If you've been living in the United States illegally for over a year, or you've been
deemed inadmissible by a consular officer because you previously overstayed your visa,
you may be subject to a 10-year bar. Even if you marry a US citizen, you're not able
to get your green card from inside the United States. The only way to overcome that is by
filing a waiver, an extreme hardship waiver, also known as the I-601 waiver. And that's
going to be the topic of this video. If you want to know how to qualify for this waiver,
and what you have to do to make sure you get this waiver approved, stick around and watch
this video. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to our Immigration channel, where we
teach you every single week about immigration, immigration news updates, very important immigration
topics to empower you with the knowledge you need to be successful in your immigration
journey. My name is Jacob Sapochnik, and I'm an immigration attorney located in San Diego,
California. In this video, we'll talk about the I-601 Extreme Hardship Waiver, a very
important waiver that will help you overcome an overstay of visa or an inadmissibility
charge by a visa officer at the US Embassy. So, stick around to the end of the most important
tips on how to win an I-601 waiver in 2020, 2021 as we're shifting away from this current
administration. So, what is the I-601 waiver? So, once again, if you've been living in the
United States illegally for more than a year, you're automatically barred for 10 years if
you depart the US. In most cases, if you enter the United States without inspection, even
if you marry a US citizen, you're not able to adjust your status inside the US. And therefore,
you have to exit the US and face a US Embassy consular officer for your visa interview.
But the moment you leave the country, you'll be automatically barred for 10 years. Therefore,
you have to file a 601 waiver. This is a waiver that is based on extreme hardship to your
US citizen spouse. The petitioner, in this case, the 601 waivers are based on the concept
of extreme hardship to the US citizen spouse. But what is extreme hardship? And I think
a lot of our clients, a lot of our YouTube viewers who are concerned with this topic
have been sending the messages trying to understand what this concept actually means. And if you
stick to the end of this video, I'll go through the different levels of hardship to make you
understand what you have to do to win your case. Immigration service essentially categorized
extreme hardship into four levels, going from one to four, where one is the strongest factor
all the way through four, which is the weakest factor when we determine what is extreme hardship
client situation. So, let's go through those factors. So, for a successful waiver, you
should have at least a few level two arguments, maybe a couple of level four arguments but
definitely at least one level one argument to have a strong 601 waiver case. So, let's
talk about the level. So, level one typically includes immediate relatives who are experiencing
extreme medical conditions. These include treatment that cannot be obtained only in
the US to the point where they can actually leave the US and travel to visit the immigrant.
Also, sometimes, level one hardship arguments can include information about the country
of the immigrant, where there's maybe a state of war, or an uprising, making it dangerous
for the immigrant and the US citizen relative to even be able to go visit or even live there.
So, once again, level one is extreme, severe medical condition or any other extreme conditions
that we can show the government that it's going to make it impossible for the US citizen
to move or live abroad. Level two arguments, these are economical factors, the impact of
the departure of the immigrant going back to his own country, whether the US citizen
relative is going to be able to find a job or be able to continue their career, and what's
going to be the significant impact on them leaving… the need to leave the US devastating
their economical ability to sustain a family or life overseas. The USCIS is going to look
at the standard of living, the reduction in the standard of living, if there's care for
children, also the education if there are any children in the relationship, and things
like that. Also, what they're looking for is whether the US citizen, spouse or relative,
will be able to adjust to a new country without being able to find a job or opportunity to
earn a living. And those can be demonstrated by country reports and things like that. So,
it's a really good, and important point that we always use when we do those waivers. Level
three arguments, once again, are somehow connected to medical but we focus more on the psychological
impact of the separation, psychological impact of moving to a different country, maybe prior
trauma that the qualifying relative suffered, they may be amplified by the possibility of
leaving and uprooting themselves out of the US. These can be obtained by psychological
report evaluations, constant monitoring by a psychologist. And again, those are very
common ways to show the extreme hardship by showing you the mental, the psychological
impact on the qualifying relative, and in the possibility of them needing to leave the
US and living somewhere else. And again, at that point, we can also add country conditions
to show that it's going to be virtually impossible for them to live there or adjust to life.
And so, the combination of two and three are very helpful when you try to win those waivers.
Number four arguments, if we have a qualifying relative, which is a parent, elderly parents,
we can show that if the immigrant child has to leave the country, then the parents won't
be able to support themselves. This would be a severe economical impact on the qualifying
US citizen’s relative, and it's going to create significant hardship for them to live
alone in the US. Once again, this factor, we add economical factors, the cost of living,
not be able to work. And again, in any of these levels, you can add country conditions
and show how severe it is and where they're supposed to go, and how impossible it is for
them to actually live there and sustain family life. Now, these are just examples of how
we work with these different levels and how we present the evidence in our cases. Keeping
in mind what USCIS is looking for when they evaluate those waivers. In this video, we're
focusing on the 601 waiver, which is a general waiver that typically cures overstay, and
a few other things like misrepresentation. There's also another waiver called I-601A,
which was specifically limited to people who only enter the United States unlawfully one
time, and remain here unlawfully. And that's a 601A waiver which we'll do another video
and discuss that. So, once again, hopefully, you found this video helpful. Let me know
in the comments if you have any questions about the 601 waiver, inadmissibility, or
any questions relating to this waiver or any other waiver. Once again, don't forget to
subscribe to our channel. Give us a big like to make sure that YouTube will share this
video with more people just like you. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in our next
video. Watch these two videos for more information just like that.