In this video, we'll talk about how the Biden administration is going to impact the State
Department, embassies, and consulates worldwide, as well as the USCIS here in the United States,
lots of backlogs, lots of things to worry about. Watch this video, and I'll share with you more.
Hello, YouTube friends. In this video, we'll talk about how the State Department,
mostly embassies and consulates worldwide, as well as the USCIS, Immigration in the United States
are going to be impacted by Biden's new policies. How is he going to be able to tackle the
enormous backlog and the problems we have right now once he takes office. So, lots to talk about.
So, let's break it down and dive deeper as to what's actually going to happen with State
Department, USCIS under Biden, and what he can and should do to make things much better. Before that,
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just like you. My name is Jacob Sapochnik. And I'm an immigration attorney. I'm based in San Diego,
California, and I help clients in all 50 states. And I'm super excited about the changes that are
coming with our administration. I think it's going to be very good for immigration. And it's going to
be very good for people that have been suffering for the past four years. So, let's dive right in.
As of today, we are recording this video in November. There are serious and severe backlogs
pretty much with all US embassies and consulates worldwide. I'm making a video pretty much once a
month with an update as to what's happening with embassies and consulates. And essentially, the
updates are pretty much the same every month. We do have some consulates that are opening here and
there to do visa interviews. But the reality is that most embassies and consulates are not doing
visa appointments right now. And as a result, we've been forced to file a request to expedite
emergency visa appointments. We had to use the exception, the national interest exception. We've
done it for many, many clients. And we keep doing those every single day. In fact, in a
future video that I'll be making, I'll tell you about a few of our success stories, how we were
able recently to expedite a K1 visa, a CR1 visa in different consulates and embassies worldwide.
But the reality is that it’s backlogged. There are severe, severe backlogs and the consulates and
embassies are not able to take appointments right now. This is a backlog that has not been seen
in our immigration system for more than 30 years. In fact, we heard from a few officials
at the State Department that said that these backlogs will probably take more than six months,
probably more than a year to resolve. Meaning that until regular processing
of these embassies and consulates are going to resume, it's probably going to take more than a
year. The main thing that Biden is going to do, he's going to shift resources from enforcement.
What Trump is doing right now, stopping people from coming into the United States,
blocking visa appointments, reducing the possibility for people to get interviews.
Biden is going to shift resources to adjudication. He's going to streamline the process where
embassies are going to reopen, people are going to get their visa interview, start being scheduled
and people are going to start seeing the visas are going to start being issued just like before but
it's going to take time. So, our prediction on the State Department side, that is going to take more
than a year for things to come back to normal. What does it mean for you? It means that if you're
waiting for a visa interview for embassies like Mumbai, in Kenya, in Islamabad, those are places
where things are really, really behind right now. And the best thing to do right now is to continue
to put pressure on these consulates and embassies, trying to get your cases expedited. If you can,
file for an emergency appointment if you qualify. Those practices will continue at least for
another year until embassies and consulates will resume normal processing. Remember,
the first thing that Biden is going to do is he will start shifting resources from enforcement,
from blocking people from coming in, from blocking people from getting visas to adjudication,
setting up streamlined processes for embassies, and constitutes to be able to take back interviews
and start getting people in the door and giving them their visas. On the USCIS side, again,
we've seen enormous backlogs. People are waiting for their EAD cards, people are waiting for the
interviews, people are waiting for their N-400 appointments. It's definitely taking a long time.
What Biden can do, he can start rescinding a lot of these memos under the Trump administration. We
had increased Requests For Evidence that were issued as a result. It was much more difficult
to get cases approved. And many, many more cases were stuck in limbo. We anticipate that under the
Biden administration, once again, a lot of these memos are going to be rescinded that we're going
to see probably less Requests For Evidence. And there's going to be a better flow of adjudications
at the USCIS level as well to allow us to have a more streamlined process, and getting people
approved in a much more reasonable and logical manner. Also, when it comes to USCIS, I think
Biden is going to allow them to get a loan, a better funding program for USCIS to stay open,
probably getting a better funding package under Biden to USCIS to help them remain working in a
smooth way so we don't have to worry about getting another shutdown or furloughs and stuff like that.
And also, what is most important, giving the authority for Congress to allow them to create a
better fee schedule. Instead of just raising fees unreasonably, create an appropriate fee schedule
that will last maybe two or three years, and will make it easier for consumers to file applications.
Essentially, make people want to file applications because fees are going to be reasonable. And also,
open the door to more premium processing options. That will make it reasonable for
people to file cases and have them expedited so they don't have to wait too long. So,
all these efforts, the elimination of these unreasonable memos, stopping Requests For
Evidence, that will also speed up the processing of cases, and help people get more approvals so
people will be encouraged to file applications and get their faith back in the system.
Most people, I'm telling you, lost the faith in our system, people do not want to file cases with
USCIS anymore, they're scared. And I think we're going to see a shift in immigrants that are ready
to file for citizenship, immigrants that are ready to file for the green cards because they know that
it's going to work, and they're not going to be scrutinized, getting unreasonable Requests
For Evidence, and being ready to do the right thing. We are a country that welcomes immigrants,
and we have to do it the right way. So, as a whole, I think we're going to see definitely
shifts in the State Department. Those of you that are waiting for your interview appointments,
being separated from your loved ones, we know that it’s going to take some time but under the Biden
administration, there's going to be a big shift. Instead of focusing more on enforcement is
going to be more on adjudication. How do we speed up the process? How do we get those consulates to
move cases ahead? In the meantime, like I said, it's probably going to take about a year. So,
we still have to use the resources we have right now, the request for expedited,
and things like that, that we do all the time. And I'll make a video, giving you some case studies,
a few of the recent cases we've done. So, first of all, you get some hope. And also, you'll see
what's possible to do right now so you don't have to wait too long. So, once again, hope
under Biden. Hopefully, this video was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions about
what's going to happen or any other concerns you have. Leave them in the comments here. Thanks for
watching, and I'll see you in the next video. So, if you liked this video, these two videos
have more information just like that. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.