This is immigration attorney, Parviz Malakouti. And in this video, I want to talk about two
aspects, actually, of adjustment of status. I want to talk about the work permit and the application
for advance parole document. Remember, of course, backing up, adjustment of status is a Green Card
application whereby the applicant stays within the United States when they apply and throughout
the whole process. A Green Card by adjustment of status is different than consular processing
because, in consular processing, the applicant has to leave the United States if they're here
to interview at an embassy abroad, or if they're outside of the United States when they apply,
they stay outside the United States and still interview at that embassy abroad.
We're not talking about consular processing, we're talking about adjustment of status.
So the two aspects I said I want to talk about are work permit and application for advanced
parole. So, basically, what I want to say is that when you're applying for adjustment of status,
whether it be on your own or with a lawyer, and hopefully you're going with a lawyer, you want
to make sure that you have an application for a work permit and an application for an advance
parole document filed as well. Now, quick caveat, I'm not talking about every single case. There's
some cases in which it might not be a good idea to apply for an advance parole document. Let's say,
for example, if it's a danger for that person to travel outside of the country,
maybe they shouldn't apply for an advance parole document. Maybe there's going to be a temptation
for that person to leave. But, in general, in most cases, applying for adjustment of status,
you want to apply for the work permit so that you can get the ability to work
right away before that Green Card is approved. And secondly, for advanced parole.
Now, why advanced parole? Plenty of people when I bring this up, plenty of clients, they say, "Oh,
don't worry about the advance parole document. I'm not planning on traveling anyway." That
very well may be the case. Maybe they don't want to travel. Maybe they're not thinking
about traveling for the next year or even year and a half. But there's emergencies that pop up.
Imagine a worst case scenario, you come into the United States, you apply for adjustment of status,
you cannot leave the country when your adjustment of status is pending without having an advance
parole document. Because, if you leave while that adjustment of status application is pending,
that's deemed to be an abandonment of the adjustment of status application. The application
will be denied. You will have to start over. So if you come to the United States, you're not planning
on traveling but then God forbid you have a sick parent back home, whether it be in France, Iran,
Thailand, or wherever, what are you going to do? You're going to wish that you had that advance
parole document to be able to go back home and travel for that sick parent
or maybe another emergency that pops up back home. So you want to make sure that you have
that advance parole document applied for at the beginning when you apply for adjustment of status,
even if you're not thinking you're going to use it, even if you're not sure you're going to use
it. One other aspect of this, one other concern is that people think that there's an additional
cost for this. Now, normally, when you apply for a work permit, when you apply for an advanced role
document, when they're standalone applications, there is a fee for them. But when you apply for
a work permit or an advance parole document, I-131, with an adjustment of status application,
there's no extra fee for those two documents. Those two fees are waived because you're paying
the adjustment of status fee, the I-45 fee and the I0130. There's no extra costs actually in
sending in the application for the work permit and the advance parole document.
So, again, every case is specific. If you want to talk about the facts of your specific situation,
click on the Booking link below, book a paid consultation, we can get into it. But as a
general matter, most people that are applying for adjustment of status, the vast majority
of them are going to be served by having a work permit application and an application for advance
parole filed concurrently with the adjustment of status application. So don't get caught,
don't be stuck applying without one of those and then having to wait for nine months, a year,
maybe even a year and a half for a Green Card and not being able to work and not being able to leave
the country. That's not going to be good. That can be avoided fairly easily with the planning
in the beginning and, of course, seeking the guidance of a qualified immigration attorney.
So that's it for this video. If you have questions about your specific situation,
click on the link below, book a paid consultation. If you don't want to have
to deal with all of this hassle of figuring out all these rules, you want to just hire a reliable
attorney to take you through this process and represent you, click on that same link below.
We'll get into the facts of your situation as well as the timeline for the case and the price.