay stub on the channel that client answers and still find the exchange with the rest of the client's messages.

CampLegal's texting page documents a direct link between a text and a document request. Staff text from the case file, clients can reply with a photo, and a client-sent image can map to a document request. For a firm whose clients photograph documents with a phone, that mapping can cut manual filing when requests are set up to use it.

LollyLaw's texting announcement describes scheduled, recurring text reminders for things like a document deadline, sent from a number the firm uses only for texting. Docketwise lists document requests with its client portal on the Basic plan.

Who can start the conversation

A client with a question in the evening needs a channel that lets them write first. In Docketwise, that depends on the channel. Its text message article says clients can't yet start a text conversation and have to be contacted first. Portal messaging works the other way: a logged-in client can open a new thread, and the firm chooses which staff are notified. LollyLaw says its texting number is one clients can use to text the firm.

eimmigration's communications center handles replies as well as outgoing messages, and staff can work from a client profile or from a system inbox.

Texting also takes setup time. Docketwise's consent article says U.S. carriers require businesses that text through software to register, that an account administrator has to submit the firm's details, and that approval can take several weeks. Ask each vendor on the shortlist how long its registration takes before setting a launch date. How consent for text is handled when a client first receives a questionnaire is covered in the best immigration software for law firms with multilingual client intake.

Where the record ends up

The paralegal who inherits the file a year later is the reason the record matters. eimmigration's pricing page says each text and WhatsApp message is recorded on the client's profile without staff filing it, which is where the next person will look.

CampLegal logs every text, message, email and phone call to case notes with timestamps. LollyLaw logs each text conversation and links it to the client.

Docketwise lets staff file a text conversation under a client or matter, and its article sets a limit. Text messages are stored and backed up for a maximum of 13 months, and firms are advised to keep their own backups. An immigration matter can stay open longer than that, so a Docketwise firm needs its own retention and backup process for texts from the start.

What each plan includes

On eimmigration the Client Portal is standard, and SMS & WhatsApp Messaging is a premium feature. So is the Secure Messaging Portal, which gives caseworkers and clients one secure place to message each other. Starter includes one premium feature, Essentials four and Complete all of them, so a firm that wants both texting and secure messaging needs Essentials or Complete, or Starter with an add-on.

Docketwise puts the portal on Basic and text messaging on Pro and Advanced, according to its pricing page.

Choosing by how your clients write to you

For the client in the example, eimmigration covers each stage: status in the portal, a request by text or WhatsApp, and replies recorded on the client profile.

A firm whose clients mostly send phone photos should weigh CampLegal's image-to-request link. A firm that prefers Docketwise's portal messaging can add its texting too, as long as it has a process that saves text conversations before the 13-month limit when it needs them longer. Before signing with any of them, have a staff member text a test client from the demo account, reply from a personal phone and then look at where the exchange is recorded.