Hello, hello, everybody, and welcome to our Saturday live session. In the past few days,
we had so many things happening in immigration. And I was recording a few videos and I wanted
to do this live just to give you updates. There's at least… I have a list here of
things that I put down for you, guys, to go over just so you know because things are changing
literally every day. So, we're going to talk about the international students, recent developments
that happened yesterday with the new memo from ICE about new students coming to the
United States. We're going to talk about DACA, what's actually happening with DACA. I'll
give you my latest update. We’ll talk about the DV lottery lawsuit. I attended the Immigration
Lawyers Association conference last week and I've got updates for you, guys, on the receipt
delays, EADs and green cards not being printed, what's happening with that, recent updates.
We've got an update about the furloughs. Furloughs are not happening. And I'll talk about that.
I have updates about why it's taking forever to actually get a response for immigration
right now. Something behind the scenes that is happening over there. So, we'll talk about
all these things as well as the Healthcare Workforce Resilient Act, what's happening
with that. So, I literally have so many updates. I thought I'll do just one live video. And
I'll go over all these updates in this video. So, make sure you stay to the end and I'll
see you in just one second. All right. Welcome, welcome. So, if you're joining us right now,
my name is Jacob Sapochnik. And I'm an immigration attorney here in San Diego, California. And
those of you that are here for the first time, make sure you subscribe to our channel so
you never miss a live video like that. Also, give us a like to this video so anybody who
is on YouTube is going to be able to see and get this information. So, first of all, let
me know where you’re from. I see a lot of you already are here. Let me know where you're
tuning in. And you can post your questions in the comments and I'll try to get to those
questions after I give you all these updates, but I have a lot of updates and I know you
were sending me messages, a lot of your comments so I thought I’d come on here and put all
these updates in one video. And then later this week, I'm going to break it down into
more detailed videos that I'll be recording for you, guys, later today. So, let's start
with the list of updates. So, the most recent thing that happened is an update on Friday
by ICE and CBP about international students. So, they just released an FAQ. And this is
the recent FAQ, basically clarifying questions for fall 2020 for students that are coming
in. And I know as you remember, they rescinded their decision to essentially make students
leave the country or prevent students who are coming in here, the ones are left to visit
home. And so, they released an update to that notice, and essentially, what it says is that,
which is I think what is more important for you, guys, that are watching here, is that
if students brand new students, they're just starting in, if they are coming in for the
full session, if their courses are fully online if they're brand new students, they're not
going to be able to get visas. It's going to be up to the consular officer. Most likely,
they're not going to get visas and specifically says there, the decision is going to be made
by the consular officers that are going to issue them visas if they're coming for the
first time and their courses are online. As long as they have one course that is in person,
they should be okay. And if they're going for a hybrid program, they're going to be
also okay, which is kind of like… again, it's almost like they're trying to fight the
government or the lawsuits that were filed. They kind of backtracked. And this memo essentially
is almost like a backdoor attempt for them to basically say that they are controlling
the situation. So once again, if you're a student in the United States, you can stay,
you were already in school, you should be okay for fall even if your courses are online.
If you're in hybrid, you're still okay as well. But if you're new students starting
a semester in a university in the United States, and if your program is completely online,
then they're saying according to this memo, that you're not going to be able to get visas.
You need to have at least one in-person course to be able to do that. So, that's something
to be aware of. So, that's the recent update just a couple of days, just like yesterday
for international students. Let's move on. Like I said, I have updates for you guys.
Those of you that are joining right now. Once again, make sure you subscribe to our channel
so you don't miss any of our lives. I'm going to be talking about a lot of things today.
