Dr. Julia Mantonya, PsyD

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. Our reports document psychological harm in language that meets the proof standards United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudicators and immigration judges actually use, which is a different bar than what therapy notes have to clear.

The clinical history is straightforward: nine-plus years in high-security settings with serious-mental-illness populations. That experience shapes how we run evaluations. Precise symptom documentation. Validated testing, not impressions. Cultural sensitivity built in, not bolted on. Trauma-informed interview pacing so survivors aren't re-traumatized by the process. Structured reports that hold up when an attorney for the other side starts pulling at threads.

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 fragmentation that often gets misread as inconsistency in credibility findings.
• 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 C.F.R. 214.14(b)(1).
• T-visa trafficking evaluations. Psychological coercion, traumatic bonding, and the DES-II dissociation scale for survivors of labor or sex trafficking.
• Extreme hardship waivers (I-601 and I-601A). Cervantes-Gonzalez factor analysis for qualifying-relative psychological impact under the dual-scenario framework.
• Cancellation of removal (EOIR-42B). Exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (LPR) qualifying relatives.
• N-648 disability waivers. Medical certification for the naturalization English and civics exemption. Only licensed medical doctors, doctors of osteopathic medicine, or licensed clinical psychologists can sign these.
• Immigration competency evaluations under the Matter of M-A-M- and Franco-Gonzalez v. Holder standards.

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 DSM-5-TR diagnostic formulation, a detailed mental status examination, a trauma history timeline, and a functional impairment analysis tied to the specific legal standard at issue.

Reports are flat-fee engagements. Standard turnaround is 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. Spanish interpretation costs nothing extra. Revisions are unlimited and included in every engagement, no nickel-and-diming if a USCIS request for evidence comes back wanting more on a specific point.

Credentials

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. When a case needs live testimony, we refer out to qualified colleagues who do that work.
• Out-of-state clients. California is not a Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact (PSYPACT) state; the license limits practice to California residents.
• Child custody or 730 evaluations. That is a different specialty that demands family-court fluency and regular courtroom availability.
• California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) staff evaluations. Separate-employment conflict of interest.
• Insurance-billed or Medicare/Medi-Cal evaluations. Forensic evaluations are private-pay industry-wide; this practice follows that standard.

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 sit behind the psychotherapist-patient privilege under Jaffee v. Redmond, 518 U.S. 1 (1996) and California Evidence Code section 1014. An administrative subpoena cannot pry records loose; a judicial warrant is what it takes.

How referrals work

Immigration attorneys and pro-se applicants can request an evaluation through the contact form or by writing to contact@drmantonya.com. The initial call is free. We use it to confirm case fit, name the legal standard the report has to meet, and set a timeline you can hand back to the client. 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 and Spanish