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[Music] hello friends and clients i am jennifer walker gates with walker gates bella immigration attorneys in austin texas i'm here today i am thrilled to share some great news with all of you regarding the u visa program um as many of you know walker gates fellow has been involved in filing lawsuits and working to pressure immigration to change the way that they were adjudicating u-visa applications this was because the program had become extremely backlogged with many many thousands of applications currently there are a hundred and fifty thousand u visa applications pending and there's a limit of ten thousand applications per year that can be granted for uv sets so what this means is that many people are waiting many years for their u visas and the law has long authorized since 2008 the law has authorized immigration to give people work permits while waiting for their u visa to be adjudicated however the immigration service was not applying this law they weren't following this law they weren't issuing work permit applications to people until about a year before they were doing the final adjudication of the uv set so for this reason our clients were waiting years and years and years for a simple work permit so that they could get their social security number get their driver's license have some kind of proof that they have status in the united states and begin to heal from the trauma of the crime they had suffered through the sense of security and stability that they were able to create with their work authorization cards now uscis has just announced that they're completely reconfiguring the process for how they adjudicate uv says so that people who file u visas can go ahead and get their deferred action status and their work permits right away um this is probably going to take now about four to six weeks after filing that is what we anticipate for people to be able to get their work permits um under this new program so i'm going to share a presentation with you that i have created and developed so that i can explain a little bit better the history of this situation and exactly what's going to happen going forward okay so um as i was saying the history of the u visa program um is such that like when it first began it was created in the year 2000 regulations were finally issued in the year 2007 and when we first began filing for clients under the u visa program it was approximately 2005 2006. we had to file lawsuits during that time to get the immigration service to issue the regulations to allow for these applications to be filed okay so there is a history with this program of the immigration service not taking it seriously however we filed um applications beginning in about 2005 2006 and then the regulations were issued and we we continued to tweak and refine and have the forms from immigration and the proper procedures in place and outlined and at first these applications were taking about six to nine months to be granted people who filed for uv says were given the u visa within within a year and this was such an important program because unlike many other parts of the immigration law the u visa contains waivers for things like multiple unlawful entries um immigration fraud even if it's minor like a false claim to us citizenship that can bar someone permanently under other areas of the immigration law but uvs has had the opportunity to seek a waiver for these kinds of issues and so it became a really great benefit for many of our clients who had unfortunately suffered crime which does happen a lot to the immigrant community in this country for them to be able to turn that terrible experience into something positive for themselves and their family to be able to experience stability and security having lawful work authorization and lawful status and be able to move forward with their healing and with their lives however once the um visas became very backlogged those benefits stopped being issued so a lot of people were not getting anything for many years after filing for a u visa now we were involved and trying to be solution oriented with respect to this problem we were trying to pressure congress we tried to pressure the obama administration we worked with advocates from around the country to pressure the obama administration's um immigration service to make changes in the way they were adjudicating these cases so that our clients wouldn't have to wait so long for the set work permits however we were not able to get anywhere so we began filing lawsuits walker gates fellow we filed our first lawsuit in 2019 on behalf of two clients um and those clients were granted their work permits once the lawsuit was successful then we filed again in 2020 for another eight clients and that lawsuit was moved actually much faster immigration agreed to expedite work permit application adjudication for all of our clients that had participated in a lawsuit so ingly we were getting ready to file another round of litigation when on monday of this week just two days ago the biden administration announced that they are changing the way that they adjudicate u-visa adjudications they have created a new process which they are calling bona fide determinations and i am going to explain a little bit about how the bona fide determinations are going to work for you visa applicants so what does this mean a bona fide determination is simply a very it's a relatively quick review of a person's application to make sure that it's complete and correct to take their biometrics and do a criminal history check to make sure they're not a dangerous person or that they don't pose some kind of serious risk to national security or public safety and that they deserve what's called favorable discretion okay so when a person turns in a u visa application uscis is going to check to make sure that that application has the correct signatures that it has the correct forms that it has a statement from the applicant him or herself about the nature of the crime and most importantly that it has the form i-918b signed by a law enforcement agency that has to be signed within six months of filing and it has to be signed by a police officer judge or prosecutor who can confirm that the person was a victim of a crime and cooperated with them in the investigation and or prosecution of the crime we are going to do another video about eligibility for the uv so that we'll go into more detail about how to qualify for the u visa but for now um basically we just want to know that um immigration is going to check those ubis applications to make sure they're complete and correct they're going to have the person go to an appointment to get their fingerprints taken and their photograph taken if they're that all of that is looking good if it's complete and they don't have serious problems in their criminal history check then uscis is going to immediately issue a work permit for that person if you do get a positive um determination on your bona fide determination review then you're going to get a work permit immediately with that work permit you can get your social security number you can work lawfully you can travel within the united states you can qualify for a driver's license in every state in the united states in addition you'll also get a letter indicating that you have been granted deferred action and that will allow you to prove that you have lawful status in the united states it will be valid for four years now this four year work permit is long as long as it is because