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I-612 Approval Notice for Egyptian with Government Financing on a J-1 Visa

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I-612 hardship Waiver Approval notice for client from Egypt

I-612 Hardship Waiver Approval Notice

The Timeline of this I-612 Form Application and J-1 Waiver Approval

  • Date of application to wave the foreign residence requirements: October 28, 2019
  • Date The Department of State received Form I-612 from USCIS: April 07, 2020
  • Department of State issued a favorable recommendation on: October 06, 2020
  • Date USCIS issued the approval notice: October 22, 2020

I-612 is an application for Waiver of the Foreign Residence Requirement under Section 212(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as Amended. J-1 and J-2 visa holders and their families may use this form to apply for a waiver of the two-year foreign residence requirement.

If you are applying for a waiver of the foreign residence requirement because your departure from the United States would impose exceptional hardship on your U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or child you need to provide the following formal documentation:

  • Evidence of your spouse’s or child’s U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent resident status;
  • Evidence of the relationship between you and your spouse or child;
  • Evidence of legal termination of all prior marriages for you and your spouse (if applicable).

Along with these documents you will need to produce enough convincing evidence that your departure and two-year permanence in your country of origin would in fact inflict exceptional hardship on the U.S. members of your family.

The Facts about this success story behind this I-612 Hardship Waiver Approval

Like many of our success stories and J-1 Waiver approvals, this was a successful case based on exceptional hardship to wave the two-year foreign residence requirement. In this particular case, our immigration attorneys successfully proved exceptional hardship to the client’s three American children.

The client’s spouse is a resident of the United States on a J-2 Visa who is also subject to home residency requirements. A denial of this waiver would inherently mean that the family would have to return to Egypt for two years.

For this reason, we focused our arguments and were able to successfully prove extreme hardship based on overall country conditions.

A J-1 Hardship Waiver success story for Client from Venezuela

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I-612 Approval Notice (Letter of approval) - The Ranchod Law Group, Sacramento CA

I-612 Letter of Approval (Form I-797, Notice of Action)

Timeline of this J-1 Waiver

  • Date the I-612 Application to wave the foreign residence requirements was filed: March 2, 2020
  • Department of State received I-613 from USCIS on May 13, 2020
  • A favorable recommendation was issued by the Department of State on September 23, 2020
  • USCIS issued a letter of approval for this I-612 application to wave foreign residence requirements on September 29, 2020

J-1 Hardship Waiver Approval for Venezuelan Client

This is another success story for a Client from Venezuela who approached The Ranchod Law Group seeking advice on successfully tackling his situation. The Client, on a J-1 Visa, spoke to the immigration attorneys at our offices and explained his needs and objectives, which are typical to many professionals on a J-1 Visa.

The need to Waive the Two Year Foreign Residence Requirement

During a preliminary brief, we answered all the Client’s questions like:

  1. Does the home-country physical presence requirement apply to me?
  2. Which are the implications of this requirement?
  3. Which is the exact procedure, and how should an I-612 application be handled considering the implications and the costs?

Every J-1 Waiver case is unique and requires close consideration of many elements to identify situations and scenarios which can constitute grounds to request a waiver. Here at the Ranchod Law Group, we build your case based on your personal situation and circumstances.

How we won this case

The Immigration attorneys at our practice studied the brief and identified circumstances and facts which could be used to argue in favor of a waiver of the foreign residence requirements. A crucial factor was the health of the Client’s American child. During the interview, we discovered that the Client’s child was receiving developmental therapy. This is a factor we could use to argue exceptional hardship to the client’s American child because this kind of treatment is not readily available in Venezuela.  We also researched and argued at length the exceptional hardship inherent in the country’s conditions in general. The facts we presented were enough for the Department of State to issue a favorable recommendation in September of this year and for USCIS to issue a letter of approval for this I-612 application.

New Immigration Policies Revealed To Take Place Under a Biden Presidency

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Hi, I’m Kaushik Ranchod, Managing Immigration Attorney of the Ranchod Law Group in Sacramento, California. This video shows some exciting news on how The Biden Presidency immigration policies will affect you.

What kind of policies can you expect from The Biden Presidency?

With this administration, there has been a significant effort to limit immigration. The Biden Presidency will attempt to reverse the damage done to our country because of these immigration policies. Specifically, we’re going to look at the separation of families which has occurred.

Trump heavily attacked H1-B Visas

H-1B Visas in the United States allow U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations for a limited time. A specialty occupation requires the application of specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent of work experience. The initial duration of an H-1B Visa is three years and can be extendable to six years. The devastating immigration policies towards H1-B Visa Applications have created tremendous problems in attracting top talent and skilled workers to the United States: America runs on top talent, especially companies like Google, Apple Microsoft. The H1-B Visas for skilled workers seeking employment-based Green Cards play an essential role in meeting the incredible demand and need, for example, for software engineers in the United States.

If you’re coming to the United States through employment, you will enter the U.S. following the H1-B Visa path. The H1-B Visa has an initial three-year duration. Applicants may extend H1-B Visas for another six years; after this period, you must get sponsorship to file for a Green Card. The PERM labor certification process follows. PERM is for employers seeking permanent green card status for an employee to assure the U.S. Department of Labor that no equally qualified United States worker is ready and available for the foreign worker’s position. At The Ranchod Law Group, we have applications for a Green Card dating back ten years because of the priority dates!

