Hello, everybody, and welcome to our live this Monday,
this Monday afternoon. I just wanted to come on here and give you a few updates specifically,
from the USCIS, the US Immigration Service, and DHS. We had quite a few changes come out
from USCIS in the past few weeks, so I wanted to kind of go over them and give you an update and,
of course, give you a chance to ask your questions in the comments. And as you see, this is live so
as you, guys, are joining me on this live, let me know where you’re from, where you're tuning in.
What I'm going to do is, I'm going to go over a few things. First of all, the new entrepreneur
rule announcement that just came in today from USCIS. I'm going to explain to you what
that means, and who is going to be impacted by this announcement. We're going to talk about
the biometrics revocation rule, the biometrics changes that were announced also a few days
ago. And we're going to go over interview waivers, which interviews are being waived from our office,
and what are the changes that are happening with that. I'm going to give you an update on that.
Some people are asking, I wanted to provide that update as well.
And finally, we'll talk about the policy of
decision deference from USCIS, what that means, and how it's going to impact your cases. So,
we're going to go over all this in this live. And if you have questions, please make sure to
drop them in the comments below. You can ask your questions as you watch this live, with me on. So,
let's get started. First of all, with today's announcement this morning,
we've got DHS announced this, the continuation of the International Entrepreneur Parole Program.
And what this means is that back in 2017, just before President Obama left office,
they announced that creating a program for entrepreneurs that are starting a
company in the United States, and they are raising at least $50,000, and employ 10 workers, they're
going to be able to get parole for three years to be able to stay and work in the United States.
Now, under President Trump's administration,
they were announcing a proposal to get rid of this, they wanted to get rid of this from
the regulations. And so, the program was kind of put on hold. But in today's announcement,
President Biden said that he is looking forward to getting more...
basically bringing more value to entrepreneurs and embracing entrepreneurship in the United States.
And so, it looks like, we don't have too many details. But it looks like the entrepreneur rule
is going to be back and maybe even expand to get further away. So, the idea is that if you’re here
on a different status, or if you're overseas, and you're going to start a company,
your company could raise 250,000, at least, and you're going to be providing jobs for at
least 10 employees, you're going to be able to get parole for three years. And from there, depending
on how your company is going to do, it could lead to other things. So, this is coming back.
And of course, we'll get some details as to when it's going to happen and I’ll let you know.
So yes, without a doubt, this was announced today. And in last week,
the USCIS announced that they're going to get rid of the proposed rule to force biometrics,
pretty much on all applicants. They were going to get people to leave their voice sample, DNA,
all that kind of things that they were going to require people to do.
Well, that rule was canceled as of last week, which is amazing news, because I know that
a lot of our viewers were concerned about it. So, that's another good thing that is
coming. And remember all these changes, like even the one that I mentioned today,
this is under Biden's plan to restore faith and decency into our immigration system,
right? So, all these things that you see being announced and more and more of these
things are going to be coming in the next few months, is part of their plan to bring back
what our system should look like. So, for example, DHS announced just yesterday that they're going to
expedite the EAD process, the EAD issuance for asylum seekers. So, they're not going to require
them to wait 30 days to be able to wait on their work permits, after this is submitted, they're
going to be able to work on expediting those EADs, specifically for asylum workers. So, that's
another… it's just... it shows you that they are trying to make some efforts and trying to make
the USCIS work a little bit in a more efficient way. One thing that I wanted to mention to you,
and I know that a lot of people were asking me, is what's happening right now with the interview
waiver. So, remember, I've made quite a few videos before about people that are going through the
Adjustment of Status process. And in many cases, USCIS chooses to waive those interviews to,
essentially, just send you the green card in the mail, and approve your case. So, this continues
to happen right now. We've seen an increase, specifically, of course, on the employment-based,
EB2 categories, EB3 cases, we get a lot of these interview waivers where clients,
essentially, maybe they get a request for evidence to submit, maybe a birth certificate, or maybe a
couple of photos that were missing. And maybe a month after that, an interview is canceled,
and essentially, they just get their green card in the mail. So, that continues to happen.
Even on the family side, even though on the family side, we've seen some of these
interviews being waved at our office. We had in a few marriage cases, long-term marriage cases.
And also, for people that came here on a K1 visa, and they're adjusting their status,
those cases also have been waived. So that continues to happen. And I think USCIS is
trying to streamline the process. They're trying to expedite adjudications. And as a result,
you're going to see more and more of these interviews being waived. Now, remember,
last week... I'm going to try to pull up my screen... I'm going to show you that last
week, they also announced another policy, which is
relying on all decisions, and I'll show you what I mean by that.
