How Dahlia works

There is no mystery in it. You ask a question in your own words, Dahlia reads the rules that apply, and it answers with the rule attached so you can go read it yourself.

1. You ask in your own words

Write it the way you would say it out loud, in English or Spanish. You do not need to know which form your situation belongs to, and you do not need the legal words for any of it. If Dahlia needs to know which form you mean, it will ask.

2. Dahlia reads the sources, not the internet

Answers are drawn from an approved set of official sources, each one stored with the version and the date it took effect. Dahlia does not answer from forum posts, from other people's experiences, or from a general impression of how immigration usually goes. If a claim cannot be traced to an approved source, Dahlia does not make it.

3. The answer arrives with its citation

Every answer carries the regulation or official guidance behind it and the date that rule took effect. The citation links to the published text. This matters more than it sounds like it does. A rule that was accurate two years ago may not be accurate now, and a date is the only thing that tells you which one you are reading.

4. It tells you what it could not determine

Under every answer is a list of the things Dahlia could not work out from what you told it. That list is part of the answer, not fine print. It is the same size and the same color as everything else, and it does not collapse. Most of what goes wrong for people is in that list, not in the answer above it.

5. It sends you to an attorney when it should

Some situations should not be handled by reading. When a question crosses into territory where the cost of being wrong is high, Dahlia says so and points you toward licensed help. That routing is automatic and consistent. It is not softened to keep you in the product, and it is not something the product can be talked out of.

6. A human read it before you did

Guidance content goes through two stages of human review before it reaches anyone: an experienced immigration consultant, then a licensed immigration attorney. Nothing generated reaches you unreviewed. This is the slowest part of building Dahlia, and it is the part we are least willing to shorten.