We're going to be talking about EADs and receipts delays, and the furloughs, and DACA, and a
few other things that I was able to pick at the conference for immigration attorneys that
happened last week. All right. So, let's talk about DACA real quick. So, DACA, as you know,
the Supreme Court, about a month ago, essentially said that Trump's decision to stop DACA was
illegal. And they essentially said that it was illegal. They send the case back to the
lower courts. One of those courts a few weeks ago made a decision that Trump should be transmitted,
he should be accepting DACA. But people were sending cases, but immigration has not updated
their website to this day. And so, at a hearing on Friday, what was decided is that they admitted
the first time that they were essentially holding applications. They're not denying
them. They're not rejecting them but they're just holding them until further notice. And
so, the court gave them essentially 30 days to come up with an explanation and also update
their website. So once again, this is what's happening right now. They're not rejecting
DACA cases, but they're essentially putting them on hold as well as ADVance Paroles. So,
our position in our firm is that we'll continue to file DACAs, and I encourage everybody else
to keep doing that as well. All right. Let's move on to the DV lottery. A lot of you, guys,
are DV lottery winners that are watching this channel and sending me questions. And please
put your questions in the comments as well. So, there's a multiple law of lawsuits that
were filed. The last lawsuit was filed last week. And essentially the lawsuit is demanding
the government to reverse the April ban and the June ban when it comes to the DV lottery
and allow them to continue processing their cases, specifically the US embassies abroad,
so they can keep getting their visas. We should be getting some information about that lawsuit
next week. So, I will obviously update you. But like I said, there's been multiple lawsuits
that were filed, specifically to help DV lottery winners. And we're hoping that those lawsuits
are going to continue. We're getting some results from those in the next week or so.
But for the moment, DV lottery winners are not able to complete their cases, and they're
stuck overseas. So, I'll keep you posted on that lawsuit. But as I said, there's multiple
of them. One of the big ones was filed last week, and we're hoping that they'll be able
to obtain that injunction essentially saying that the Executive Orders are illegal, and
consulates and embassies are going to be able to continue processing those cases. By the
way, this update just came in yesterday and I wanted to bring it up here. Those of you
that are waiting for your interviews at embassies worldwide, as you know, those embassies reopen
in July. And yesterday, the London Embassy in the UK announced that they're going to
be fully reopened as of July 25th. So, I'm hoping that more and more embassies are going
to be issuing those updates. We're currently waiting for Manila to give us updates. We're
waiting for Madrid, and waiting for Mexico City for full reopening. So, as soon as we
have that, we'll know but as of now, confirmed, the US Embassy in London is going to fully
reopen on July 25th. And people are going to be able to get their appointments in there.
So, let's talk about the furloughs. As you know, I reported, I did a video a few days
ago, basically exposing USCIS saying that they lied about the fact that they have money
problems. They lied about all these things and they were just going to furlough people
for no reason. Even when they were basically caught red-handed, they still continue with
their intentions to furlough. And just yesterday under pressure from senators, they said that
furloughs are going to be postponed it until August 30th. It's going to give us at least
another month for the agency to keep working with the current staff. That's going to be
really important, especially during the summer, as you know, there are huge backlogs with
issuing the travel permits people who used to travel in the summer. And right now, usually,
it's a busy, busy time. So, we can’t afford for these people to not be at work. So, hopefully,
that's going to… we'll see the impact, but for the moment, those furloughs were postponed,
and let's see what happens. And hopefully, that's going to be permanent, but for the
moment, there's going to be less disruption. So, let's start about some of the things that
I learned in a conference. So, as you know, one of the things that they said there is
that currently when you file anything with USCIS,
any application… a lot of you here, I've been emailing me and sending me messages.