J-1 Visas

In recent times, this administration has issued an executive order to limit J-1 Visas and student visas by denying their program extension. The Biden Presidency will most likely reverse these policies, especially with the executive orders. Immigration policies by order of the President, which Congress has not approved, can be changed swiftly. That’s what we can expect from The Biden Presidency; President-Elect Biden has indicated a will to do so.

How Long will all this take?

When Trump became President, it wasn’t necessarily immediate before these policies came into effect, and it did take some time for Trump to implement his policies. Reversing Trump’s executive orders will be different because this will be a reversal and not creating immigration policies. Therefore, I believe the procedure to switch things back will be much faster. Immigration policies changed after six months with Trump.

The Biden Presidency will reverse specific immigration policies primarily implemented via executive orders. The new administration will act quickly, and we’re hoping for change to occur immediately, or at least if not directly, as fast as possible.

Specific Immigration Policies we can expect: asylum

Diving into some specific immigration policies, I expect The Biden Presidency to enforce, for example, asylum. In this area, the United States has a history of helping asylum seekers, including help for life-threatened people because of their political views. People have sought political asylum also for being a member of a particular group or race. One of the things done under this republican administration is metering: they limited the number of people who can get asylum.

Green Cards and Immigration Policies

The Biden Presidency will eliminate those Green Card backlogs and speed up the employment-based immigration process significantly. Additionally, if you were going to go through this process through marriage, it still takes a significant amount of time. You have to apply for the marriage-based green card, taking over a year to be processed.

If you have been married for less than two years, you have a conditional green card, and then you still have to apply for citizenship. Even if you came in through a marriage, that whole process could take around five years if you’re doing everything as fast as you can. Keep in mind how processing times depend upon the government as well.

DACA Immigration Policies

Another exciting aspect is the renewed prospect of becoming U.S. citizens for DACA holders. The path to obtain U.S. citizenship is a very long one. It will be fantastic to see this path for citizenship for DACA holders’. DACA allows some individuals with unlawful presence in the United States after being brought to the country as children to receive a two-year renewable period of deferred action from deportation. They become eligible for a U.S. work permit. There has been uncertainty related to DACA immigration policies. Under Trump, they were trying to take DACA away and went all the way to the Supreme Court, which rejected the claim to get rid of DACA. However, DACA will provide a path to citizenship under The Biden Presidency. This change in strategy and immigration policies is going to be a considerable one with a significant impact.

Undocumented immigrants roadmap for citizenship
There are 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States without Green Cards. Another fantastic immigration policy that Biden wants to implement is a roadmap for citizenship. The Obama administration attempted this for these immigrants through the DAPA executive order, which unfortunately did not pass. With Biden, we could see something similar to DAPA. As an experienced immigration attorney with over a decade of immigration law experience and dealing with Green Cards, I do not believe there will be legislation covering all the undocumented immigrants. It will most likely be something similar to DAPA, but focusing on addressing the needs of a certain number of people seeking paths to U.S. citizenship. We’ll see how events unfold.

Public charge rule

The current Presidency expanded the public charge rule, resulting in one of the most harmful changes to U.S. Immigration policies. For instance, people use the I-864 affidavit of support when applying for a Green Card for a family member, a spouse, or a parent. This application is required to demonstrate that your income is 125% above the poverty guidelines. If you could prove that the beneficiary would not take public benefits, you could prove that you met the median public charge guidelines.

Of course, you’d have to produce documentation to that effect, such as tax returns, double duty’s employment letter. They introduced a new Form I-944 (Declaration of Self-Sufficiency) for adjustment of status applications. This change hurt families because it was a way to make applying extremely difficult. This rule makes it more difficult for the beneficiary to immigrate by creating unnecessary hurdles.

For instance, consider having to provide a credit report. How do you get a credit report if you don’t have a social security number?
Another example is showing that you will get health insurance – how do you demonstrate having it if you can’t afford it?

These are some issues that The Biden Presidency will hopefully resolve immediately. This public charge expansion will also end through the Biden Presidency. Please note that this Declaration of Self-Sufficiency is still in effect at the time of this video.

So what I want to allude to here is that this will reasonably be taken away by the new administration. However, it may take some time. We do not know if this will be immediate; it could take six months, maybe longer.

The Muslim Ban

Once Biden becomes President, there will also be a lift on the Muslim ban. This ban was against many Muslim countries. There are many physicians from Muslim countries, and this ban created family separation. I expect this ban to end with The Biden Presidency based on statements during the election campaign.

Summary

So to sum it up, there are two significant changes that I see:

  1. Our employment-based immigration policies will not face the detrimental harm they have faced, especially with leading researchers. We attract the best and the brightest, and that’s what has made us innovate in technology. We had not seen the full effect of the harm that would have been created by the policies of restrictionism. Now, that is going to be reversed by The Biden Presidency.
  2. There will be family reunification. Starting on day one, the Biden administration will prevent from being put in cages. The Biden Presidency will reinstate American values of family reunification.

J-1 Hardship Waiver Success Story with I-612 Letter of Approval for Doctor from Jordan

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I-612 Letter of approval: Application to waive foreign residence requirement.

