If you're a green card lottery winner, 2020, and you're impacted by President Trump's 60-day
ban in immigration. Watch this video and I'll tell you more what you need to know and how
to prepare. I'll see you on the other side. In this video, we'll talk about the impact
of President Trump's 60-day ban on immigration on DV lottery, green card lottery winners
and how they should go about their future as this ban continues to be in place. Before
that, if you're here for the first time, make sure you subscribe to our channel. Click that
bell to be notified as we release videos every single week. My name is Jacob Sapochnick and
I'm an immigration attorney based in San Diego, California. We represent clients in all 50
States and around the globe. And we want to help you as well, to answer your immigration
questions and hopefully help you with your case as well. So, let's talk about DV green
card lottery winners and Trump's 60-day ban. You have no idea how many emails, questions
via text, on our comments about the future of the DV lottery program and also what happens
to people that are now impacted by this ban. As you know, we've done already quite a few
videos about the ban. And one of those videos which we'll link here in the description here
as well, we described who is impacted. So, people that are immigrants and they're not
married to a US citizen. There's a list of a bunch of people that are impacted. And by
now, you know that DV green card lottery winners are impacted, which means that if you won,
your numbers is low enough, and you're just waiting for an interview, an interview was
scheduled that was rescheduled because the embassies and consulates are closed, you are
now impacted also, by the 60-day ban. That means that you're not able to come to the
US and get your interview scheduled. So, what do you do? You know that this is a very sensitive
time for DV lottery winners because we have to complete this process by September 30th,
otherwise, you lose the opportunity to get it. And so, there's a few things that can
happen. First of all, we're hoping that this ban is going to be only for 60 days. Again,
nothing is guaranteed. But let's assume that for now, we know that it's only for 60 days.
What you have to do is, as soon as this ban is lifted, right, so as soon as we're looking
at May 23... June 23, kind of towards the end of June, you need to be proactive about
communicating with the embassy, with your embassy, US Embassy, about scheduling an emergency
interview, to try to get your appointment done sooner than later so you'll be able to
get interviewed. So emails, writing to them, putting them on notice that you're a DV lottery
winner and you need to get your interview sooner than later, as soon as the doors are
open. Now, remember, right now, nobody can get interviewed. So, whether you're banned
because of the 60 days, or you're just waiting because the embassies are closed because of
COVID-19, we're all in the same boat, right? We're hoping that embassies are going to reopen
probably sometime in June, maybe late June. It's still unclear. And you still kind of
be... as a DV lottery winner, you're not going to be that much behind, maybe a couple of
weeks, if you think about it. So, that means that as soon as the embassies are open, you
have to start emailing and contacting them to try to see if you can schedule an appointment.
If you have an attorney, work with your attorney to make sure you get that appointment scheduled
fast. If you're inside the United States, that has no impact at all, on your ability
to get your appointments. Remember, this is just for DV lottery winners who are outside
of the US. If you're inside the US, we have a lot of clients that are inside the US, and
had your interview scheduled in the end March, in April. And then, the interviews were rescheduled
because USCIS is also closed right now. Make sure that as soon as they reopen after June
4, you contact USCIS as soon as possible and try to schedule that interview either as a
priority or as an emergency and kind of put it there that it's a DV lottery and you need
to have your interview scheduled sooner than later. If you're in the US, you're in a much
better position because we're hoping USCIS is going to reopen on June 4th, and then you
can start pushing them or working with your attorney trying to get them you through an
Infopass or whatever you have to do to try to get that appointment done as soon as possible
because you got to get the process finished before September 30th. Now, once again, if
you're overseas, and let's say the ban is going to be extended. If you have a tourist
visa, consider coming to the United States. Again, this is a whole different strategy.
And again, you need to consult with your attorney before you do that. There are ways to do it.
But if you're not able to do it from overseas and you are legally allowed to come to the
United States, I would seriously consider doing that. Again, there are different considerations
around it and you need to think about it. There's issues with immigrant fraud, and things
like that that you have to be careful about. But if you think about it, the future of your
green card depends on that. And you have until September 30th so it is important to set up
a consultation. And again, we have our consultation link posted below if you need that advice
as soon as possible. Right now, we're working with our green card lottery clients right
now, to come up with strategies to see how we can help. But again, hopefully, that ban
is not going to be extended. And as soon as consulates are open, you need to call, email,
or whatever it takes to schedule your interview as soon as possible so you meet that deadline.
So, that was just kind of our idea, our suggestions, and what I tell my clients right now, monitor
USCIS, monitor the embassies and try to get those interviews scheduled as soon as they
open. So, questions, put them in the comments below. Let me know what you think. Any other
confusion about this issue, I try to answer those as well. We have a private Facebook
group we've created just for this kind of situation where we answer questions about
this, post updates in that group. Join the group, the link is right here below. Let me
know what other videos you want me to make about this crisis and things that come up
as a result of COVID-19. We're on it. We make videos every single week. So, thank you for
watching, and I'll see you in our next video.