When you file anything with USCIS, currently, they’re experiencing delays of 30 to 60
days. That's what they said at that event, delays of 30 to 60 days to actually get a
receipt. And that's crazy because if you think about it, this is something that never ever
happened in the history of USCIS, to have such delays. So, they reported a 30 to 60
days delay. So, if you file anything with USCIS, and you don't have a receipt, just
know that this is something that is happening. It's a problem they're working on. What they
told us at a conference is that if at about five, six weeks, you don't get a receipt,
you need to contact the location where you filed, send them an email, and they should
be able to give you an update. But right now, they have severe delays of 30 to 60 days of
getting receipts. So, that's important to know. The other thing that they updated us
in the conference is those of you that were filing I-751 Forms, petitions to remove conditions,
they had technical issues at that division of USCIS. And they were not issuing receipts
even more than two months for 751s. So, just so you know that 751s if you're waiting for
a receipt or you're waiting for an RFE that was issued on the website but you didn't get
it, 751 unit is experiencing severe delays. And this is one of the things that they announced
at a conference that they're working on fixing it. So, if you filed any receipt, 30 to 60
days delays is probably expected. Also, they mentioned that with respect to not issuing
your work permits and EADs, as I mentioned before, USCIS, they fired their contractor,
they had a private contractor that did printing on those EADs and work permits, and they fired
them so they were not able to catch up. And as a result, just last week, there was a major
lawsuit filed by two law firms. And these lawsuits have 75,000 class members. The lawsuit
is called Subramanya vs. USCIS, and this is basically the main… in a class action, as
you know, they take one person, using their example case, and then other people join the
class. There's more than 75,000 people. And in this case, what happened is that it's a
very common situation that many of you that didn't get your EADs. This lady essentially
filed for her renewal in April, and she didn't get anything. And then in June, her employer
had to terminate her employment. And as a result, she lost her pretty much the only
source of income because her husband was also furloughed from his H1B job. So, she's the
main… that's kind of what the lawsuit is based on and many people are facing the same
issues because employers are not going to take your receipt notice, just to give you
a receipt notice as proof of employment. So that's another update. So, hopefully, we'll
be able to get some relief. There's a hearing on Wednesday on that litigation. And so, if
they win, if they're going to be able to get a TRO, USCIS is going to be forced to issue
work permits and green cards within seven days. And so, let's see what happens there.
Let's see. So, crazy, crazy things are happening. A lot of you are asking me about the Healthcare
Workforce Resilient Act. This is the bill that would essentially issue special green
cards, fast green cards for nurses and doctors. This is actually coming up in the COVID-19
relief package. They're pushing that. They have 30 supporters in the Senate and 65 supporters
in the House, and there's a very good chance this is going to pass. And if it's going to
pass, it's going to provide an amazing relief for doctors, nurses, and also some provisions
for undocumented immigrants that are essential employees, essential workers to give them
some sort of like a deferred action work permit. So, that's huge. And hopefully, we're going
to be able to get some updates there. I see a lot of you are joining right now to the
live, thank you for coming and for watching, for supporting us. I truly appreciate every
single one of you. So, make sure you subscribe to our channel and share this video with somebody
that may be interested in this information. Because like I said, I've literally grouped
all these updates here, and I wanted to kind of shoot that out to you so you'll be aware
of what's happening. These are things that are literally from yesterday. That international
students are betas from yesterday. The DACA update is from yesterday, essentially saying
that they're not accepting, they're putting DACAs on hold, they are not rejecting them,
they're not denying them as well. So once again, guys, thank you. Thank you so much
for joining this live. I'll be doing some more videos specifically on these topics to
break it down so you'll be able to see it. Let me know… let me take a couple of questions
before I end this live. Let's see here. Danita is asking, “Does that mean that even delay
for I-130 petitions?” Yes. So, what I mentioned before, when it comes to receipts, the delays
could be across the board. There can be delays for anything that is filed with USCIS. The
biggest problem that they had was with the 751. 751 are definitely delayed beyond most
applications, but they're experiencing delays across the board. So, “How about I-45 Premium
processing time for 45?” So, for EB3s, like I said, there is no premium processing for
45. There is premium processing for I-140s, certain applications that have not been impacted.
Let me see here. Thanks, guys. And here we go… here, Rafael, “My lawyer didn’t
keep an eye on my case and didn't send my taxes, and my case is delayed now what can
I do?” So, like I said, a lot of cases have been delayed because our fees are being issued
on time. So, it's really important to follow up with USCIS. And I made a video about how
to expedite petitions that qualify for expedited and make sure you watch the video. We can
link that video in the description of this video as well. Alright, guys. So, this is
going to be the end of this live stream. So, I wanted to come in here, give this update.
We talked about DACA, international students, DV lottery, receipts delays, 751 delays, furloughs
have been postponed. So, immigration is back on track. And green cards and EADs are not
being printed but litigation is pending. So, hopefully, we're going to get some results
in the next few weeks. So, yeah, let me know, continue posting your questions even after
this video is going to go offline. And I'll come back and answer those questions. Thank
you for joining me on this beautiful Saturday. Let me know where you're from in the world.
Keep following our channel. You, guys, are the best and the reason why I do what I do.
So, thanks a lot, and I'll see you in our next video.