J-1 Hardship Waiver Letter of Approval (I-612 Application)

J-1 Hardship Waiver Approval for Doctor from Jordan

Date we filed Form I-612 for this Client: April 1, 2019.

– Department of State received Form I-612 from USCIS on December 09, 2019.

– The Department of State issued a favorable recommendation with I-612 Letter of Approval on September 29, 2020.

A brief description of the I-612 process and

Form I-612 is an application seeking to obtain a waiver to waive The Foreign Residence Requirement. Section 212(e) specifies The Foreign Residence Requirement of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Holders of a J-1 Visa or a J-2 visa may apply for a waiver to waive The Foreign Residence Requirement. Family members of J1 and J-2 Visa holders may also apply using Form I-612.

Individuals with a J-1 and J-2 Visa who are nonimmigrants may complete this application. Form I-612 is a request to waive the two-year foreign residence requirement. The foreign residence requirement applies to all exchange visitors, who are subject to the requirement mentioned above if they participated in a foreign exchange program and:

  1. an agency of the U.S. Government (or the government of their country of citizenship or nationality or last foreign residence) financed their participation;
  2. the U.S. designated the country as clearly requiring their specialized knowledge or skill. Designation includes not only country of citizenship but also nationality or foreign residence;
  3. the Secretary of State must have designated the country. Designation must happen before admittance as an exchange visitor or acquiring such status after admission;
  4. they gained admission as an exchange visitor or acquired such status after admission on or after January 10, 1977;
  5. As an exchange visitor, they participated in graduate medical education or training.

This J-1 Hardship Waiver Success Story

The Client of this success story by The Ranchod Law Group contacted our practice seeking advice on her/his particular situation. Our team of Immigration attorneys in Sacramento worked with the Client to document the case. We used our proprietary process to create supporting documentation for Form I-612.

Our Client married a U.S. Citizen with a history of mental health issues. We described two distinct scenarios and explained how both would exacerbate pre-existing medical conditions.

The history of mental health issues would subject the spouse to exceptional hardship

The case we presented highlighted how this would undoubtedly occur should she/he accompany the Client to Jordan. On the other hand, remaining in the U.S. without the Client would also cause exceptional hardship. The spouse, having to stay alone in the U.S., was another scenario that would have caused exceptional hardship.

Also, we described and documented how the Client’s spouse is financially dependent on the Client.

Finally, we went through a thorough analysis of the country conditions in Jordan. Our brief identified how permanence in that country would impose exceptional hardship on the American spouse for two years.

The Marriage-Based Green Card Interview Process: 7 Very Common Mistakes

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Your Marriage-Based Green Card interview is crucial, and you need to be prepared to know what to expect. There is a lot of uncertainty around the questions an immigration officer is going to ask. You may not be prepared for the questions, and in this video, you will learn about seven common mistakes that you’ll want to avoid and explained in detail in this video.

Green Card Interview Appointment Letter

Receiving a Green Card Interview Appointment Letter is the very first step of the entire process of Marriage-Based Green Card application. The notification can be an email or a physical letter. Applicants are required to produce the email or letter you received by mail at the interview.

Marriage-Based Green Card Interview Questions and Answers

Preparing For Green Card Interview Questions In 2020

Green Card interview questions can take you by surprise, which is why you’ll want to prepare yourself well in advance. In fact, too often, people do not prepare themselves. First of all, the Green Card interview appointment letter comes with a list of documents that you need to produce at the interview. Prepare and bring all documents to the interview. You also need to prepare a copy of the Green Card application that you submitted. Many believe there is no need to bring along their Green Card application because they already submitted it. Sometimes the Immigration Officer conducting your interview may not have all the documents, so you want to be prepared to provide the officer with any missing documentation for your case, and by doing so, facilitate the interview process.

Green Card Interview Documents Checklist

Here is a list of the most important documents you’ll want to have with you at the interview:

  • marriage certificates;
  • certified divorce decrees;
  • birth certificate of children;
  • certified criminal documents (if you have a criminal issue);
  • passport;
  • joint documents demonstrating that you have a real relationship.

Documents supporting the fact that you have a real relationship are crucial because just being married is not enough. You have to demonstrate that you actually have a real relationship. From their point of view, immigration officials evaluate and establish whether or not your relationship is “real” by evaluating documents supporting the quality of your relationship. For example, joint documents are:

  • joint bank account statements;
  • joint leases;
  • joint utility bills.

These are some examples of green card interview marriage documents
the immigration officer will carefully evaluate. In fact, when people are married, they have things co-mingled, and they have joint documents. This is one way for an immigration officer to judge your relationship. Therefore marriage documents are essential: you want to make sure you are prepared with as many supporting documents as you have available.

Marriage-Based Green Card Interview Questions and Answers

Mistake number two during Marriage-Based Green Card interviews is people providing unnecessary information. During the interview, people can get carried away and just go on and on talking about themselves.

Stick to the point!

You want to just stick to the point and not go on to a tangent because unnecessary information can often provide the immigration officer an opportunity to question you about that tangent. If your memory doesn’t serve you correctly, you might not know how to correctly answer the follow-up question. At times, people contradict themselves because they get nervous, so stick to the point and just answer the questions you are asked by the immigration officer.

The same goes for the green card interview documents checklist. Provide only the relevant documentation you are required to produce.

