What we’re going to talk about today are the most recent changes in immigration law. One of the most recent changes that is happening is that now USCIS has issued a memorandum stating that they can just deny cases without issuing a request for evidence, so it’s really important that you submit all of the documents that you need to submit when you file your application. Previoulsy, USCIS would issue a request for evidence advising on what you may need but now it is important to make sure that everything is complete before you submit your application.
Another big change is happening is that TPS is being cancelled for many countries. However there are options available on TPS that may allow you to get a greencard. There is a recent court case that came out in the Ninth Circuit that will allow TPS holders to apply for a greencard if they’re eligible: for instance in our office at Sacramento we are applying for a marriage-based greencard or parental based greencards if you have a U.S. citizen spouse or child. You could possibly apply for a greencard so if you’re in this situation and you’re on TPS give us a call at (916)-220-3137 to find out if you do qualify: every situation is unique and it also depends if you’re within the Ninth Circuit or where you live, because it depends upon the specific court ruling that has jurisdiction over your area. For instance the Ninth Circuit covers all of California, it covers Oregon it covers Washington.
Call us because every case is different and President Trump is just going all-out on trying to pass things that are against immigrants. We are here and we’re going to continue to fight for you.
We’re going to talk about some more of the changes here in this live video. I invite you to also ask your questions now to get them answered live. If you’re not able to be here live put them in the string below and we will try to answer them.
Another big change has happened is with with Asylum, before it may have been possible to apply for Asylum based off of gang violence or domestic violence and now President Trump has stated that they’re not going to advocate on behalf of people who have domestic violence or gang violence and not allow Asylum if you fall within those categories.
I wanted to also answer some questions that we had last week where people weren’t able to get on live.
One question was related to a situation where they’re married to a spouse and they’re subject to the 10-year bar. They’re abroad or have been removed. In this situation you may be able to apply for the I-212 waiver. The I-212 waiver allows you to reenter the United States before the ten year period. If you do qualify, if you think you may qualify, remember that every case is different so give us a call at 916-220-3137 to see if you do qualify.
The I-212 does allow you to enter before the ten year period but it’s very specific and related to certain situations.
Another question we had was about the Fiancée Visa. We talked about this visa in our last live call where if you have a fiancee you’re intending to marry and you want to bring them to the United States, there’s something called the two-year meeting requirement. This requirement means that you need to have met your fiancé within the last two years: The specific question was:
How many times do you have to meet them?
I’m kind of paraphrasing the question, so in that situation it is important that you have met within the last 2 years – you just have to have physically met. There are Waivers available for that, but they do require a very good reason to get the Waiver so in general you need to have met within the last two years physically: for example travelling to Mexico to meet them or whichever their home country.
Okay that wraps up our live today did you have any other questions Brian or any questions that you see our clients asking us?
For example what is exactly an RFE? oh that is a great question! RFE (sometimes I abbreviate these things because when you’re doing immigration law everyday just becomes part of your vocabulary). RFE is a request for evidence. Normally when you submit an application to USCIS they’ll review the application and evaluate whether or not the application meets the preponderance of evidence requirement. If USCIS wants more information they will issue what’s called a Request for Evidence with President Trump as President they’ve adopted what’s called the extreme vetting standard, what that means is that they are issuing many RFEs based off of any reason. It seems like any reason that they can think of to issue an RFE based off of this extreme vetting standard.
Many times in our office we provided all the information and they’ll ask us for the same information that we already provided but most of our cases where we’ve responded to the RFE we’re getting them approved.
It is important that you do respond to the RFE. Generally they’ll give you 90 days but they’ll specify how long you have to respond, so when you get the RFE look at the date to find out when you need to respond because if you missed that date your case will be denied, so it’s extremely important that you submit the RFE on time before President Trump there were not as many RFEs and a lot of times applications would go in and get approved smoothly. Now it’s very important to prepare the case well, because if it’s not prepared properly, with the extreme vetting standard, cases are more likely to get denied, so it’s important that you get a very good immigration lawyer.
Back to the beginning of our our live video. What is happening now is the Trump administration has said that now they’re not for some cases if they find that you’re not eligible based off of the documents submitted, they may just deny the case immediately, so that’s why it’s extremely important you submit everything that you need to submit.
When you file, I know some attorneys submitted applications just to get them in, but that no longer is going to work under this new RFE memo standard that has been issued.
I don’t want you to be afraid of these new memos that are coming out, all it means is that for our team we’re just going to work harder! It inspires us to do an even better job we are committed to do whatever it takes to address these RFEs and to do whatever it takes to present the best case that we can.
Anything else Brian? We have a question about the I-212: what exactly is the waiver 212? So that Waiver is waiving the ten years not being able to come in to the United States. It waives you from the bar that has happened or that you’ve received while you’re outside of the country. In general it’s ten years from coming in, so this will allow you to come in before that time period. We commonly file these for spouses who are US citizens who want their spouse to come in but have been banned from coming in for ten years.
Not everyone who’s been banned is allowed to come in so it’s depending upon what the reason was so if you have a question on whether or not you qualify, give us a call at 916-220-3137 to see if you qualify for that I-212. It is a great way to reunite your family because of course ten years is a very long time.
Now if you’ve been banned don’t try to come in trying to get this Waiver because if you do you could get what’s called a permanent bar from reentering the US so it’s really important that you make sure that you go through the proper legal process to make sure that you qualify otherwise there could be further consequences.
I want to thank you for tuning in live here today we are going to continue doing this where you want to continue to help serve the community we will be back next Wednesday 11:15 if you weren’t able to tune in live we will be here every week so tune in next week at 11:15 on Wednesday and you can also leave your question down below and we’ll try to answer it. You can give us a call at 916-220-3137. Thank you have an awesome day and we look forward to seeing you next week!