Did you know that, now, because of the Coronavirus crisis, F1 students potentially can get a
work permit? Watch this video, and I'll tell you how. Hello, everybody. This is Jacob Sapochnick
and I'm an immigration attorney based in San Diego, California. And currently, I'm quarantined
right here at my house. In this video, we’ll talk about F1 student visas and the right
to work. But before that, if you're here for the first time, make sure you subscribe to
our channel. Click that bell to be notified. We release new videos every week. And also,
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So, let's talk about F1 visas and work authorization. So normally, F1 visas are visas given for
international students coming to studying in the United States for full-time courses.
So, F1 students come here to study full time typically. And under the common regulations,
such students, if they need to work, they usually work up to 20 hours on campus. But
now, with the Coronavirus situation, there are certain circumstances where the USCIS
will allow certain exceptions. For example, unforeseen circumstances, that's how they
classified and I'm recording this video based on an announcement issued by USCIS, it's on
their website, it explains what are unforeseen circumstances. So for example, when it comes
to somebody that overstays their visa, and they cannot leave, and as long as they can
prove why they can’t do that, they're going to be able to extend their status. Or the
same way, they announced about the right to work for F1 students due to these unforeseen
circumstances of the Coronavirus. So, what are those unforeseen circumstances? So typically,
it could be a loss of tuition because of that, maybe there was a disaster. It could be a
change in a personal situation because of unforeseen circumstances. Again, in this case,
the Coronavirus, which means that if somebody got ill, they're not able to go to school,
if family members overseas are not able to send money anymore because of what's happening
over there, they’re shut down, they’re not able to leave. This is really a global
crisis and it falls under the criteria of unforeseen circumstances. And again, those
need to be documented. And typically, F1 students could do that from time to time, but it really
has to be extreme and you needed to prove a lot of… you have a lot of documentation
to document it. But right now, because we are here in a global crisis, the USCIS wants
to give an opportunity for students like that to be able to apply for work authorization
so they are able to survive here as we try to go through this challenge. So, what is
required for this? What do you need to do? So, first of all, you have to apply for the
work permit on Form I-765. Just like when you apply for an open T or any other work
permit. You also need to include your I-20 with it, which is your form that allows you
to go to school, and that form has to be signed by the DSO, the International Student office,
to explain that they approve, they support it. And also, you need to have documentation
to show that you currently suffering [inaudible] because you are either sick or you’re not
able to pay for school or whatever happened because of the Coronavirus, because you're
able to get money from back home. I feel that they are going to be quite lenient right now
because it is a global crisis. And it will help a lot of students right now that are
staying here, 3, 4 or 5 years, sometimes more, and they have intentions to go to a master’s
degree. It will be devastating if they have to leave right now. And many of them can't
even leave because the borders are closed. So, it is a good opportunity right now to
apply for a work permit. And just temporarily to be able to help survive and do it. You
can actually work outside of campus. So again, it's very different than the OPT. It's very
different than the CPT that you can do while you're studying, it has to be related to your
course of study. This is a general work permit that you're going to be able to apply to help
you survive these crazy times. So, hopefully, this information was helpful. If you need
help to apply for the work permit, make sure you call us at this number or email me below.
I will help you with our resources. Our offices are closed physically but we are working remotely
24/7, helping our customers to navigate through this crisis. So, thanks for watching. If you
have any questions, post them in the comments below. and we'll see you in our next video.