Don’t Lie to an Immigration Officer

Never lie to an immigration officer, and the reason you don’t want to lie to an immigration officer should be apparent: you are under oath. By lying, you could be charged with fraud or misrepresentation, leading to a denial and, ultimately, to removal. You’d think this is obvious, but people believe that they need to lie. Lying is not going to help your case. What I see some people do is get really nervous. They think they need to provide a date and a specific time that something happened. If you don’t remember a particular time or place, that’s okay. If you don’t know every date or exact time something happened, just explain to the officer you don’t remember. You absolutely do not want to lie.

Be Agreeable, Have a Positive Attitude

Mistake number four: being combative. You don’t want to be combative at your Green Card interview. You can imagine how many officers are professional, but many are not. Regardless of their behavior, you want to remain and be composed. Talk to the officer respectfully, address them as an officer.

Green Card Interview Dress Code

Your Green Card Interview attire is important. There is no specific attire guide for interviews, nor is there a determined dress code. However, you would go to an interview dressed to be respectful to the immigration officer who will decide your case. Immigration officers are the jury in your case – they’re going to make the ultimate decision, so you want them to be on your side.

Ultimately, if you have an officer asking you inappropriate questions, who has gone and crossed the line, you can ask for the interview to be stopped or ask to speak to a supervisor as a last resort. However, you don’t want to be combative with the immigration officer and argue back and forth because that will not help your case.

Arriving late at your Green Card Interview Appointment

This is mistake number five: arriving late. Again, this is obvious, but it’s also a common mistake that I see people make. They take their Marriage-Based Green Card interview too casually. Remember, this is your chance, and if you miss the interview, the consequences could lead to a denial. Make sure you are on time. Allow for accidents, unforeseen events along the way, and allow for traffic. With Covid, you must arrive only 15 minutes before your interview because of social distancing. After Covid is over, I recommend arriving at the interview location at least 30 minutes, even an hour beforehand. This is what was happening pre-Covid, and it is my advice to my clients because the lines could be very long. Therefore, you will have to plan your trip depending on circumstances – right now, you need to be there 15 minutes before your appointment. They are handling this whole Covid situation well. They are spacing out the interviews very well, so fifteen minutes beforehand is good. I recommend allowing for any kind of mishaps and unforeseen events that could happen on your way to the interview. You can always wait in your car if you arrive early.

Worrying Too Much About the Interview

Your Green Card Application interview is crucial to you. You’re naturally going to be worried and will have some anxiety. However, I want you to just relax dinner out if you can with your spouse and just enjoy the evening and get plenty of rest the day before your interview. When you’re tired, you can’t remember things. Typical questions Immigration Officers ask are not challenging to answer. For example, when did you meet, what was the date of your marriage, etc. They will ask you questions you may not know how to answer, which is not a problem. You don’t have to know every single question immigration officers ask. So if you are not able to answer a question, that’s okay. One wrong answer will not mess up your whole case. Make sure that you are prepared for the interview. If you’re ready, then there’s nothing to worry about. Still, you need to prepare the interview because some people take the Marriage-Based Green Card interview too lightly, casually, and think: “I’m married, and I will not have any issues” is not always the case. So prepare the interview, and you’ll be fine!

Going To Your Green Card Interview Without a Lawyer

You should plan your Green Card interview with a Lawyer. Failure to bring an immigration attorney can be an issue if you have complications – especially with this administration. If you attend your green card interview with a lawyer will protect you from inappropriate questions, especially if you have criminal issues that can make matters complicated. An Immigration attorney can intervene in that kind of situation. Some situations sometimes need to be explained, and having an attorney in these situations will help make the interview go much smoother. Like most people, you’re going to be stressed: having an immigration attorney assist you will make you feel less stressed. It’s good to have an attorney as a witness in the most unfortunate event your case is denied for any reason. In fact, the attorney will be able to refute anything that may be alleged incorrectly on the denial. Therefore, having an attorney there just for that reason is also a smart move.

I-612 Hardship Waiver Letter of Approval and Success Story for Client from Egypt

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I-612 letter of approval notice, application to wave foreign residence requirements

J-1 Hardship Waiver Letter of Approval for Egyptian with Government Financing

This I-612 Hardship Waiver was Filed: May 23, 2019

  • Date Department Of State (DOS) received Form I-613 from USCIS on: February 12, 2020
  • Date DOS issued a favorable recommendation: September 29, 2020

We are happy to share this recent success story with the I-612 hardship waiver letter of approval for a client with three U.S. citizen children.

The I-612 Hardship Waiver Application Process

The Application for Waiver of the Foreign Residence Requirement (Under Section 212(e) of the INA, as Amended) should be based on one of the following scenarios:

  1. Departure from the United States would impose exceptional hardship on U.S. citizen members of your family (this includes lawful permanent resident spouse or children.
  2. Return to your home country of citizenship or nationality or last foreign residence would subject you to persecution based on race, religion, or political opinion.

In the case of exceptional hardship, the applicant must attach a statement providing a detailed explanation of why you believe that your compliance with the two-year foreign residence requirement of INA section 212(e) would impose exceptional hardship on your U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or children. But stating your case and personal circumstances is not enough to win an I-612 hardship waiver approval. In fact, you must attach any available evidence that supports your claims of hardship, including all pertinent financial information regarding your and your spouse’s income and savings.

