Hello, hello, everybody, and welcome to our Immigration channel, our Friday live.
And in today's live, I wanted to give you, guys, very precise updates about three main
things. We're going to talk about another update for US embassies and consulates. What's happening
with the reopening? When are they reopening? What are the procedures that are happening right now?
We'll talk about Proclamation 10052 - expired. What does it mean for the applicants that are
being affected by this proclamation? And finally, we'll talk about some USCIS policy changes that
are taking place right now specifically, when it comes to cases that are being rejected. We'll talk
about that. So, make sure that you stick to the end, I will try to get and cover as much as I can.
I know many of you are joining right now. We have Ifarhaan. We've got the Hemma. Welcome,
welcome. I appreciate all of you. Those of you that are joining in right now let me know where
you're tuning in from so we can acknowledge you as well. So, once again, I wanted to mention, here
is Dorina. Hi, Dorina. How are you? So, I want to mention... I want to... I'm going to talk in this
live video about three main things. We're going to go for the most recent updates about embassies
and consulates, about the reopening. I’ve done quite a few videos last week. We got some insider
information from NVC. I shared it with you, guys. So, today we'll talk about embassy updates
as it comes from the State Department. We'll go back and look at what they say. Second,
we'll talk about the proclamation. What does it mean that Proclamation 10052 is now canceled,
who is impacted, and how they are going to move forward. And finally,
we'll talk about USCIS immigration changes, policy changes that are significantly important
for many of you that are going through the immigration process. So, let's jump right in.
All right, so, let's take a look at topic number one. Embassies and consulates are being reopened.
So, we're looking right now at the most recent update from April 1 from the State Department.
And essentially what they're saying is that routine services are coming back.
Embassies are now prioritizing US citizens, immigrant visas, obviously, they are prioritizing
fiance visas to go here. This is basically the schedule of who is prioritized. So,
immigrant visas, US Citizen services, fiance visas, inter-country adoptions,
essentially priority for immediate relatives, and of course,
if you are... for non-immigrant visas, F1 visas, and J1s. And of course, they said that every
embassy is going to reopen in its own schedule. The criteria for the reopening of the embassies,
as I provided you, guys, in previous videos, I mentioned to you before that it depends on the
particular embassy, the conditions of the country conditions, how they are reopening. And also, it
depends on the safety of the consulate. So, again, there's a video that I've done that specifically
explains that; how these embassies are going to be reopening depending on where they are.
So, that's good news that they are actually updating their website on that and letting us know
when they're going to be reopening. Remember that we still have the travel proclamations on
so they're keeping mindful of that one. One thing that is important for people to know is about the
visa fees. Do we have to pay visa fees again, for people that are going to be rescheduled for
their interviews? And so, they're saying that they're reopening the visa fees all the way
through September 30, 2022. That will remain. Yeah, that will remain in place, which means
that your visa fees are good until September 30, 2022. So, once again, to summarize this,
every once in a while I provide an update about embassies and consulates reopening, this update is
not that much different. What it does tell us is that, again, quite a few embassies are following
their own procedures, which means they're going to reopen depending on the country condition. So,
quite a few of our embassies that we know are reopening in a more regular way. They have more
staff that did their training, they're expanding their facilities to be able to
get more people to be interviewed. And we've seen that happen in Frankfurt, we've seen that happen
at the US Embassy in Madrid, we have rumors that Manila is going to move in that direction as well.
So, we have some good news for quite a few of these embassies. But again, it's still a little
bit slow. And we have to be patient. But the fact is that things are definitely moving in the right
direction. And the fact that all the proclamations are gone, it’s going to help a lot of these
embassies to release some more visa slots. And that will allow NVC to start sending their own
cases. And again, I mentioned in the previous video that I've done that NVC is now harboring
those cases, they are warehousing them waiting for the embassies to open slots to allow them to
do so. So, let's move on to our next topic, which is basically the Presidential Proclamation. So,
what I'm going to do is, I'm going to share my screen again here. And so you can see.
So, Proclamation 10052 is now expired. And President Biden is not going to
extend it. If you remember, this applies to certain categories of H1Bs, H2Bs, J1s
that were not allowed to enter the United States. They're not allowed to enter the United States,
and the reason was that Trump said that our workforce is being impacted by these workers
coming to work in the United States and embassies refused to issue visas.
Now, remember that the way it's going to work right now is that people that have not
yet been interviewed, they're going to have to schedule interviews. And embassies are going to,
hopefully, prioritize their applications. But for those people that previously were refused visas,
because they said, it does not agree with the Proclamation, in a wrong way,
they have to reapply. And they have to submit a new application fee, which is something that
is not fair. But again, if you were previously refused because of the Proclamation because you
were anH1B, or H2B, or a J1 visa, you have to reapply and pay a new fee, and you better do so
sooner than later. So, you're going to go and schedule into the queue, it is important.
They're going to prioritize those people that were scheduled for interviews,
but they couldn't go. So, once again, the Proclamation is not going to be renewed.
But it still doesn't mean that things are going to go back to normal. Remember, they have still
a huge visa backlog in all these embassies. So, people that... again, if you remember,
the Proclamation did not bar the embassies from issuing visas, they just prevent these applicants
to enter the United States. But the embassies use that as an excuse not to issue visas. And
therefore we have this huge backlog right now. So, once again, if you were refused a visa because
of the Proclamation, you need to make another appointment and pay another fee. People that
were not able to get appointments because of the Proclamation, they're going to be prioritized
right now. And hopefully, those embassies are going to start scheduling those interviews right
now. So, if you were not able to get your visa appointment, if you're an H or J or L visa, you
need to make... you need to contact the embassy and schedule your appointment right now so you'll
be able to get your visa. Again, people think that things are going to go back to normal right away.
