How To Immigrate to the USA | Immigration Lawyer Shares BEST ADVICE!

Welcome, everyone.

I get a lot of questions from you saying,  Jennifer, how do I immigrate to the US?

Well, quite frankly, I don't know.

And that's why today I have  Jacob, an immigration expert.

He's an immigration attorney, and  he's here to provide that answer.

So thank you for being here, Jacob.

Thanks Jennifer for having me.

And why don't you just let's dive right in?

What is the easiest way that  someone can immigrate to the US?

So, you know, it, it's interesting because,  

you know, the US is one of those countries  that our immigration system is so old.

We're we're going back into the, you  know, late 70s and all through the 90s.

We haven't seen too many changes.

So I think the, the, the easiest  way to look at it is if you,  

if you divide the system into two  parts, one is through a family way.

So if you have a family member, either a spouse  or a parent or a brother or sister who are U.S.

citizens and they can file a case for you.

And then you'll take, you know, a  few years and then you can immigrate.

Or like majority of people that don't have that,  

then they have to use all the different  non immigrant visas that we have.

So I would say the typical path, and this  is the same path that I that I used when I  

came to the US about 25 years ago, is that the  easiest way is just to come here as a student.

And the reason is because there are  many countries that won't allow or  

won't give a tourist visa to  somebody under the age of 25.

Most people don't realize it that for example,  

most African countries, the chances  to get a tourist visa is close to 0.

Right now.

It's very difficult.

And the reason is because the consular  officer, when you go to apply for a visa,  

any visa to the US, they're looking  and saying to themselves, what are the  

chances that this person is going  to go back to their home country?

Any visa, whether it's a student visa or  tourist visa, they're looking at what,  

what is the likelihood that this  person is actually going to come back.

And if they don't come back, every  time somebody fails to return,  

the consular officer actually gets  penalized in a way on their record.

They say, oh, you give so many visas, half  of these people never came back, right.

So I would say the easiest way is for somebody who  

is under the age of 30 is to  start with the student visa.

And you can come and study anything.

It could be English, could be, you  know, any, any, any course of study.

And then once you get a student visa like I did,  

I went to I came to law school here, then  you can apply for your first work visa.

And the most common work visa is called H1B.

It's just a simple work visa for  somebody that has a bachelor degree.

And the US, the US immigration  system is very simple.

They're like if you have  education, then you'll have a visa.

If you don't have education, there's almost no  visas available for people that are uneducated.

And those people will have to go  through a different path, which  

is a non skilled sponsorship, which takes forever.

But I would say student visa, the easiest way.

Then you apply for a work visa, which is the  H1B, and then eventually once you have that,  

an employer that you work for, they  can sponsor you for a green card.

That will be the typical path for somebody  that doesn't have a family in the US.

Thank you for outlining those paths now.

I'm sure right now people are feeling maybe  a little overwhelmed despite your answers.

So if you're 30 or under, the best way is to come.

As a student, can you study  anything at any program?

It doesn't matter.

Or are there certain things that you should  study to have a better chance of getting a visa?

What would you say to that?

So I would say it's better  not to study just English.

Before it was easy to come to the  United States just to do ESL or English.

But right now US embassies are not  very excited about people that are  

coming to do just English without a path forward.

So for example, I have a case right now  from an applicant from Nigeria and he  

was accepted to study a bachelor degree in in  engineering, but his English is not that good.

So he's going to do an ESL at the same university  and then he's going to apply for the engineer.

So when he went to the interview, I  told him, show him, show them you're  

accepted to the English program, but  also you have the engineering as well.

So they know what he's going to do  after the English program, right?

But I can tell you that, you know, in the  past, I would say 5-7 years, both in the  

US and all over the world, a lot of young people  are not necessarily going to university anymore.

They want to be able to start businesses,  online businesses, all kind of businesses.

So what I've seen are trends  of people that come to the  

United States and start their own businesses.

OK.

And there's a special visa  for that, it's called E2,  

where as long as you have $50,000 in  your possession, you can come to the  

United States from any country that is listed on a  particular list and, and, and start your business.

And it's an it's a non  immigrant visa for five years.

So that's great.

We have the option if you want to come to study.

Now that's only if you're 30 and under.

So let's say you're over 30.

It sounds like you have the  option where you can have the H1.

B H1B visa or the OR the investor visa.

Or the.

If you're, if you're, so there's a  list of countries and you and you  

can find those lists of countries on the website.

Even if you're over 30, you can come with an  investor visa and you can start your own business  

and, or let's say if you have a job offer, you  can come with an H1B visa even if you're over 30.