The facts of this case we were able to prove

In the past, the client’s children have needed medical care for both minor and more serious medical issues. Our Immigration attorneys successfully argued, on the client’s behalf, that per the U.S. Department of State Consulate Information Sheet for Egypt, medical care is limited and well below U.S. standards.

Thanks to our experience and numerous other exceptional hardship cases we have dealt with over the years, we also argued that the client and his wife could not provide for the children’s necessities in Egypt due to meager income and high living costs.

Other factors contributing to hardship inherent in the country conditions in this specific case included:

  • the language barrier;
  • crime;
  • risk of terrorism.

The client’s wife was on a J-2 Visa and subject to the home residency requirement.

Here at the Ranchod Law Group, we are so happy this brilliant couple can continue their lives in the U.S.

Trump vs Biden Immigration Policy: How does this affect you?

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Hi, this is Kaushik Ranchod, and welcome to our latest immigration news update. We’re going to be talking about President Trump versus Joe Biden on immigration law in the United Staes.Immigration law is fundamental, so you’ll want to stay tuned to learn both of their policies and the differences to decide on whom you want to vote for, or be more informed about what could happen if you’re not able to vote.

So I’m going to start with Joe Biden’s immigration policy. You can know a little bit more about what he plans on doing once he gets into office.

Overall, Joe Biden plans on reversing many of President Trump’s immigration policies – let’s look specifically at how this plays out. Joe Biden calls President Trump’s policies racist and morally bankrupt, and we will talk about that. We’ll talk about that when we go into President Trump’s policies, so you’ll see why this is true.

I am a little bit biased being an immigration lawyer. Seeing what happens every day around me, I’m going to delve into why these assertions are factual.

Joe Biden plans on an increased screening but in a different way, not by building that crazy wall, but by doing a more intelligent beefing up of security. Joe Biden plans to create a path for citizenship for people here in the United States and undocumented. Joe Biden plans on restoring the integrity of the asylum system. What happened under President Trump was an attack on asylum, and one of the things our nation is known for is the honoring of human rights: that has been under attack under the Trump administration. Joe Biden plans on restoring asylum to what it once was.

Another thing that Joe Biden plans on doing is giving dreamers a path to U.S. citizenship. Now, this is not just a path but giving them U.S. citizenship. But that this is really really a huge departure from President Trump plans.

The supreme court has pushed Daca back to the Trump administration and did not end it, but allows the Trump administration to end it. The Trump Administration is trying to end Daca now.

This is a huge policy change and what’s important and notable here is that usually, a path to citizenship is not simple. People think, oh, I can apply for citizenship, but it’s not that easy. Usually, the whole process involves first getting a visa and then getting a green card. Getting a green card is not easy, and it can be a long process. Three years after getting a green card, if you got your green card through marriage, you can apply for a marriage-based green card. After five years, you can apply for citizenship if the green card was based on employment or another way for citizenship.

So this allows one to apply immediately for citizenship, of course. We’ll have to see what Joe Biden does when he gets elected. I thought that was notable by Joe Biden: he wants to end the uncertainty for Daca holders, which has been unfair. The Trump administration has just elevated that uncertainty and heighten the fear, which has been a theme for the Trump Presidency.

Another thing that Biden will do is end the travel ban on some of the Muslim countries. This travel ban on Muslim countries has been detrimental. For instance, we get many talented doctors that come from these countries. It’s been harmful to creating separation of families, and Biden would end that. Another thing that Biden would end is the penalization – the penalization to sanctuary cities. The Trump administration has punished sanctuary cities, and Biden would reverse that. So that’s something that’s also pretty awesome.

Another thing that Biden would do is condemn family separation. You’ve seen on tv the horrific separation of children from their family members, the cruelty he’s going to eliminate through his immigration policies. He’s also going to reverse what President Trump has done for TPS. President Trump has ended TPS for several countries, and Biden will reverse that back to what it once was. That has been really, really, sad. Temporary Protective Status is for certain countries where people have had to flee their homelands. The United States has always been a country that has tried to lift people through human rights. The Trump administration has taken that away, and Joe Biden restores these programs’ integrity and back to uh the moral fabric of our country – pretty cool!

What is interesting is that Joe Biden has not always been a liberal on immigration. If you look at his record, he has voted for some restrictionist policies in 2006. On that occasion, he voted for the secure fence act of 1996. There was a very restrictive immigration law that has been very detrimental to immigration today. For instance, if you entered the U.S. with two unlawful entries and you’ve overstayed for more than a year, you’re subject to a permanent ban. I see a lot of people come through my office who are subjected to this permanent bar. The Clinton administration put that law into effect, and it’s hurt a lot of families. It will be interesting to see if Biden departs from these restrictions, which Biden has voted for and passed in legislation. If you look at what he’s put out on his website and whatnot that he does tend to take a departure from his past course of action: you never know until someone takes office, and we will see what happens.

Hopefully, if he does win the election in the first one-hundred days, Joe Biden has announced that he’s going to put people into removal only if they have criminal convictions. Biden is going to get rid of the asylum policies, and he’s going to reunite families. So in the first hundred days, he’s going to take immediate action.

