hi everyone huge news coming out from CBP at lax CBP the custom
border protection agency the immigration officers that led people in the country
we just met with them this wednesday april 20th and they officially announced that the
immigration policy is moving back to pre-covet era for people who have been out of the country
so just so you know if you are a green card holder and you've been out of the country for more than
one year without a re-entry permit and without an sb1 visa to allow you to get in the country
technically legally the CBP officers the immigration officers can deem
your green card to be abandoned they can confiscate it and give it to a judge I
know you probably have a lot of questions I certainly did when I found out so let's get to it
hi everyone this is Joseph and I'm the managing partner here at Tsang & associates where we solve
legal problems with creative solutions so the legal problem is that if you are LPR if you're
a legal permanent resident if you're a green card holder and you've been out of the country how are
you going to get back in the u.s a lot of websites a lot of places say that you have to get an sb1
visa technically historically that is the normal and proper route if you have been outside of the
u.s for over one year that is what you're supposed to do if you have a re-entry permit well then
you can fly back that shouldn't be a problem a re-entry permit allows you to be outside of the
u.s for a year or two years depending on which one you get but if you don't have the re-entry permit
well then you're supposed to get an sb1 visa if you don't get an sb1 visa and you don't have a
re-entry permit when you fly in the immigration officer is going to be like you don't have a
ticket to come back into the u.s you know your green card is not going to hold up they're going
to pull you into secondary and question you why did you leave for so long did you in fact abandon
your u.s residency so that has been the law that's traditionally what it is but over the past two
years starting in 2020 travel bans have been in place people who left the us in 2019 even 2018
they intended to come back they had a re-entry permit or they didn't have a re-entry permit
airlines were canceled other countries shut down they couldn't get on the flight so LAX
back in november 2020 they officially announced that they're expanding the traditional one year to
the two-year mark right so the traditional is if you have been outside of the u.s for over a year
you need to get an sb1 visa now in 2020 they expanded that to two years what that translates
into is that if you've been out for over a year but less than two years if you have documents
you will most likely be able to explain your circumstance the officers will understand and they
will let you in potentially without a warning that was in 2020. just two days ago when we met with
them we asked what is the newest and up-to-date policy are they gonna now extend it we were hoping
that they were gonna extend it two years to two and a half years and to our surprise they actually
went the other direction they said they're rolling back this lenient policy we knew this was gonna
happen we knew that this was the law and cbp has to enforce this law we just didn't know
it was going to happen so soon right because we feel like covid is still around but according
to cbp they said covid is stabilizing the whole world is opening up all the flights around the
world is opening up people from all over the world have been vaccinated non-immigrants are
flying in so for green card holders they should have flown in a year ago two years ago and if
they needed to leave they could have applied for a re-entry permit or they could get sb1 visa CBP
officers they have to comply with the law and they emphasized again and again that they have already
been one of the most lenient posts all around the country they've already extended the
leniency they've already individualized their service to so many people around the country
that traditionally just wasn't done so they now have to roll it back who is it this gonna affect
well it's for people who have been out of the u.s for over a year if you were here in 2021 hopefully
you could come back before you've departed for a year if you didn't well hopefully you apply for a
re-entry permit now if you were not here in 2021 you were not here in 2020 you left in 2019 2018
then you have some explanation to do why did you stay out for over two years why did you stay out
for almost three years or four years COVID is not an excuse so many people have flown in what
is your individual circumstance we pressed this exact question to the cbp officers there are still
so many people with very sympathetic stories who have been out and this blanket policy is just not
fair to them and the cbp officer said well if you've been out for that long you really should
be applying for sb1 visa that is the consulate officer's domain they are the ones who determine
if you've abandoned your green card and you should come back so if you have sb1 visa then that should
be fine and at that point I just straight up told the officer but you know a lot of consulates are
still closed or worse yet they have just been denied by sb1 visas and then the officers laughed
right all the cbp officers were like yes we know that but we cannot play this different parent
right it almost seems like it's post shopping they deny you and then you come to us and we approve
you and I said well yes you have been and you've been saving the whole world right I complimented
the cbp officers like we know people who have had sb1s denied and then they have allowed them and so
it's remarkable what they did and the CBP officers said well we don't want we don't want to hear that
we don't want to actually hear that because then it's post shopping and that's not actually part
of their job description and really what they're saying is this past two years was a glitch in the
matrix normally if you've been out for over a year you need to go to the consulate and the consulate
is the one who makes that determination you can't go to the consulate get denial
and then now go to CBP it's like shopping for parents right mommy said no but now I'm gonna go
ask daddy that is wrong that's wrong in a family sense and it's also wrong in government agencies
in the past two years CBP has allowed for this exception because a lot of consulates are shut
down so it's like as if mommy just couldn't be reached so you ask daddy and find daddy says
okay right but now that things have gone back to normal well you really shouldn't do that anymore
now I know that's a really difficult pill to swallow because I was in a state of disbelief
when I was hearing all these explanations because in my mind from the news that I'm reading COVID,
airlines there's still a huge problem from around the world and a lot of people are still out
so I asked the question but what if they do have a very sympathetic situation right and the consulate
is just being extremely difficult then the cpp officer said well if it's a very unique situation
and not like every other situation that we've already explained of course they can hire a lawyer
an attorney and the attorney can contact cbp officers lax and they can review the case right so
just know if your situation is truly truly unique you still have that availability now personally,
personally meaning based on my experience and it is not legal advice
from my experience of seeing how government agencies work when there's a new amount
announcements and you need to roll it out nationwide it takes some time and so I don't think
this rolling back to pre-covid era enforcing the law is going to roll out absolutely immediately
on day one right so it was announced april 20th i really don't think immediately it is going to be
hardcore implemented because that just seems a little bit unfair right there was official
meeting minutes back in 2021 talking about the policy talking about the leniency talking
about this particular issue AILA uh the american immigration lawyer association they have issued
advice we're giving advice people have been relying on that and so it probably is not going
to be implemented immediately what does that mean for you if you've left the country for over a year
really take the time and prepare your documents well and prepare the explanation well if you don't
know how to prepare the explanation go ahead and watch our other youtube channels starting back in
2020 or 2021 we created a whole series giving a lot of advice what you need to prepare it's not
a hard argument but you just need to do it well spend time doing it right how is us your home how
did you get your green card why did you leave and document everything where did you go right being
in the philippines being in japan being in china being in russia it's all different every country
has their own policies and unique circumstances different companies have unique policies
print all of those things out and show the officer hopefully this has been helpful I try my best to
report what I'm seeing what I'm hearing what I'm learning and the different experiences that I have
so if you have any questions about this feel free to reach out good luck take care bye