It's not going to happen as soon as we think. And again, those of you that are watching right now
and you’re here for the first time, make sure you subscribe to the channel and also click,
give us a big like so YouTube will be able to share this video with more people just like you.
And also, if you're watching right now, you can drop your questions here. I'm going to try
to answer a few questions towards the end of the broadcast. But I just wanted to cover the topic.
So, those of you who are joining right now, we started with talking about US embassies resuming,
reopening, basically in most places. And they're going to be reopening one by one based on country
conditions. And now, we're talking about Proclamation 10052 that has been expired.
And there's going to be a priority of services for people that were not able to get their visas,
they need to reschedule. They need to make another appointment to be able to get their
visa scheduled. But if you’re refused before, you're going to have to pay your fee,
your visa fee. Again, they're not waiving the visa fee, unfortunately, which is not fair.
So, let's jump to the third topic, and then I'll be able to give you… to answer your question. So,
right now, we are making a video about what happens when your cases are being rejected.
What happens when USCIS is rejecting your cases because you did something wrong. So, this video
is coming probably on Monday. But this update today, I want to talk about a new policy. So,
at some point, USCIS started rejecting cases when you left blank spaces on the forms, specifically
Forms 589 when you apply for asylum, Form I-612 application for a waiver, and I-19 for U visas.
And there are other forms that were subject to the same treatment, as well as Adjustment of Status.
But in this particular policy change, any of these forms that were rejected because they were blank,
they're reversing it back to the policy from 2018. They're not going to be rejecting it. If
you submit an application and you left something blank, however, you should be aware that,
they still can reject forms, they can still reject the application, if you left out key information,
if you didn't answer specific questions that are material to the application,
those can still be rejected. But these are good signs. Again, it just shows you that remember,
we had the public charge that was canceled, now, we have this policy that has been changed. So,
USCIS is also moving toward the right direction of reversing some of Trump's policies and going
back to policies that are more reasonable. You're just not just going to... if they're sitting on
applications for two or three months, and then you forgot to complete the box. And now, you
lost three months from the process just because you forgot to fill a box. This is reasonable so
I'm making a video that will come on Monday, it tells you how to deal with USCIS if your case
has been rejected. What happens if they send your case back? What do you have to do? That video is
coming on Monday. But in this update today, I just want to let you know that this policy of rejecting
cases because you left some boxes blank on these forms is being reversed as of now. And it's going
back to the policy of 2018. So, let me take a few of your questions before we end the stream. So,
we have a question from Farhaan, “Can you tell, please, about the US Embassy in Djibouti?” So,
again, I can't give you specific information about the individual embassies but what I can tell you
is that the update I gave at the beginning of this video says something very simple,
embassies are reopening right now. It is your job to communicate to your specific embassy,
email them and say, “Hey, right now, we have an update that your department is
given the authorization to reopen. Are you guys reopening? When is your reopening? Every embassy
is going to have its own schedule. It is your duty to email them and figure out when they're going to
reopen. Okay, so, a question from Claudia, “Here from California, fiancee is from the Dominican
Republic.” What is your question, Claudia, though? Hello. Hello, and thank you for coming to
our live stream. Larry's asking, “When will the Philippines start processing K1 interview?” So,
the Philippines is kind of a weird embassy, they're going on and off. Remember that
they are not able to fully reopen because of the country conditions. But expedited cases
still work. And we've done a lot of expedited cases from Manila, and they are successful. So,
if your case is stuck, if you're not able to move forward, in your case, you can request
the US embassy to expedite your case. And they are entertaining expedited. Remember,
one policy change about expedited is that if you file for expedited, you only have one shot right
now. You can’t do it more than once. It seems that they are not going to entertain more than once.
And you have to make sure that your application to expedite is going to be done very well
because many people are applying and they're just overwhelmed with cases. So,
we tried to put together the strongest application for our clients. So,
once again, maybe I’ll take a few more questions here. We have Texas here, Nigeria. Here...
from Mrs. G, “Are there scheduled interviews in Brazil for consular processing for CR1 cases?” So,
once again, Brazil is slowly starting to schedule interviews, not fully reopen. Our cases in Rio
still require expedited requests. So, if you have CR1 that is stuck in Rio, make sure that you use
the expedited process to be able to expedite your case. But otherwise... remember that
the good news is that they are making a lot of efforts to start accommodating interviews.
Because if you remember the video that I've done earlier in the week, I mentioned that there are
more than 275,000 immigrant visas pending, pending interviews. This is a huge backlog and therefore,
while they're trying to accommodate a lot of these interviews, it is important for you, guys, to be
proactive with your cases. Try to communicate with your embassies. And if they're not willing
to make, to accommodate for an interview, then you have to request for an expedited, so you can
push your case for it. So, anyway, this is kind of what I have to say for today. We have a lot
of cool videos coming up for you, guys. Next week, we've got a video about how to handle rejection,
rejection cases. We've got more updated specific updates for people that are stuck at embassies,
what to do, and a few other cool videos answering your question. So, thanks for watching. As always,
I appreciate you. If you want to do a consultation with me, make sure to text me at 619-483-4549.
I'm always available for consultation, and I want to be able to help you with your case. And thanks
for watching. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel. I always appreciate all of you. You,
guys, are the best. And I’m encouraged by you. And I'm super excited to make videos
because you, guys, are the best. So, thanks for watching, and I'll see you in our next video.