What I saw happen with the Trump administration is we didn’t see things go into effect immediately. It took time for things to go into effect. But he has a plan for the first hundred days – like you know boom boom boom a 100 days is pretty fast, so we’ll see. You know what happens, but he already wants to start reversing things immediately. President Trump has done many things through executive order, so it’s not necessarily through the change of law but through what’s called an executive order. S

President Trump implemented things through executive order will be reversed very quickly. What’s been interesting with the Trump administration is it seems like he’s had this weird obsession with just trying to reverse everything that Obama did.

Therefore if Joe Biden gets elected, it will be a reversal to like redoing what President Trump did—going back to what Obama initially created in his presidency, where Joe Biden was vice president. So it’s going to be a pretty exciting time if Biden gets elected. One of the most significant reversals that the Biden administration will implement is getting rid of the public charge rule that the Trump administration has implemented. This is very detrimental to green card holders, not allowing green card holders to apply if they’ve taken certain types of public benefits. That will be one of the things that Joe Biden will do, and if you are someone who has taken public benefits, you’ll want to consult with an immigration attorney to make sure that that’s not going to affect your green card application. The public charge rule, a law that’s recently gone to effect, has been litigated a lot in the courts. Unfortunately, it’s restricting immigration for green card holders, and it’s changed the past lay of the land for showing that someone will not be a public charge to the United States.

Another thing that we’re going to see is that what President Trump did to help build the walls. He took diverted money by claiming that it’s a national emergency. A national emergency to build the wall. But that’s what he said – it’s a national emergency – to build the wall. So President Trump garnered funds to build the wall, and the Biden administration will also be reversing that.

So one of the exciting things is that during the Obama administration, you’ll notice that there was the Dapa (that is, if you’ve been following immigration law), which provided a pathway for many undocumented immigrants to become legal. This issue went to the supreme court, and the supreme court denied Dapa. Joe Biden is committed to making history and making (giving) a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people living in the United States because there’s no pathway for them.

There’s no way for them to get legal, and people think that there is a way for them to get legal, but that’s not the case. There is no pathway for many of these people, many of the 11 million undocumented people, to get legal, and that would be one of the Biden administration hallmarks.

According to what his website says, part of Joe Biden’s hundred-day plan is a moratorium on removals except for felony people. A lot of Biden’s policies are reversing President Trump’s policies and then taking action on Daca. Those are the three main characteristics that I see with the Biden plan. We’ve gone to the Joe Biden plan, now let’s look at what the Trump plan is. You’ve seen what President Trump’s done. President Trump came into power by basically using immigrants as a scapegoat, touting the wall’s building. Now you don’t see that rhetoric as much because many middle-class Americans don’t care as much. They don’t care because there are other more pressing issues such as the coronavirus, so you don’t see President Trump play that rhetoric as much. But you know the wall is still a major thing. It’s still taking money from the defense fund claiming. The defense fund is a national emergency, and building out the wall – that’s one of his hallmarks.

Another aspect of the President Trump plan that I’ve seen is that it’s just basically trying to attack immigration in any way that he can. If he becomes president again, I expect that he will continue to do that. President Trump has also created a cap on refugees to enter the United States to 18,000. He has also created the Muslim ban, so expect that to continue. Expect the family separation to continue – losing talented researchers and scientists and doctors because of that Muslim ban.

That’s where, you know, Joe Biden says his plans are racist and morally bankrupt, pointing to the Muslim ban pointing to the racist epithets of the wall and the racism surrounding that and calling countries from TPS (I don’t even want to say the language). That kind of rhetoric is where Joe Biden is saying that this is morally bankrupt and racist. So you can see a clash there, and it’ll be interesting to see, you know, how much this is going to be a factor in the election because the immigration has been downplayed. It wasn’t something that was even discussed in the vice-presidential debates.

President Trump also punished sanctuary cities, denying them funds. He’s ended uh temporary protected status to several countries. One big embarrassment for him was where he tried to send students who were taking online classes back to their home country, and he had many law school lawsuits from top universities in the country: MIT, a whole host of universities. He had to rescind that position allowing international students to stay in the United States, but he tried to use covid. Many of his current immigration policies are trying to use covid to use that as a pretext and an excuse to hurt immigration policies. If you’ve recently looked at removal statistics for the year 2019, year-to-date, 269,000 undocumented immigrants were arrested. So you’re seeing numbers in the order of 200 thousand for the last few years for undocumented immigrants. Therefore, if Trump continues to be president, I see a continued immigration attack with denials up 30 percent in many areas – some areas of immigration even higher. The focus on building this wall continuing to hurt asylum policies.

That’s what I see for the Trump administration, and that’s where Joe Biden says it’s morally bankrupt and racist policies.

I hope this video serves you. You’ve got to understand the differences between Joe Biden and President Trump’s immigration policies. They haven’t been discussed that much.

If you like this video, please give it a like and share it with your friends and family. They deserve to be informed to know what’s going on with this election.

Subscribe and continue to be informed, and have an amazing day. You’re amazing and be awesome. Bye.

The USCIS new SAVE program

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from the Ranchod Law Group welcome to Ranchod Law TV. Today we are going to be talking about what is called USCIS SAVE program. The USCIS SAVE program is important for you so stay tuned to learn how this affects you, especially when you are sponsoring someone for their green card.

