Hello, everybody, and welcome to our Sunday night live update. In this video, I want to go over
some of the things that happened this week, kind of summarize them for you
in one big video, the key executive orders that were signed this week,
and also at least 15 points in Biden’s proposal that you need to know today. And also, we'll talk
about what's going to happen later this week, January 29, we’re expecting a full immigration
day. January 29 is going to be a full immigration day of executive orders. And we are expecting
President Biden to issue an executive order about the public charge rule, a comprehensive review
of the public charge rule. There's going to be also a few, public charge rules revision in that
executive order, and other executive orders with respect to citizenship, and also the issue at
the border. So, it's going to be an exciting week. But in this video, I'm going to go over,
give you like a nice summary. And also, we'll talk about what to expect ahead in the next two weeks.
So, let's jump right in. So, this week started with President Biden's inauguration, it was a very
exciting week. And he essentially was able to sign at least five executive orders. And again, many
of you are joining me live right now. If you’re here, please let me know where you're from. I'm
going to try to answer a few questions. We have Giselle here. Welcome, Giselle. We have Katrina
Stanley, love our loyal followers. So, I'll get back to some of the questions
after I will finish with the summary. So, remember, we'll talk about... I’ll summarize
the executive orders and talk about the most important key points about this proposed bill. So,
President Biden essentially signed five executive orders. The first executive order was, in summary,
the main ones... executive order preserving and fortifying Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals, DACA. So, essentially, DACA is going to be here for the next four years.
And a few other provisions. We have an executive order to end the Muslim ban.
I've made a video explaining exactly what it is. It's coming up this week, as well, a little bit
more in-depth explanation as to what this ban will do for other things like the consulates,
and embassies, how it's going to impact on the reopening but essentially, that executive order
reversed for previous proclamations all the way through 2017 that prevented people from coming
into the United States from those countries. We have an executive order reinstating DED,
Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians all the way through 2022, essentially allowing them to
stay in the country and be able to work. We have an executive order redirecting funds
previously allocated to US-Mexico southern border, essentially, this construction of the
border is going to stop. We have an executive order that essentially focuses on enforcement,
immigration enforcement, we have a 100-day ban on deportations, part of that executive order.
And we have an executive order to review other regulations, essentially, for the next 60 days.
Any of the rules that were issued under Trump's administration are going to be reviewed. There's
going to be a freeze of the regulations. So, this is what we know. And again, every single
day we came out to give you an update, but we've got some key points that I want to talk about,
that are going to impact quite a few of you, specifically, as those executive orders are going
to come out, and maybe, eventually, this is going to become law. Right now, this was a proposal.
The bill was introduced. Remember, until it passes both the Senate and the House, [imaudible] but the
President is not going to become obviously long, so we all have to be patient. So,
let's talk about some of the key points that you need to remember. Number one,
there's going to be an expedited process for citizenship for DACA recipients. And also,
people under the Temporary Protected Status, TPS. So, eventually, he's going to... the President
talked about giving them a path to citizenship, first green card, and eventually citizenship. So,
the DACA program is going to become permanent eventually, and as well as TPS. Why? Number two,
we're talking about comprehensive immigration reform for 11 million immigrants, who are here
currently undocumented, as long as they came here before January 1st of 2021. So,
we don't have details on that yet. But the idea is to create some sort of an amnesty,
comprehensive immigration reform for millions, millions of undocumented immigrants.
Another point, point number three that is important to know is that they're going to raise
the country limits on family-based immigration, and eliminate per-country limits on employment
visas. So, essentially, right now, as you know, there isn't... the wait is so long for these
visas. It’s because it's taking so long for these people to emigrate because they have to wait.
Well, the idea behind this is to raise the country limits. And that's also part of the proposal.
In addition to that, that's for family-based. The idea is also to increase the country limits
for employment-based as well. Currently, we have about 140,000 employment-based
visas available every year, the idea is to increase that to 270,000, which is amazing.
