So in the previous video, we announced that certain I-45 Adjustment of Status interviews
are being waived. But I wanted to explain in this video what legal requirements can
interviews be actually waived so you will understand under what circumstances the immigration
can waive an interview. Watch this video, and I'll tell you more. Hello, everybody.
So in this video, we'll talk about what are some of the criteria that USCIS is looking
before they waive interviews for Adjustment of Status? What is kind of the common reasons
why the interview should be waived? If you haven't seen my previous video where we talked
about, we announced the fact that quite a few interviews are being waived, watch the
video, click that link over here and you can watch that video to give you some context.
If you’re here for the first time, make sure you subscribe to our channel. Click that
bell to be notified. We create videos every single week. My name is Jacob Sapochnick and
I'm an immigration attorney based in San Diego, California, and we practice immigration law
in all 50 states. And right now during the Coronavirus pandemic, we try to update you
with videos that are related to immigration and COVID-19 to keep you informed. What are
the criteria that the USCIS can use, typically, to waive an interview? And again, the reason
we're doing this video is because early on in this week, we reported that a few of our
clients got their interviews waived specifically for employment-based immigration, and a couple
of family-based immigration cases as well. And then we had a bunch of questions from
people asking, “Well, will my interview will be waived as well?” Well, for the moment,
there is no policy from your USCIS that specifically says that an interview will be waived. All
we can see is in practice in some of our cases, as well as other immigration attorneys are
reporting that certain interviews are being waived. What is the actual legal basis for
an interview to be waived? Up until about a year ago or so, only family-based Adjustment
of Status required an interview. Employment-based Adjustment of Status typically did not require
an interview. And applicants who had all the documents were receiving their green cards
by mail. That has changed through a USCIS policy about a year ago or so that required
even Adjustment of Status applicants who are getting their green cards based on employment
like EB2 or EB3 national interest waiver cases to be interviewed. And of course, that created
a much bigger backlog of people waiting on the interviews, and that's kind of how it
was until now. And that has not changed, that policy is still in place. But we've seen in
the past week or so because of COVID-19, I guess they're trying to catch up, they started
waiving interviews for certain applicants. Under USCIS guidelines, the following classes
of cases typically get their interviews waived. Number one, people who are clearly ineligible
for their benefits. So, they're not ever going to get an interview and their cases probably
will get denied. Second, are children under the age of 14, typically could get their interviews
waived. Number three, parents of US citizens typically can get their interviews waived,
that's in USCIS regulations, certain asylees who got their asylum already and they were
approved, could be also exempt from the 45 adjustment interview. And special circumstances,
like military cases, people that are about to be deployed, or if kids involved military,
we've seen those cases, that's also in the regulations, interviews could be waived. In
some cases, in a family petition where the US citizen petitioner is incarcerated, they
could also waive interviews in cases like that if they have enough evidence to satisfy
that the case is fine. They could waive the interview requirement for one of the parties,
at least. On the employment side, before the regulation that they are required also for
interviews, cases like national interest waiver, EB1s, and people that are still working for
the same petitioner under an EB2 classification were also typically able to be waived, and
that's also the USCIS regulations. These are the kind of general categories of classes
of individuals or cases that we're getting their Adjustment of Status interviews waived,
and that's in the regulations on the USCIS. Now, we know that now, typically, Adjustment
of Status cases under employment petitions require an interview, that has not changed.
And also, 45 Adjustment of Status based on marriage also require interviews, that has
never changed. But we know that because the situation right now is unusual because we
have… the service has been closed for more than a month, the backlog that we anticipate
is going to happen… is going to be severe and extreme. And therefore, they will probably
do some sort of concessions and start waiving interviews for certain classes, some of the
them that I mentioned here, and maybe also others, like even family petitions that they
feel comfortable to approve, there'll be adjudicating them without interviews, that remains to be
seen, that’s not a policy. But I think in this video, I just wanted to kind of explain
that interview waiver is something that exists in USCIS policy, and they can do it for certain
classes of immigrants. They can also do it under extreme circumstances, like the Coronavirus,
or any other issue that requires them to waive an interview to help speed up the process
or to avoid hardship for the applicant from getting the green card because they need to
work or travel or whatever the issue is. So, this is just kind of a general, once we have
more updates as to interview waivers becomes a policy or what happens in that, we'll post
an update. In the meantime, that's all I have for now. If you have any questions, post it
in the comments below. If you know somebody who may benefit from this video, make sure
you share this video. And let me know in the comments what other videos you want us to
make because I know you have a lot of questions and this is a very unsettling time. So, thank
you for watching. Stay safe. We'll see you in our next video.