Let’s talk about how the USCIS SAVE program will affect you because if you are sponsoring someone for a green card there’s a form called the I-864 Affidavit Of Support. With the Affidavit Of Support, you are signing a contract with the government stating that if the applicant takes any kind of or certain types of means to take public benefits, you’re going to be responsible.

So with this USCIS SAVE program initiative it’s providing a system for the sponsoring agencies to get that information. And how this could come into play is for instance if that agency wants to enforce that affidavit of support then they can file a court order to collect the money.

Let’s look at a hypothetical situation here, where Maria is a citizen of the United States and Juan is the applicant. They are filing for a marriage-based green card. Some of the forms that Maria will file are the I-130 petition and they’re establishing the real relationship as part of that i-130 petition. The I-131 advanced parole document just in case Juan wants to travel and I-765 work authorization because Juan must be able to work.

Right now this process is taking approximately five to six months. And you know, these times could always change with government processing times. Part of that application is the I-864 affidavit of support, so that becomes very important. Then there’s also a new form as well, that has been added, and there’s been a lot of debate with the new public charge rules as well.

Therefore, I invite you to contact us at (916) 613-3553 if you have questions related to the new USCIS SAVE program, because the rules have been changing. Now let’s go back to that I-864 affidavit of support. That’s what I mentioned before, where Maria could be the sponsor if she makes enough money to show that Juan’s not going to be a public charge. But if she doesn’t, then she would need a joint sponsor and then, in this case, the joint sponsor would be responsible if Juan took the means-tested public benefits.

Now with the new public charge rule there are also additional requirements in addition to the affidavit of support form. However, the I-864 affidavit support form is the actual contract that the sponsor is making with the government, so it’s important.

If you have any questions about the procedure I have described, talk to an attorney since you are signing a contract with the government when you are the sponsor.

I hope you find this video useful and I invite you to put a comment below – smash the like button and subscribe so you can continue to get updates. I just want to thank you for being amazing because just by watching this video you are bettering yourself – you’re improving yourself. Stay awesome bye for now.

Additional Information about the USCIS SAVE Program

  • The objective of the USCIS SAVE Program is to provide fast, secure and reliable immigration status information to assist benefit-granting agencies in maintaining their program integrity.
  • The USCIS SAVE program provides information about sponsors to agencies that administer federal means-tested public benefits. With this new SAVE initiative, USCIS is asking these agencies to now share how they use the SAVE sponsorship information in their sponsor assessment and agency reimbursement processes. The collected information will help participating agencies learn and improve how they use sponsor information to make eligibility determinations and hold sponsors accountable. This initiative will also allow USCIS to improve how it administers the SAVE program and help agencies that administer benefits programs better meet obligations under agency reimbursement laws and regulations.
  • This new SAVE initiative stems from the May 2019 Presidential Memorandum on Enforcing the Legal Responsibilities of Sponsors of Aliens, to ensure more effective compliance in determining eligibility for federal means-tested benefits and reimbursement requirements.
  • The Trump administration has made it clear with the USCIS SAVE program that existing immigration laws must be enforced, and sponsors of aliens should be held legally accountable for the financial responsibilities they willingly accept.

Top Strategies to get I-601A Waiver Approval Now!

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In this video Kaushik Ranchod provides insights and recent experience about I-601A Waivers during the Administration of President Trump. Kaushik is an Immigration Attorney and CEO at the Ranchod Law Group, in Sacramento California.

As we all know these are challenging times for immigration and immigration cases. Under President Trump, the whole immigration system has come under continuous attack. That is why it is crucial for you to know your options and how to move in the right direction towards reaching legal status and live in the US. Today to help you better understand we’ll address what is going on now in 2020 with immigration legislation and I-601A waiver cases and I-601A waivers in particular. Immigration Attorney Kaushik Ranchod from The Ranchod Law Group will be talking about what is working now to get I-601A Extreme Hardship Waivers approved. Which are the Top 3 strategies that are working right now to help you move your first steps towards a successful application? Getting I-601A Extreme Hardship Waivers approved is often very complicated, and takes a lot of work to reach approval. The reason behind this is that, for the USCIS mere separation does not qualify as a reason for exceptional Hardship. There have to be many more factors that need to come into play for the government to consider your situation one of Extreme Hardship. Such factors, for an I-601A extreme hardship waiver are, for example, financial hardship, health issues, and many other situations. In this video, Kaushik describes precisely how all these factors must fall into place for you to file your application correctly.









Hi everyone this is Kaushik Ranchod, and welcome to our immigration show.

Today what we are going to talk about are I-601A waivers; what’s working now under the Trump administration?

We’re going to talk about three things, three strategies which have worked. I’ll explain the arguments that have worked, so you’ll want to stay tuned to make sure that you can see what’s working now.

Let’s dive into it!

As you know, immigration has been under attack. Under the Trump Administration, denials have been skyrocketing. Now, what can you do?

Well, we’re very grateful here at The Ranchod Law Group that we’re continuing to have a very high success rate – even during this difficult time.

So I want to share with you what’s working in our cases, and of course every case is different. Because every case is so different, you need to have it evaluated with an attorney. You can always give us a call if you have questions. Right now, I want to share important information about these cases. In particular, I’ll describe things that are working for us and how we are winning these cases.