The reason why I said under 30  is because if you're under 30,  

it's very difficult for you to get  most visas, especially a tourist visa.

So if you want to be able to get in, it's  normal for somebody young to want to study.

So getting a student visa makes  more sense for somebody younger.

Now, if you get older, if you're older and you  want to get a student visa, you can still get it,  

but you have to explain why at this point  in your life you want to go to study.

Is it because you really want to study or  is it because you want to live in the US?

Do you know what I mean?

Right.

So they see it.

Oh, this is just a loophole, a way that  you can get in and stay in the country.

OK, so if you want to come on a work visa,  

then do you need to already have employment  in the US and a sponsor from an employer?

Or can you come here without a job and  then find a sponsor while you're in the US?

How does that work?

So if you have a tourist visa and many people  already have tourist visas, you can come.

It's perfectly legal to come to the United  States as a tourist and seek employment.

So you can come as a visitor, you  know, show up at a job interview,  

say, hey, I'm, I'm from France, I  have those skills, can you hire me?

You can do that on a tourist visit.

What you cannot do on a tourist  visa is actually work, right?

Earn money.

You can come and look for a job.

Once you find that job, then an  employer can file a petition for you,  

which could be an H1B visa or or any  other work visa that you might qualify.

Or like I said, if you come here on a tourist  visa and you want to start a business,  

then you can use the E2 and start a business.

Now there are, there is one visa that you can  start the process even while you're overseas.

It's a very interesting thing.

It's, it's something that is fairly new.

We're talking about 2017 new, which is fairly new.

And what it is, it's called,  it's a self petition green card,  

it's called EB2 National Interest Waiver.

And what it is in simple terms is imagine  you are somebody quite accomplished in your  

home country, either a professional  engineer, an inventor, entrepreneur.

You've done something, maybe you invented  something, maybe you led a company, maybe you,  

you know, made an impact in your field and  now you want to come to the United States.

We can take all your past achievements.

Maybe you wrote a book, maybe  you weren't TV in some capacity.

We take all your past achievements.

We almost kind of prepare like a little like  a dissertation in a way about your life.

And then we file this with the US government.

We show them, listen, this guy  meets the requirement of the  

national interest waiver because  he's going to do 2 three things.

He's going to impact the United States as a whole.

He has the ability to do it because he's done it  

before and he is going to be very  valuable to the United States.

And that petition is something that we do a lot.

We actually specialize in that.

And you can do it while you're still abroad.

We have a lot of Brazilians who do that, a lot  of Russians that apply for this, a lot of people  

from India and China because they have a lot  of talented engineers and inventors over there.

So the national interest waiver green card self  petition is very, very powerful and most people  

not even aware of that because you don't  need anything, you don't need a job offer.

You you just use your skills  and your accomplishments.

So therefore I usually recommend for people  

that have at least 10 years  experience to apply for this.

If you just graduate from university,  

it will be hard for you to qualify  for the National Interest Waiver.

Well, that sounds like it's a  welcome change, relatively new.

Give some hope to people who  want to come to the US And  

you did casually mention that you came  originally to the US on a student visa.

So why don't you share your experience?

Because I know it's a complicated process, so I  want to inspire students that yes, it's possible.

Here's someone who did it, so  please share your experience.

So as I said, I came here about 25 years ago  from Israel and my goal was to go to law school.

I was accepted here in a master degree in law  after graduating from university in England.

I, I, I lived in England for five, 4-5 years.

I went to law school there  and I started working already,  

but then I had the opportunity  to do my masters in California.

And so I, I got my student visa.

It wasn't that hard at the time.

And while I was in law school, I was able to get  an internship because the beautiful thing about  

being a student in the United States, and most  people don't know that, is that once you graduate,  

the government gives you one year of  work permit after you finish school.

And the reason they do that is  because they want to, first of all,  

they want to encourage people to be able to work,  use their experience, what they learned in the US.

But also it's an opportunity for skilled  professionals from overseas to take that  

one year and find a job that eventually will  sponsor them, which is what happened to me.

I was working for one year for a  law firm during my work permit.

After graduation and that same law firm  eventually sponsored me for my visa and green card  

and that's how I was able to stay here.

Well, I'm glad we have a success story to  motivate and inspire everyone that it's possible.

A lot of my students are concerned about their  English language skills that they have now.

Can you speak a little bit about what  the requirements are from an English  

language perspective in order to immigrate?

You know, the most universities  require a certain level of English.

They will actually test students,  you know, give you an example.

So you have to take the TOEFL.

As long as you have the TOEFL, most  universities and, and, and it's international.