Another point to remember is that maybe that's something that was not really publicized. But
those students that earn PhDs, specifically PhDs under the STEM program in the United States,
they're going to be exempt from the numerical cap of visas. So, essentially, if you go to
school here, and you get your degree and get your PhD if you want to be able to get a green card,
eventually, you're not going to have to be waiting anymore because you're going to be exempt from
the country cap. They're going to be increasing the number of employment-based visas for EB3. In
EB3 category, from 10,000 to 40,000. Specifically, those visas are currently under the other workers,
they will be moving that to the EB3, that's going to make things flow faster. Another point is to
eliminate the visa backlogs for immigrants that are derivatives. So, for example,
immigrants that are waiting for their green cards for more than 10 years, essentially,
pending and pending, and third derivatives are going to be able to be exempt from the visa
backlogs because they've been waiting for so long. It's going to authorize DHS to do certain things.
As far as visa distributions in H1B, in the H1B visa category, perhaps even overhauled the
H1B visa category altogether. We don't know exactly how that's going to work.
It's going to be a creation of a new pilot program with 10,000 visas in it for people
that are essential to the United States. So, there could be people that are essential to the economy
or their helping with medical, this will be a separate category of visas to allow these people
to come here. And get green cards, they're going to create protection for F1 students,
specifically in higher education. So, as you know right now, for F1 students,
for them to be able to get green cards or apply for a visa, sometimes
it's hard if they know that they want to stay here a long time, they got to eliminate the
dual intent. They will eliminate the immigrant intent that is associated with an F1 visa. So,
essentially, they'll be able to immigrate without worrying about the dual intent issue.
They're going to authorize an extension of stay for people in F, H, and O1 status.
So, if they filed for a labor certification and that labor certification is pending for
more than a year, that if you're an F, or H or O1 status, you'll be able to extend your visa
indefinitely until you get your green card which is obviously going to help eliminate a lot of
the backlogs. Another point is, provided work permits for dependent of H1Bs, H4 EADs and also
protect their children from aging out which is currently something that is an issue. Obviously,
some changes to the refugee program and asylum,
and those are the things that I mentioned also in previous videos. And also,
removed the word “alien” from US immigration law and replace it with a non-citizen. And finally,
create some changes to the... review completely the public charge program, which again, as I
mentioned to you, is going to happen on January 29. We're going to see probably a new executive
order. And maybe we'll see a complete elimination of the public charge. So, these are some major,
major points that are important for people that are currently waiting, whether they are students,
immigrants. One thing that I forgot to mention is that as part of the Muslim ban removal,
there's also provision there that forces the embassies and consulates to start processing visas
right now, specifically for those people from those countries. But we can see that happening
in other countries as well. So, embassies or consulates are going to start resuming cases.
And we expect to see this in the next few months as well. So, we have a lot of things that are
going to happen, a lot of good points. And this week is going to be a big week for immigration.
Remember, on January 29, we're going to see a few executive orders. And probably,
there’s going to be more things are happening. So, these are important things for you to be aware of.
I mean, there's just so many, so many changes, so many proposals. We haven't seen that in years. And
remember, just the things that I mentioned to you about increasing the country caps,
eliminating students with PhDs from the cap, authorizing family members to come to the
United States and wait while the visas are being processed outside of the cap. Those are things
that we've never seen before. And again, they're either going to happen as part of a major bill,
or they're going to happen as a peaceful integration or through executive orders.
And we're going to see a lot of those happening this week on the 29th.
Let me take a few of your questions. And so we have a lot of people here tonight. I'm excited.
Let's see. Corazonia de Sacramanos, “When will Cuidad Juarez consulate resume interviews?” So,
remember, I have new videos coming up this week where I'm going to give you an update
on consulates and embassies. What I can tell you is that embassies and consulates are reopening
in phases right now, depending on the country conditions. So, you need to contact Ciudad Juarez
and communicate with them to figure out when is your embassy going to reopen, when they're going
to reopen for interviews? So, John says, “Could you explain what this means, approved family
petition will be able to wait in the US while they wait for their green cards on a temporary visa.”
Excellent. So, what that means, it's another point, part of the reform is that, so for example,
let's say you file for your brother or your sister, and right now, it's taking about
15 years for their petition to be approved. They're going to create a special visa,
I think it's going to be called the V visa, and out of that visa, you'll be able to come here
and wait for your status inside the United States. You're not going to have to wait 15 years at home.
You'll be able to be here on a temporary visa while the green card family petitions you. That's
a really good question. Fred, “Will this immigration reform speed up the process
in general?” I think that it's going to speed up the process in general in the way that as
the agencies are going to start working on cases, as the agencies are going to start adjudicating
instead of enforcing everything, it’s going to go faster. But that's going to take probably
more than a year because the backlog right now is pretty, pretty severe. Let's see here.
