Hi, this is Attorney Jacob Sapochnick. And I wanted to thank you for watching our video.
I wanted to briefly discuss the major factors that clients are facing or they need to know
when preparing an I-601 waiver. As you know, there's been proposed changes to the 601 hardship
waiver and there's going to be a new form, the I-601A. I just wanted to touch base quickly
on the factors that clients need to know what are the main points that you need when preparing
a waiver? Well, basically the waiver is hardship to the US citizen spouse. So, this is the
main point that people have to realize that the qualifying relative as a spouse is very
important. And the hardship is not based with the immigrant that is currently out of the
country or about to leave, but it's actually to the US citizen. And this is a major misconception
that people are having those waivers. So, the US government is looking at a few factors.
First of all, they're looking at medical factors. So, if the US citizen spouse has any condition
that will require her to be in the US, get treatment, or will not be able to get the
same treatment in the home country of the immigrant, those are factors that we need
to emphasize when we're preparing a waiver. The second thing that we use in a waiver application,
I'm looking at educational factors. Is the US citizen spouse going to school or about
to go to school, taking a loan in the middle of a course, leaving that or breaking that
education opportunities are going to result in extreme hardship because you are not going
to be able to continue that in the home country? The third factor that we're looking at is
financial, whether the US citizen spouse has a business or about to start a business or
helping another family member in the business or they are contributing to the family financial
pool. And if they're leaving or they're going to have to leave the US, that's going to result
in extreme hardship. It is important to emphasize and structure that particular factor carefully
because this is really going to be a strong element of the case. Another factor is special
considerations. Is there a particular scenario that we want to show that this particular
US citizen is going to suffer either at work, or because they are going to be promoted,
or because they're going to be applying for a particular position, or because they're
helping another family member that is ill. So, these are particular special considerations
that are different for every case. And we would like to emphasize that in the particular
incident scenario. And finally, we're looking at the country conditions. Is the country
that the US citizen spouse about to go is dangerous, or lack of employment, or language
barriers, or anything that we can show that if that US citizen spouse would need to depart,
it's going to be virtually impossible for them to assimilate in that country. So, those
factors are important if we can combine them or play with them to create a strong waiver.
This is really where the US government is looking to see whether the client met the
standard of extreme hardship or not. As far as documents that we're looking at, usually
we, if we go with a medical, we could get afidavits, medical records from the physicians.
If clients are suffering from mental conditions or depression or anxiety, would like to get
continuing treatment, it's not enough just to get one document or statement from a psychiatrist.
Many clients are doing that already. And so the concept of officers are saying, "Well,
if this is another document from a psychologist, how different it is from another case?" We
want to show that the client actually needs mental health treatment. We want to show the
client actually has ongoing treatment. Somebody that they won't be able to get in the home
country. Other documents in strong affidavits. It's very important to have a strong personal
statement to determine how their hardship is impacting the US citizen spouse. It's not
just enough to provide a document that is kind of an explanation about how they're suffering,
everybody's suffering. We want to show something unique and different in the individual case
and that's where the attorney is working with the client to really bring out the story.
So all in all, the new waiver provisions have not changed the hardship definition except
that now, it's very important to, If the new changes are going to pass, it's very important
to document and collect all these evidence in preparation for the in-country waiver and
[inaudible] factors that are unique to that particular client's case. All the best and
success in your hardship waiver case. And if you have any questions, feel free to email
us at any time. Thank you for watching. I look forward to providing the next video.