Privacy notice

1. Who we are

Ge Chanfon Services LLC is a document preparation company in Odessa, Texas. We are not a law firm. For any question about this notice, email info@gechanfonservices.com or call (432) 880-7835.

2. What information we receive and keep

Through the website:

• Service request form: first and last name, phone and/or email, the service you request, your language, and your answers to that service's questions (for example, the option or the state).
• “Need help?” window: name, phone, email (optional), your message, and the page you wrote from.
• The IP address a form is sent from, to stop automated submissions (spam).

Please do not enter Social Security numbers, A-Numbers, passport numbers, or dates of birth, or attach documents, in the website forms.

If you hire us:

• Your contact and identification details (for example, address, date of birth, Social Security number or ITIN, A-Number) and those of the people included in your case.
• Your case information: questionnaires, documents you give us, forms we prepare, receipt numbers, dates, follow-up notes, and appointments.
• Your contract and payments (amount, date, and payment method; we do not store card numbers).
• Our communications with you (emails and messages) and the authorizations you give us, for example to contact you or to check your case status with USCIS.
• If you authorize us to check your USCIS case: the receipt number and the statuses USCIS reports.

Online accounts. If, for your case, you give us the username and password for an online account (for example, USCIS, IRS, or another government account), we keep them to use only for your case. The password is stored encrypted, only the administrator can view it, and every time it is viewed this is recorded. We recommend that you change your password when your case is finished and let us know if you change it. You can ask us at any time to delete a stored password.

3. How we use it

• To answer your request and send you the information, contract, and questionnaire for the service you requested.
• To prepare your documents, follow up on your case, keep our records and accounting, and meet our legal and tax obligations.

We do not sell your information.

4. Communications we send you

Service communications. These are the messages we need to handle your request or your case: replies, contract, questionnaire, document requests, appointments and reminders, and notices of dates or changes in your case. We send them by email, phone, or WhatsApp because you requested our service and, in the website forms, agreed that we may contact you about your request.

Promotional communications. These are seasonal or service announcements (for example, the start of tax season). We send them to clients and to people who asked us for information. Each email explains how to opt out: reply STOP (or BAJA in Spanish), or tell us by phone or WhatsApp that you do not want to receive them. We record your opt-out in our system and stop sending them to you through that channel. Opting out does not affect service communications about a case in progress.

5. Where it is kept

• Our system (website and database) is hosted by MonsterASP.NET on servers in the United States. Documents are kept in a private folder on that server that cannot be opened from the internet.
• The emails you send us and the ones we send you are kept in our Google Workspace email account.
• WhatsApp messages are kept on the office phone and in WhatsApp (Meta).
• If you pay by card, Stripe receives and keeps your payment details on its own page; we do not see your card number.

6. Cookies

• Our cookies: one that remembers the language you chose (Spanish or English) and a security cookie that protects the forms against forged submissions. Our staff also uses sign-in cookies for the office panel. We do not use advertising or analytics cookies.
• Google map: on the pages where we show the office map, the map is loaded by Google Maps, and Google may use its own cookies under its privacy policy.
• If you open WhatsApp, Stripe's payment page, or our Google reviews, you leave our website and those companies' policies apply.

7. Who it is shared with

• The providers that make our service work: MonsterASP.NET (hosting), Google Workspace (email), Stripe (card payments), and WhatsApp (messages). We use Google Maps for the map and reviews; we do not send Google the information from our forms.
• Government agencies (for example, USCIS, the Department of State, or the IRS): only what you authorize us to prepare or file for your case. We check your USCIS case status only with your express authorization.
• When the law requires us to provide it.

8. Who has access

• Only our staff, each with their own user account. The administrator sees all information; each employee sees only the cases assigned to them.
• The system records who views, downloads, or changes information.
• The providers listed above keep information on their servers under their own policies.

9. How we protect it

• The website and the system use a secure connection (HTTPS).
• In our database, clients' Social Security number or ITIN, A-Number, and date of birth, and the online account passwords they give us, are stored encrypted.
• The documents we receive or generate are stored encrypted in the private folder on the server.
• Other information (for example, name, address, phone, email, and case details) is not encrypted field by field; it is protected by the restricted access and the controls described in this section and the previous one.
• To sign in to the system, our staff uses their own username, password, and two-step verification.

10. Backups

Under the terms of our plan, our hosting provider makes automatic daily backups, which it keeps for 14 days and then replaces. Encrypted information stays encrypted in those backups.

11. How long we keep it

We keep information for as long as we need it for our business or the law requires us to keep it, based on these criteria:

• Business need: many cases take years, and clients come back to ask us for copies of their documents or for new services. That is why we keep the information of clients and of people who asked us for information while it remains useful to serve them.
• Legal obligations: we keep tax records (for example, preparers must keep a copy or list of the returns for at least 3 years after the close of the return period, under 26 U.S.C. §6107(b)), payments and accounting, and the authorizations you gave us for at least as long as the law requires.
• Periodic review: we periodically review the information we keep. We do not delete case files automatically; any deletion is decided case by case.

12. How to request access, correction, or deletion

1. Email info@gechanfonservices.com or call (432) 880-7835 and tell us what you need: to see what information we have about you, to correct it, to delete it, or for us to stop contacting you.
2. To protect your information, we confirm it is you through the phone number or email we already have on file. If we cannot confirm it, we will ask for another way to verify.
3. Access: we tell you what information we have and, if you ask, give you a copy of the documents in your case.
4. Correction: we correct any wrong information in our system.
5. Deletion: we review your request case by case and explain what information we must or need to keep (for example, because of legal or tax obligations, or to be able to give you copies of your case file in the future) and why.
6. Stop contacting you: we stop sending you notices and messages that are not needed for a case we are handling for you.
7. We confirm in writing what we did.

13. Changes to this notice

If we change this notice, we will post the new version on this page with its date.