Hello everybody. In this video, I'm going to give you the most up-to-date information when it comes
to traveling restrictions into the United States. As you know, with embassies still working in a
limited capacity, immigrants still have issues processing their documents. Also, immigrants
have issues with boarding airplanes with expired documents because they're not able to renew visas.
Or the green cards, for example, immigrants inside the United States, unfortunately, are overstaying
their visas because they're not able to travel. What are they going to do now? When their visas
are expired? Whether it's ESTA or the tourist visa or student visa, we'll talk about those issues as
well and solutions. And finally, both immigrants and non-immigrants are being affected by the
recent travel ban. So what are you waiting for? A lot to cover. I'll see you on the other side.
Hello, everybody. And welcome back to our immigration channel. This is the place where
we get the most up to date, immigration news, immigration updates, and everything else that
you need to make your immigration journey less stressful. My name is Jacob Suppochnick. I am
an immigration attorney located in San Diego, California. I help clients in all 50 states.
In this video, we're going to talk about the most up-to-date information when it comes to travel,
travel into the United States, travel restrictions,
and what happens when you cannot leave the United States for various reasons, and now your visa
has expired. So this information is based on a recent meeting that the CBP liaison committee
and representatives from the Department of State and the American Immigration Lawyers Association
meeting to address those issues and provide some solutions. So make sure you watch this video
to the end because I want to talk about green card holders. I'm going to talk about national
interest exceptions when it comes to travel. And I'm going to talk about non-immigrant visas
and visa processing at different embassies and consulates. So, once again, make sure
you stick to the end. So let's start with the green card holder legal permanent residents.
So a lot of our green card holder clients and viewers of the channel are sending us messages,
emails, private messages are concerned because they're stuck overseas, they spend more than a
year abroad. And as you know, if your green card holder if you spend more than a year abroad and
you don't come back to the United States and you haven't applied for a re-entry permit,
you're risking losing your green card upon entry back to the United States. Based on a recent
message that was sent from the Department of Homeland Security and the White House
to all the CBP Port of Entry, green card holders are welcome to come back even if they spend more
than a year overseas. If you're a green card holder and you're stuck overseas, and it's been
more than a year, you should make plans to come back home to the United States. As a suggestion,
as I mentioned in previous videos is that, if you have any proof that you try to return
and you couldn't do it, and you canceled plane tickets, proof and to the reason why you stayed
overseas more than a year. Maybe it was a family emergency. Maybe it was a financial issue. Take
those documents with you. So when you come back to the port of entry, and you face the CBP officers,
you have something to tell them and at least a good faith reason as to why you stay longer.
Their instructions are to let you in right now, if you're a green card holder, and you come to the
United States and they send you back, make sure to let me know because we want to notify CBP and DHS
liaison that this happened. So they're going to be able to address those issues for future reference.
But once again, if you're an LPR green card holder, you can come back to the United States,
even if you stayed more than a year overseas. Another thing that we learned in that meeting
is that the Department of Homeland Security is working with airlines to educate them that even if
they are green card holders with unexpired green cards, but it's been more than a year overseas,
they should still let them board the plane and make their way to the United States. They also
provide guidance to the airlines that their role is not to make a determination of eligibility.
Their role is to let these people on the plane come back to the United States.
Another important thing is that if you're a green card holder, and you've been outside
the United States since the beginning of COVID, you're not required to apply for an SB-1 visa,
returning resident visa. Now, a returning resident visa is not a simple process,
you have to go back to the US Embassy, which in most cases is closed anyway in most countries,
and make a case as to why you have not abandoned your residency. Under this policy guidance update,
You don't have to apply for an SB- returning resident visa. If you've been away from the
United States since the beginning of COVID to this day. If you've been away for five,
six years before COVID, that's a whole different story. And you still have to
apply for the SB-1 returning resident visa. But if you've been away since COVID started
and it's been more than a year you are eligible to go back to the United States without
applying for any documents, just prove that you at least try to come back to the United States. So,
these are great news for a lot of our green card holders that are panicking right now not being
able to come back home. And also the government is now forcing CBP port of entry to process national
interest exceptions for people that are coming back from overseas. They can process those at
the Port of Entry instead of doing this at the US Embassy, once again, those embassies are closed,
which is very difficult for people to wait for these emergency cases. Sometimes it takes weeks
and months. And when it's an emergency, it's impractical for them to do so. So,
the CBP Ports of Entry are now required to process national interest exception cases,
right there on the spot. And again, this information pertains specifically to green
card holders. Now, let's talk about travel bans and national interest exceptions. Again, in this
meeting with the CBP liaison, Department of State, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association,
there are some suggestions and action items that the government is going to start taking in the
next few months. The first suggestion is to start using science-based factors to curb the pandemic,
not travel bans, right, we have so many travel bans that were canceled by Biden, but we still
have a few that are in place. Are they based on scientific facts? Are they based on any data? No,
they just put travel bans blocking people from coming into the states creating delays
and hardship for families being separated. So the idea is to start using more science-based facts
instead of blanket travel bans that are currently in place. So hopefully, that's going to be
implemented in the next few months. The next thing they discussed about is before changing travel
restrictions, for example, before blocking people from South Africa, from Iran, or from Brazil,
give sufficient notice. So, people who are planning to travel or currently traveling,
those countries have enough notice to either make their way back to the United States
or completely change their travel bans. Those travel bans that were announced in the past did
not provide sufficient notice to travelers before they were making travel plans, or they're about to
travel to that particular country. So the idea is to give sufficient notice. So individuals can make
informed decisions before they travel. And if they're already in a country that is apparently
banned, they have enough time to make travel arrangements to go back to the United States.
