Hello, everybody. In this video, I wanted to provide an update about the K1 litigation,
the status of K1 visas around the World, what's happening with K1 visas, which embassies are
issuing, and where cases are being stuck, and what can you do about it? So, let's dive right in.
Welcome back to our Immigration channel. This is the place where you get the most up-to-date,
immigration news, immigration updates, and everything else you need to make your immigration
stress-free. In this video, I want to talk about K1 visa litigation, K1 visa updates. I mean,
I have so many comments that people are asking what's happening with the K1s.
What is Biden going to do about it, has anything changed since President Biden took office? So,
we'll talk about the current litigation that is pending. We'll talk about what's happening in
embassies and consulates. And we'll talk about what you can do to make your case,
to make your K1 case move a little bit faster. So, make sure you stick to the end. I’ll break
it down in detail, step by step. Those of you that are watching this for the first time, make
sure you click the notification bell, so you don't miss any more videos. I'm going to try to provide
you these up-to-date updates, as soon as I know more, and I want to share them with you. And also,
give us the big like so YouTube will be able to share this video with more people just like
you who are waiting for their K1 visas. So, what's happening with K1s? As you know, we have embassies
and consulates around the world that keep giving excuses to clients saying that they're not issuing
visas at the moment, they're not willing to, they're not able to issue visas, either because
of the travel bans. Because as you know, we still have a travel ban from all the Schengen countries,
other European countries, UK, Ireland, Brazil, and now, we have South Africa that has been added to
the list of the travel ban. So, in most of these countries, right now, we have a strong resistance
from embassies to even issue visas, to even get an appointment to issue visas. And as you know,
those travel bans specifically say only one thing. They're saying that you cannot enter the US if you
fly directly from those countries, it doesn't mean that you're not allowed to issue any visas.
If you reside in any of these countries, all it means is that as long as you stay two weeks
outside of the US and get your COVID test three days before you enter the US, you should have no
problem to get your visa and come to the United States. Those consulates seem to still refuse to
do so at the moment. And even countries that are outside of that travel ban. We've got cases in the
Philippines, we've got cases in Jordan, and we've got cases in Kenya that are not issuing K1 visas
because they are blaming it on the proclamations. They're blaming it on different things.
This is not right. If you remember my previous K1 visa update, and all you have to do is search
on YouTube, K1 visa updates, and you're going to see our videos right there. And I've done a video
in December, I’ve done a video in November. And I mentioned to you that some consulates,
to this day, were confusing the ban, the proclamation ban that was issued in April,
that specifically barring certain family members, spouses of green card holders, parents, and
certain immigrant visas from entering the United States. K1 visas were never part of the ban,
to this day. And they were not part of the second ban as well. So, remember that those embassies
and consulates, they use the proclamations, are not doing so right. And we'll talk, in a second,
about what you can do, how to deal with those consulates when that happens. So, if you remember,
as I mentioned in the previous update about Milligan versus Pompeo, the plaintiffs had some
success. And the court essentially ordered that the named plaintiffs, the people that were part of
the first round of litigation to be issued their K1 visas, and many of them started to get their
visas, the ones that were actually mentioned in their lawsuit. In fact, the main named plaintiff,
Miss Milligan, just arrived in the United States and is about to get married to her husband.
We are sharing a picture, where… here, you can see it. This was in a Twitter account of Jeff Joseph,
which is one of the attorneys representing Miss Milligan in this litigation. And so, we are super
excited for her. She is the named plaintiff. The whole lawsuit is named after her and we are so
happy that she's in the US now able to finally marry her spouse. But what about all the others.
All the others are still pending. So. if you have a K1 visa in one of the countries
that are under the travel ban, so all the Schengen countries, Ireland, UK, Brazil,
and South Africa, if you're one of those people that have a K1 visa from those countries,
you can join the third round of litigation. I know that they are looking for more plaintiffs
to see if they can continue suing the government to be to allow these more people to be able to
come. There's going to be another party in this litigation that we're waiting for the judge
to rule, whether the consulates and embassies are acting legally by not issuing those visas
to plaintiffs, whether they are named in litigation, or they're coming from countries
outside of the travel ban. But if you are somebody who has a K1 visa, and you're one of the countries
under the travel ban, you have two options, you can either try to join this litigation,
or you can sue the consulate individually, you can sue them individually.
So, whether you're part of these travel ban countries or not, if your case is taking too long,
you can sue them individually, under a mandamus law lawsuit, or before you sue them, some of the
things that we do in our office is you can try to try to expedite your case, request an emergency
appointment. And using some of the exceptions, whether it's Hardship to the US citizen,
there are many things that you can do. There are many reasons why you can try to get an exception
for them to issue an emergency appointment. So,
between these or suing them, those are the current options that we have right now because
quite a few of these embassies are wrongfully denying visa appointments to applicants stating
that either they are subject to the travel ban, which this litigation should cure, or the issue
or the refusing to issue a visa appointment for whatever reasons. So, once again, until
the Biden administration is going to clearly give instructions to these embassies to issue K1 visas,
which we don't have at the moment, we are expecting the travel bans to be lifted in the
next few weeks. If that happens, this update may change as well. And we may see some more movement
on the side of the embassies. But at the moment, my suggestion to you,
if your K1 is stuck, I will try to see if we can... if you can expedite it before suing them.
Again, the results on an expedite request could be received in a matter of a couple of weeks.
And whether you should wait or proceed with lawsuits. And if you are part of the travel ban
countries and you have a K1, you may consider joining one of the
lawsuits that are going around. And then many, many class members that are joining.
And sometimes, you can benefit from that as well. The bottom line is that no matter what you do,
you have to be proactive, you should not be just waiting because there are thousands of people that
are stuck around the world right now waiting for their K1 visa interviews. And if you're going to
be one of them that you're sitting and waiting, nothing is going to happen. So, once again,
trying to expedite. And again, there's a phone number right here. And if you do need help to
try to push those embassies and try to get some traction, we've been very successful in doing so
in the past few months. And we'd be more than happy to work with you as well. So, just send
us a text in this number and request an expedited case for your K1, and we'll be right there to help
you. So, this is the update that I have for you for early February. Things may change in a couple
of weeks. And I promise you, I'll come back with a more recent update. So, thanks again for watching.
If you're K1, don't lose hope. As you can see quite a few of these K1s are coming back. Some
of them, after litigation. Some of them are after expedited, like we've done, but the most important
thing is, do not lose hope because things are going to get better. So, thanks for watching.
Leave me a comment. Let me know what you think, any questions, and I'll see you in our next video.
So, if you like this video, watch these two videos for more information just like that.