I don't know if you're preparing  students for that exam, but that  

is the most common standard to  be able to go to university.

If you pass that and you have  a good score on your TOEFL,  

you should be able to get accepted  to any university in the US.

So that's kind of what they're looking for.

Now, if you want to go to law  school from a foreign country,  

then you have to take additional requirements,  legal, legal, English and a few other.

But if it's just a regular university,  then a TOEFL will be sufficient.

And what are some mistakes that  you see people make when they're  

trying to immigrate that slow down the  process or get their application denied?

I would say that the main reason  why people get denied visas right  

now is because they don't come prepared.

So for example, they go to an interview and they  

don't have proof that they can  afford to pay for school, right?

That's one of the main reasons why student visa  get denied because they go to the interview and  

the officers is saying, well, how  can you afford to pay for school?

Where is the proof that you  can pay for, for, for the,  

for, for school and then and then,  well, we don't have all the proof  

here or students are not clear as to why  they're going to university in the US.

So what is the purpose of going to school here?

They don't have sufficient.

The main reason, one of the most  common reason why tourist visas  

and student visas get denied is  lack of ties to the home country,  

which means that they cannot convince the  consular officer that they'll go back home.

They have nothing like, for  example, if they're students,  

they don't have sufficient proof that they're  going to do something with that education.

Do you have a job waiting for you?

Why are you going to study interior design  if your entire background is in software?

Do you know what I mean?

Explain why you need this MBA if  you are working in a grocery store.

So it has to make sense.

And for tourist people, tourist visas, there's  not enough proof that they're going to go back.

Do you have a job to come back to?

Where's the family there?

What are you doing before  travelling to United States?

Do you have enough money to  stay here while you're visiting?

So those are the main reasons why people  will get denied every single time.

And from your experience, what have  you seen for people who are successful?

Are they coming from certain countries or they  have certain qualifications, certain education?

What do you see for that?

I think the most successful immigrants  that I see clients are the ones that  

they have like a vision as to  what they want to do in the US.

So for example, I work with a lot of  entrepreneurs and start up founders.

We help them with their visas.

And a lot of these people, they're,  they're already kind of like successful  

in their countries, or at least  they, they're starting to be.

And they, they come to the US as a stepping  stone to continue building their businesses.

They have clear ideas as to what they want to do.

They have plans in terms of their  progress inside the United States.

So I feel like people like that tend to be  very successful as they come here because  

they they finish school and then they can go  into the job market or start their companies.

They have a clear vision  as to what they want to do.

Well, and that makes sense because  if you're immigrating to a country  

or entering a long term relationship  with that country, so it makes sense  

that you're going to be contributing  and you understand how you'll do that.

Now there's a presidential  election fast approaching.

How do you think immigration will be different  in the next year or even in the next five years?

Well, you know, there's already  changes that are happening.

Just yesterday, they passed a proposal to help  families or spouses, undocumented spouses of U.S.

citizens to be able to stay in the  US It's a proposal that came from  

the Biden administration just two weeks  after he put very strict restrictions on  

people applying for asylum at the  border, making it very difficult.

It's almost like, yeah, I'm  going to make it difficult here,  

but I'm going to help you guys here.

I feel like there's going to be quite a lot  of interesting changes or concessions in  

immigration because it is a very, very  important element in this elections,  

how they treat immigration, what they're  going to be doing to help certain people,  

what they're going to be doing to, you know,  you know, block the illegal entry of immigrants.

So immigration is is definitely  going to be super important.

It's already is if you look at what's happening.

Now, I know it's a complicated process.

People might feel overwhelmed  about immigrating to the US.

So can you share a success  story or a couple success  

stories of people that you've helped immigrate?

And just to inspire and share  those stories with my audience.

Of course.

So, you know, I have, as I mentioned before,  

I work with a lot of entrepreneurs who  come from, I have, I have a recent case.

He was just got his, he finally got his  green card and he was a founder from Canada.

He was a, he was a young founder.

He started an app to be able to track  people's kind of like my My Fitness Pal,  

but but he had more, more features in this app,  

specifically working with companies  and working with physicians.

So the interesting thing about this this guy is  that he, he was rejected visas multiple times.

He was rejected multiple  times, specifically work visas.

And as a Canadian, he can just  come to the US as a visitor,  

but he wasn't able to get the work visas  he needed to be able to work in his field.

So what he did, he decided to  start his own company as a result.

And so eventually, you know, the company was  able to, he was able to raise some funds.

And and like I said, I just recently got his green  card through that process that I mentioned to you,  

the national interest waiver, because he can show  the impact that he can do with his innovation.