We've got Mary from the Philippines, “Hoping every service center will be back to normal and work
on their backlogs.” So, once again, we believe that as part of the new... remember that
they have new management right now with USCIS, right? They have a new director, a lot of new
people are going to come in here, I believe that this new administration is going to help
speed up all this processing because new people are going to come in and help move things along.
Let's take another question from Harpreet, “I have a family asylum case for final individual
hearing. How these laws help us from Sacramento, California? So, what is going to happen is that,
remember, one of the executive orders is that Biden said that he's going to review
the processing of the courts and enforcement procedures. So, it's going to definitely help
bring more staff to the courts. And eventually, it's going to reduce the backlog of the court
system. So, of course, everything comes together and everything is going to help for sure.
So, “Any news on the family visa ban?” So, today, actually yesterday,
we got some updates from a hearing that took place.
They were basically challenging the family visa ban. There's no decision yet on that hearing but
the judge essentially questioned the government's argument that that ban was still necessary. So,
remember, there are two things that are happening. There's the litigation that is going on, there's a
lawsuit that was filed to remove that ban. And then, we have Biden, that may actually issue
an executive order to reverse the family ban, which hasn't happened yet. But you know what
could happen, maybe on the 29th of January, remember, there are several executive orders
that are going to be issued, this could be one of them. But for the moment, the family ban
has not been reversed. But there is a lawsuit that was filed. And there was a hearing a
couple of days about that. And we're expecting a ruling from the judge in San Francisco as well.
Raul, “Do we have any updates on the K1, especially the Philippines? My case is still
stuck up there since April.” So, remember, K1 visas should be processed as normal right now. You
need to contact your individual embassy and try to see if you can expedite your interview because
right now, these embassies are starting to reopen. And even the ones that are not reopened fully,
they should be able to process your K1. K1s are not banned. K1 visas are not banned
under any of the proclamations just so you know. Giselle, “How about the ban for family-based?
So, like I said, I mentioned that just now, that ban is still in place. But maybe on January 29,
Biden is going to issue an executive order that will reverse that, we'll see.
Let's see. I'll take another question. And then we'll wrap it up. “Do you
have any information to share on the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act the Congress
passed for Liberia? The whole process is stalled since November and they're [inaudible] So,
like I said, I'll probably make... I don't know if we'll be
making a separate video on that. But I don't have specific information on that. I know that
there's going to be an executive order that is going to address this issue.
And like I said, maybe on the 29th, we'll get more information about that as well.
Sushim, “Anything on H1b?” So, the one thing I can tell you for on H1Bs is that the final rule
that is going to change the wages, and is going to make all these big changes to the lottery,
is now going to be... is never gonna happen. That was not part of the Federal Register. So,
nothing. There are no changes, with the H1B rule. All these changes that were proposed by Trump are
gone right now. So, everything is normal. You're going to have a lottery, and H1B visas are now...
if you're looking to file for the H1B visa, you have to start doing it right now, getting ready.
People want to... let’s see here. “How can this help asylum seekers?” Like I mentioned,
there's going to be a provision there in the bill that will eliminate the one-year
rule for asylum. You're not going to have to wait one year to apply for asylum. So,
there's going to be good things for a lot of people. And once again,
I just wanted to come on here and summarize what happened this week. So, we have five executive
orders that were issued, I mentioned at the beginning of this video. I've also gone through
about 15 points that you need to be aware of for this proposal, for this
bill that Biden sent to Congress. So, hopefully, both the House and the Senate will come up with a
compromise and we should be able to get this bill signed by the president. For the moment, it’s just
a bill, remember, but there were some key points that we have never heard before. And hopefully,
we'll be able to see that passed. So, once again, thanks for watching this video this week. I have
videos for you about the status of embassies and consulates, the most recent up to date.
I'm going to have videos, Questions & Answers from you, guys, the most important Questions & Answers.
And we'll have a few more videos talking about the new B1, B2 visa bond program that was just
released. And I made a video on that as well. So, exciting week ahead. Thanks for coming on tonight.
I appreciate all of you, guys. And I'll see you in our next video. Thanks.