So, let's go and look here. So, if you look here, this policy here is supposed to
guide us on deference to previous decisions. And again, how is that going to help with all these
improvements that they are doing is that if you had an H1B, or if you had
a student status, and you want to extend it, so, under this policy, they're going to be able
to give credit to the fact that you already had held at status. It’s going to be much easier to
get an extension, which means that they're going to be able to move through more and more cases
much faster, as opposed to what they've done before because
the whole point is to go through the backlog. So, all these efforts are geared towards one direction
only. And this is to speed up the processing. So, if they're going to start giving deference to
previous decisions, if they're going to continue to waive interviews, if they're going to get
rid of draconian decisions like the biometrics and bring back rules like the entrepreneurial,
then we're going to see that the system is going to improve, and more and more immigrants are going
to get confidence back in the system, which is I think what Biden is trying to do so I think these
updates or these things that we see are very, very important. And again, those of you that are
joining in right now, you can post the questions. I want to see if I can take a few questions. But
I think it was important because I've done quite a few videos in the past few weeks about
embassies update, about embassies reopening, the status of interviews, immigrant visa interviews,
but there's a lot of things that are happening on the USCIS’ side here inside the United States,
which I think that's the reason why I went live today just to kind of explain to you. So,
I'm overly excited about the fact that the entrepreneurial is going to come back because it's
going to have a lot of people that don't qualify for visas. Otherwise, except for the fact that
they have an idea and the business that’s starting. And I think the parole is going
to help a lot of people to come back to the United States to start companies and drive our innovation
to the moon, as they say so and, of course, we are... as you know, we do a lot of
visas for entrepreneurs. And we're excited for this word to become a reality. But between this
rule, and as I mentioned before, the fact that they are getting rid of the crazy biometric rule,
the fact that they are going to be waiving biometrics to have applications specifically for
H4 and L2 spouses that have been waiting, the fact that they are giving credit to previous decisions
to help adjudicate the cases, and waiving interviews, continue to waive interviews,
this is huge. And that tells me that we're moving in the right direction while Biden is
trying to work on other stuff, USCIS is pushing forward, I can tell you from our office, we see
faster adjudication of cases. Even on citizenship cases. When people go right now for citizenship,
if they have a clean case, not only they're going to pass their citizenship test
right there, but USCIS will also give them the oath on the spot, and give them citizenship on the
spot. And these are new things that are happening in the past few months, all from UUSCIS trying to,
innovate, and also try to adjust and make things a little bit smoother. And hopefully, the State
Department is going to learn from that, and do their own thing, and start processing immigrant
visas much faster. Learn from USCIS that they can innovate, they can do things much, much better
if they just put their mind to it and do it. So, hopefully, these updates are helpful for you guys,
but there's... expect a lot more changes from USCIS, expect a lot more faster adjudication,
and have more interview waivers. And hopefully, we're going to see no shortage in waiting times,
processing times in USCIS because, right now, processing times are really, really long.
And we hope that they're going to tackle that as a next step. So, let me take a couple more
questions. And take a few random questions, but I promise to answer your questions after the end of
this video in the comments, I promise you. Ranoki says, “I received my first conditional green card.
How hard it is to remove the conditions on it. Is it harder than the first interview?” So,
it shouldn't be harder to remove the conditions as long as you have a good case. I think the
question should be, how long it's going to take, and right now processing times are still slow.
So, I think it's important to do it... if you make sure you send them all the documents, make sure
you give them as much evidence so the case can be processed correctly. Zander says, “I'm waiting for
an interview appointment, I have one. How long will it take? US Embassy in Manila update 2021?”
Again, in this video, I'm focusing mostly on USCIS but I promise to update you
in future videos on what's happening with US embassies. Let's see here.
Here we go. “Is there ever been a time in the past where family-based F visas have been
waived with the consular processing abroad, surely there should be a way.” So as of now,
there are no interview waivers overseas. Okay. The interview of waivers is happening inside
the United States. The interview waivers are not happening overseas. It’s because the US Embassy
is are looking at is a security threat. They want to make sure that people that actually get a visa
to enter the United States, they have to be interviewed properly. In fact, I made a video
last week that I mentioned that there will be no [inaudible] interviews with US embassies abroad.
They have to see you, they have to ask you questions, they have to verify you.
The reason they’re not able to do it inside the United States
is because... don't forget that you went through a biometrics background check. There are a lot more
checks that you can do inside the United States that you can’t do overseas,
and therefore, it is happening here.
So, a question from Donna, “My case center, National Benefits Center, don't know what to do,
what to expect.” So, remember, Donna, the NVC, which is part of the USCIS has also been delayed
right now. So, what I would suggest is, once your case was received in the National Benefits Center,
give them 90 days. Give them 90 days to work on the case and see what happens and then you can
make any inquiries. If you have an attorney, you can have your attorney make an inquiry. But it
is important to give them a little bit of time, so they can work on their cases. We definitely
expect to see some more movement forward with the National Benefits Center as they
are catching up on their cases. So, definitely don't lose hope. But I would give them many days.
Evelyn, “What happens with the tests that have been taken before the pandemic?
Are you talking about the citizenship test?” So, if I get your question correctly,
if it's a citizenship test, then you should be okay. You should be okay to...
I mean, in your case, you just have to wait for, I guess, for the approval.
And I would definitely follow up with USCIS because you shouldn't be taking that long
to get approval if that's what I'm reading correctly. So, let's take a question for Mazer.
So, USCIS is waiving interviews for the green card application for national interest waivers or not?”
Yes, it's possible as well for the national interest waiver, as well. So,
whatever the application is, it can be waived. It depends on what stage of the
Adjustment of Status you add. So, anyway, guys, I'm going to finish this Livestream in a second.
Those of you who do want to have a consultation with me, please text me at 619-483-4549.
You can see the number right here. And I'm happy to have a consultation with you. If
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