And it just shows you that even  though he was rejected multiple times,  

he wasn't able to, to make it the first time.

He never gave up.

And he was able to eventually, you know,  

build something for himself and of  course, eventually get his green card.

I have another story of actually a student  

from India where the entire  village actually saved money.

They, they all kind of pulled together money  to be able to send him to school in Berkeley.

And eventually he, he made it to Berkeley and he  was, you know, he went through the program and,  

and he finished his master's over there and  he got a very good job with I think Microsoft.

And he to this day, he sends money back to the  family and to the village to repay every single  

cent and even more ingratitude for what they've  done for him ten years ago when he came to the US.

So just like this kind of stories, just  like blows my mind how people are just like,  

you know, you appreciate some people  don't appreciate it, but you know,  

people like that really appreciate the power of,  of community and education and what it means to  

to be able to study here and eventually  become something, you know what I mean?

So it's very inspiring.

That is very inspiring.

Thank you for sharing that.

What about a the green card lottery?

Is that the correct term?

Yeah.

What's that?

Is that a viable option?

Should someone go out and put their hopes on that?

How does that work?

So the green card lottery is a is a real thing.

It's a program that started in the  90s by their Clinton administration.

What it is, it's essentially they're  saying we have a lot of immigrants  

that come to the US from India, from  China, from the Philippines, from Mexico.

We want to create diversity  in the US It's important to  

have people from multiple countries who come here.

And there were not enough people coming  from Europe or some Asian countries.

So they come up, they came up with  the, the, the diversity lottery.

It's diversity.

We want to create diversity in our country.

And so every year they give up 50,000 green cards  for people not from those countries I mentioned.

There's a list of countries that do not qualify to  

apply because there are too many  immigrants from those countries.

But if you're not from those countries,  you can participate in the program.

And if you win, then you and your family  could have a chance at a green card.

And I know quite a few  people that won the lottery,  

the green card lottery and and  move to the US that that way.

Wow, that's amazing that you actually  know people who won the lottery.

100% absolutely.

We have clients who did it.

We, I mean, it's real.

I mean it's not that simple to  to to win it, but but you can.

But yeah.

Every October, it's free.

I encourage everybody to apply  on the State Department website.

It's free.

They open from October 4th to  November 6th every single year.

Well, there you go, it's free 50,000  plus spots and you know people who  

have actually won the lottery, so it's an option.

That's good to know.

It's an option.

Yeah.

And if someone watching this is  serious about immigrating to the US,  

what one thing should they do this week  to help them move closer to that goal?

Let's say right now they just  say, oh, I want to immigrate,  

but they haven't actually taken any action.

What's the one thing that they should do  this week to move closer to that goal?

You know, I would say that look  at your situation right now.

Like what are you doing?

If you are currently working in a job  that is unskilled, then you have to.

Well, I would say the first thing  they have to do is try to educate  

yourself as to what will be the best  path for you to be able to immigrate.

And based on that, do whatever it  takes to come closer to that path.

For example, if you don't have an education,  

finish that education so you  can apply for that work visa.

If you want to come as an investor, save enough  money to get the money for the investment.

If you want to come as a student,  you know, do whatever it takes.

You know what I mean?

So it really, because right now people are looking  

at the immigration to us as a big  black hole, don't do it that way.

Minimize it.

Break it down into steps and say, I've  researched, I've looked at YouTube videos,  

I know that I can do the student visa  or whatever that other option that we  

talked about and let me see what I need  to do to prepare myself for that option.

So I would say #1 educate  yourself as to your options first.

That's a great tip because then it you  take this big question of immigrating,  

which sounds overwhelming, and you just  narrow it down to one thing to focus on.

And in our conversation today, we  didn't dive deep into the different  

options because I know you already have all  those materials ready for people to access.

So can you just share with my audience how they  can learn more about all the different types  

of visas, the different types of processes  and the resources that you have available?

I would imagine that you will probably  

share them the notes, but I think I usually,  I usually send people to our Instagram page.

It's we have a large page.

It's simple at at San Diego immigration Lawyer.

That's our Instagram.

We also have a lot of resources on our website,  

which is at H1B dot biz and we have  anybody who wants to contact us.

We have like a text number that's simple to use.

Just send a text and one of  our team members can help.

Book a call and I'll share that number with you,  Jennifer, so you can put it in the notes of the.

Well, I'll put all that information in  the description so everyone just look  

in the description and you can find the  information you need to learn more and  

start that journey on immigrating  to the US if that is your goal.

So thank you so much for being here today,  

Jacob, and sharing this valuable  information with my audience.

It was a pleasure, of course.