the u visa wait list is very long um the uvs themselves are unfortunately not going to move any faster until congress either increases the number that can be granted every year or gets rid of the limit completely um that 10 000 per year limit remains in effect so the actual u visa itself will continue to take a long time but the work permit benefit will not continue to take a long time this is going to be much faster now now if you do need to renew after four years you will be able to do that ing to the new policy not everyone is going to be eligible to receive this bona fide determination work permit okay if you are a person who presents national security concerns or public safety concerns you are not going to be granted this work permit right away now it doesn't mean they're going to immediately deny your work from it i mean and your visa application but um we will go through a little bit more about the process suffice it to say if you have any of these crimes on your record that are listed on on this list murder rape sexual abuse firearms crimes human trafficking aggravated assault child ography or um you know distribution or sale of drugs you are not going to be able to qualify for the bona fide determination there may also be other situations if you just have a very complicated and tough criminal history or even a complicated and tough immigration history you might not qualify for a bona fide determination uscis retains discretion to determine who will get one of these so if you do get a positive bona fide determination you will get your work permit and your deferred action for four years if you don't then what's going to happen is they won't immediately necessarily deny your application but they're going to just put you on the regular waitlist review that everyone else is on right now that means they're going to put you in line for a more in-depth analysis of your case and they're probably going to send you or your attorney request for more information for an explanation about what happened etc now with the u visa as i said some of the provisions are much more generous in general than in other parts of the law so we have had success with some clients who for example had a series of dwis you know many years ago but who were able to demonstrate rehabilitation we've been able to get uv cells approved for people who had old drug-related crimes as long as they haven't had anything else in the meantime not everyone will qualify for a u visa but more people can technically qualify under the law than under many other parts of the immigration law if you've already submitted an application um with your uvisa for a work permit you don't need to submit another one now this uh these applications that have already been submitted and pending for many years those are the ones that uscis is now going to be reviewing and approving if you have been waiting for a number of years since you submitted your application since you've got your fingerprints taken and you know that you have an application already for a work permit on file you don't need to do anything else you should be receiving your work from it in the next few weeks however you definitely want to check to see if you have filed the form i-765 because uscis has indicated that they want everybody who wants to work from it under this program to file and perform i-765 under either c14 category or under a19 or 820. at walker case fellow we use the c14 category applications to apply for work permits for people who have deferred action and that is what i would recommend so that you can distinguish from your work permit that you get when you get the uvs approved but immigration has indicated that they will accept really any of these categories and adjudicate your work permit application as long as it's filed under one of these categories the other great news with this announcement is that immigration is not going to charge any more fees for these work permit applications when you submit your u visa application the u visa application itself has no fee what uscis has indicated with this policy is that they're also not going to charge filing fees for um bonafide uh work permits bona fide determination work permits they're calling them bona fide determination eads an ead is an employment authorization document so lots of words lots of acronyms with uscis but suffice it to say that this is great news for many who've been applying for uv says in the last several years trump got rid of a lot of exceptions to fees they instituted they tried to institute higher fees they got rid of fee waivers and many of our clients were required to pay fees if they filed these cases during the trump administration uscis has indicated they're not going to charge fees for initial work permit applications under this category and they are reinstating the fee waiver program that was in effect previously so if you are experiencing financial hardship if you uh earn less than about 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines and you're applying for a u visa you may request a fee waiver the waiver of inadmissibility that goes with the ubisoft program is called the i-192 and the fee for that application is about 930 so that's really one of the biggest expenses um currently the filing fees for a work permit are 410 if you end up renewing these bona fide work permits you will need to pay the filing fee for the renewal but for this initial filing um the by the administration has indicated they are not going to be charging the 410 filing fee and for the other fees associated with uv says um the buy the fee exception uh application is going to be reinstated it's going to be available again for applicants all of this is great news i know this is a lot of information it's maybe a little confusing if you have questions about this program about the bonafide determination more about eligibility for a uv sending general please feel free to reach out to us you may call or text our main number at [Music] 512-633-1785 or just simply go to our website at walkerductgatesfellow.com where there is a button that you can click that says schedule a consultation um it takes you directly to our our scheduling page and you can get on our calendar there [Music] i want to take a moment to congratulate and thank the clients who stood by us and worked with us on especially those who filed lawsuits with us this courage and determination and willingness to fight for your rights has now resulted in benefits not only for you but for all you visa applicants these lawsuits were very expensive for the government and the reason they were successful as they were was because they were you know a really difficult pain for the government to deal with ultimately they decided that changing the way that they adjudicate uv says was going to be a better approach to dealing with this problem than dealing with all of our lawsuits and that's what we wanted all along and we are so grateful to all of our clients who fought this fight with us and who were willing to stand up and file a lawsuit to enforce your rights this has been a huge victory for all you visa applicants and we are so grateful and appreciative so please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or concerns about your case or any other questions do subscribe we are going to be publishing updates at least once a week on youtube so do hit that subscribe button and make sure you're staying up to date and let us know if we can help you at all with your case thank you so much i hope you all have a great day [Music] you