The next thing they're going to start implementing is making the national interest exceptions
more flexible. So instead of making them to one entry, they could open into 30 days. Right now,
if you get a national interest exception, you can just enter one entry. The idea is to make it more
flexible, if people need to go back, if people need to travel for work, make it more flexible,
give them 30 days, 60 days. Those are things that are going to be starting to be implemented in the
next few months based on that meeting that they had with the CBP and the Department of State.
And I think the biggest shift we're going to see coming up soon is that all ports of entry, CBP
ports of entry, are going to be able to process national interest exceptions. So for example,
if people urgently are in need to enter the United States, they're going to be able to apply
for that exception right there at the port of entry. Instead of waiting for weeks and months
to get an appointment at the US Embassy or have the embassy consider their application
for National Interest Exception. This will be applicable to both non-immigrant and immigrant
visas. And right now we can see quite a few ports of entry like the Los Angeles port of entry,
where they do process national interest exceptions for certain travelers right there at a port of
entry when people arrive. So, these are some good news. And hopefully, we can see that expand to
other ports of entry. And hopefully, we wouldn't see that expand to many, many more other ports of
entry as well. So let's talk about non-immigrants, specifically people that are currently inside the
United States. So one of the things that were suggested in that meeting is that CBP will have
more power to revisit the I-94 that was issued to non-immigrants upon entry. So you know, when you
enter the United States, you get an I-94 in the system that could be issued for three months, four
months, six months. Under this new suggestion, we hope that CBP will be able to get more power
at deferred inspection, to look at previously issued I-94, and be able to extend it while the
immigrant is inside the United States. So people will not have to apply for extensions of their
tourist visas inside the United States. They could actually go to deferred inspection and
get the CBP officer to give them more time for good reason obviously. Another great suggestion
that came out at the meeting is expanding the flexibility for non-immigrant applicants that
have expired visas but have a valid petition to enter the United States with an expired visa
because their consulate or embassy is closed. So for example, let's say you have an H1B petition
valid for three years, your visa has expired, the new guidance which are not yet implemented,
but are proposed, you'll be able to enter the United States even if your visa has expired,
but you have a valid petition. So hopefully, that's going to be implemented very fast.
And of course, I'll let you know when that's effective. And finally, the proposal was to waive
all Visa requirements for F1 students, that are coming to the United States for the fall semester,
again, this way, eliminating the backlog of the embassies, allowing the students who come to the
United States and go to schools. So not delayed, and they're going to miss their opportunity to
start school. So once again, these are great suggestions, and we're going to see them being
implemented hopefully in the next few months. Another suggestion that was proposed at a meeting
is to allow visa revalidation inside the United States so people are not going to be required
to go back home specifically when embassies are understaffed, closed, or not processing
visas on a regular basis. So imagine if you already had a visa, let's say an E-2,
or an H1-B in your passport, instead of going back home, you'll be able to get a visa reissued
inside the United States at the Department of State in Washington DC. If that happens,
it's going to help them eliminate the huge backlogs and allow less people to travel overseas
when they don't need to. So this is something exciting. And as soon as that happens, I will
let you know obviously, but this was presented at a meeting between CBP, the Department of State,
and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and I wanted to present that to you as well. When
it comes to employment-based visas. The suggestion was to waive biometrics for those applicants that
are waiting for the visa interviews, and also waive interviews, specifically in cases where
there are no inadmissibility questions. So once again, hopefully, this information was
helpful. We talked about solutions for green card holders that are currently stuck overseas
and are not able to come back. Don't have people that are currently inside the United States and
they're about to overstay their visas, CBP may be able to help and get their status renewed without
an extension. Some good news. And finally, some solutions for visa revalidation inside the United
States. Let's hope this is also going to come. So if you enjoyed this video, make sure you share
this with somebody who may be interested in this. If you have any questions, please leave them in
the comments. And if you want to talk to me if you need help with your case, don't be shy, text me,
619-483-4549. Let's have a consultation. And let's talk about your case. And remember guys, we have a
very cool quiz at the bottom of this video. Make sure you try the quiz. It's going to talk about
eligibility for your immigration process. Let me know what you think about the quiz as well. It's
linked in the description of this video. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in our next video.