Extreme hardship due to psychological trauma

Let’s talk about the first case which presents extreme hardship due to psychological trauma. We have the applicant married to a United States citizen. This couple has a history of psychological trauma. In particular, I am referring to psychological trauma to the U.S. citizen. In evaluating these I-601A hardship waivers, you need to prove that the hardship is on the U.S. citizen. Therefore I need to explain this in detail, because I get a lot of questions related to this aspect.

In evaluating cases of exceptional hardship, they’re looking for a hardship to the U.S. citizen.

In this situation, the U.S. citizen had a history of psychological trauma. If the U.S. citizen were to be separated from their spouse, then that psychological trauma could be exacerbated because of their history of psychological trauma. So we explained that as one of the factors.

So here’s strategy number one: look at your medical records to see whether or not you have, as a U.S. citizen, any psychological trauma in the past that could be exacerbated by the separation.

Now it’s vital to note what I’m about to say – it is crucial, so you want to write this down: mere separation and anxiety is not enough!

Unfortunately, this is what I see when I see denials that are brought in to us to help cure, the government says, well, mere separation and anxiety. Well you know to me and you that seems like extreme hardship to the government under the legal standards it’s not considered extreme hardship.

We need to explain how and why they cause hardship. Proving extreme hardship requires we examine, in great detail, these factors. In summary, that was strategy number one: psychological trauma.

Extreme hardship due to Financial Hardship

Second – in this situation, the couple would also suffer from a form of financial hardship.
What was the financial hardship?
What does that mean?

In this specific situation, we described two factors – the first one was the child care.

Child care would be the cause of hardship, because if the spouse had to go back to their country, this would cause a problem. In particular, the U.S. citizen would not be able to afford child care while working. Therefore, they were dependent upon their spouse to care for their child. The second issue that would cause extreme hardship was the fact that the couple of this case owned a home.

If the couple were to leave the United States and relocate to their home country, that would be an issue, because they would lose their home.

The loss of their home derived from the fact that they wouldn’t be able to continue to make payments from abroad because they would be making much less money than they were in the United States.

So strategy number two look to see if there is financial hardship.

Extreme hardship due to Health Care issues

All right let’s keep going here guys this is great!
Factor number three health and health care systems abroad. In this case, they had some severe health issues. Health care issues offered the opportunity to talk about their health issues and how the U.S. citizen would not have the same standard of care, as well as the same standard of treatment if they had to go to the applicant’s country of origin.

So this is how we got the case approved.

A Second I-601A Extreme Hardship Waiver Case

Now I want to move onto the second case. This other case offers more ideas with more examples.

Hopefully this is getting “your juices flowing”, and you can think about how all this may apply to you.

Extreme hardship due to a history of alcoholism

So, in the second case, the applicant was from Mexico, and their spouse was a U.S. citizen. In this case, we faced a situation where the U.S. citizen had a history of alcoholism, but they were currently sober. You must know how this situation was critical for us to distinguish how alcoholism is a disease and not characterize it as a negative trait because it is truly a disease.

Our concern, and what we wanted to explain was that there could be a trigger of a relapse. We did explain how, in this case, a relapse was a concrete possibility due to separation. We explained the problem and how it would create exceptional hardship.

We proved extreme hardship for a history of alcoholism

So, in this case, that’s how we proved exceptional hardship for a history of alcoholism which was the main factor. We successfully used this problem to prove extreme hardship to get the case approved.

You want to include as many hardships as possible if you don’t do that and rely on one factor—a single in all of these situations, may not be enough. We need to investigate every situation. If we identify situations of hardship, we then evaluate their potential for extreme hardship to include in the case.

The value of hiring an immigration attorney is that an attorney can look through all of your hardships and explain them all in a way that a USCIS officer can quickly understand. USCIS Officers do not have much time to evaluate every case – time is a critical factor. A USCIS officer will decide whether or not this is going to be a hardship.

We like to present a legal brief to outline and explain all those different factors with all of the supporting documentation. Because supporting documentation is extremely important you can’t just make up things of course. You have to back up what you’re saying with the supporting documentation.

So, I hope you like this video. If you have questions, give us a call (916)-613-3553. You can also email us and please subscribe to this video.

Give us a like. Smash that like button and continue to get notifications so we can keep you informed.

Thank you so much for tuning in to this video, and I look forward to talking to you next time. Thanks have a fantastic day – bye for now.

I-612 Hardship Waiver Letter of Approval & Success Story

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J-1 Hardship Waiver Letter of Approval (Government Funding, Dominican Republic)




J-1 Hardship Waiver Approved with Government Funding from the Dominican Republic

  • Case filed: June 30, 2019
  • Case approved: June 18, 2020

The Facts for this I-612 Success Story and Approval

  • This Client entered the U.S. on a J-1 Visa with a two year home residency requirement.
  • Client only complied with his work program for a few months and did not leave the U.S.
  • Client later married a U.S. citizen.
  • Client’s U.S. citizen spouse went to a psychologist and we argued exceptional emotional hardship.
  • Client’s U.S. citizen spouse had previously suffered a miscarriage.
  • Client’s U.S. citizen spouse has family and religious ties to the U.S.
  • Client’s family member was a victim of horrific violence in his home country.

The Ranchod Law Group Immigration Attorneys also argued exceptional financial hardship as the couple was working to pay off debt.

These cases are not easy to win but we did the most that we could with the available evidence and we are so happy clients will be able to continue their lives together in the U.S.