Displaced Persons Resources

Description of the video:

I've put together a PowerPoint for you about how to bring relatives and friends to the United States. This was prepared by me using resources I could find online and verify that they're reliable sources, but it is by no means definitive. It has not yet been legally confirmed, but it's just a starter set of materials and ideas to get you going on this. I want to start by asking you to be realistic about what you're trying to do. Navigating the U.S. immigration system is very difficult, and this is not an area of practice that every attorney will practice in, and definitely every school will not practice in this area. It's hard to get someone out of a hostile environment. You may know about ways to get someone out of the country you're trying to get them out of. You'll know more than we do. but just know that there's nothing easy about it, particularly if they can't get access to a U.S. consulate. You should not feel guilty about you being the one that got out. Your family is so happy that you are here. They're relieved that you're safe and want you to make the most of your opportunity here. And when you're in the position to help them out, help them out. So don't neglect your own studies while you're pursuing help for others. do your research and accept that you may need expert help, meaning an attorney probably, and that may or may not be free. And even if you find a path, your relatives may not be in a position where they can actually get a U.S. visa, at least not easily. So this is going to be an expensive and slow process. Be prepared. Where might you start? First of all, make sure they want to come to the U.S. You may have the best intentions for them, but that's not what they have in mind, or maybe they just don't want to make a change right now. Do you have relatives in other countries, or do they have friends in other countries that they might want to pursue options with? How will they get to a U.S. consulate to get a visa, and do they have a valid passport in place to allow them to do that? Do they have sponsors or someone that can help them financially? in addition to you. And maybe they might be eligible to be a college student. That could make a difference. There are several paths you can consider that I've got here on the right hand side. When I say applying for P1 status, I mean can they get a special immigrant visa because they provided help to the United States in some way. And if they can get that P1 status, that's going to be a game changer in terms of getting here and getting adapted and getting work permission and other opportunities sooner. And do not neglect to look at third countries. I'm going to talk a little bit about Canada. I don't know too much about them, but I know nothing about other countries. So think broadly when you're looking at options. I'm going to give you some resources and options here. Again, these are things that I have looked up. I find them viable, but I have not fully invested. investigated them and we'll talk about that sort of as we go. Here are three different ways that I thought of that you could sponsor a relative note under family reunification. There are only certain people that you can sponsor depending on your status. And almost all of them are perhaps more limiting than you want them to be. but these are the categories and what options you have if you're currently an asylum or a refugee or a permanent resident or maybe even you have a sibling or someone who's a U.S. citizen by now or if you have a family member that's already in refugee status, then I think Welcome Corps is the way to go. But unless you're a citizen, you can't be a member of the Welcome Corps group of five. You have to find other folks that would be willing to help you out with that. Education is another option. If you have maybe a brother or sister that's ready for higher ed work, lots of countries will allow you to come in and study, and they all have different rules and cost different, and there's different admissions qualifications. But education is a key. And the UN is actually trying to get a, large percentage of displaced persons into education programs in the world. And so there's some little bit of pressure for higher education institutions to step up and help people who are looking to relocate. It's not expensive, so you'll have to be looking for institutions with scholarships. If you have a relative who has a high-level skill, they could perhaps be eligible to come here and teach or do research or they may be able to get an employment visa. That's a whole other process, but those are areas that if you're at a higher education institution, we have people here that can brief you on how to handle that. These are different visa types that you could qualify for in the U.S. You're familiar with. We already talked a little bit about reunification, P1, permanent residents or citizens that could sponsor student visas, employment visas. Tourist visas are possible, but maybe a little bit harder to make a transition from a tourist visa. to a more permanent visa and may require travel outside the United States or not. That's something that you can want to work with an attorney with. Or if they come and present themselves in like a B1B2 tourist and then immediately apply for asylum, they have every right to do that. But it's a little bit riskier, I think, and the U.S. right now is not being as welcoming to asylums in some areas as one would hope. don't overlook the possibility of Canada. I know that they will admit people in all of these categories. I don't know a lot of details about it, but we'll give you some resources to look those up. But life in Canada is very much like life in the United States. And so could well be a viable option with fewer barriers. If you have a friend or relative who is already a refugee, then there are lots of agencies that are in place to help them and help them resettle and adjust and even advice on how to get here, but they already have to be in refugee status. If someone comes into the U.S. other than refugee status, They have the right to apply for asylum after arrival. But there aren't many organizations that assist with getting potential asylees or refugees potential out of their home country and into the U.S. So that's something where you would have to use your own resources that you can identify to figure out how to do that. For those that are in refugee status, Welcome Corps has excellent information. You can also get some good information from the Refugee Council USA. And when you get to these sites, explore them. You'll find information that are specific to what I'm talking about at these links, but they might also have other information that will give you some ideas as well. When someone's coming to the U.S., particularly if they're coming to trying to come on an education visa, they need to have high levels of English before they come. Or you may have a parent that's coming that just would like to be able to understand the language before they get here and haven't had a chance to get much English education. These are some online resources that they can turn to while they're waiting for whatever comes next. After arrival, there will be plenty of opportunities through institutions or maybe even high schools or community organizations or even churches that will provide English. which is a second language instruction. Just a quick overview of American higher education. Universities usually, it takes four years to get a degree unless they have some previous higher ed experience and then there might be some transfer credits that would reduce the amount of time that someone would have to be enrolled in a university to get complete a bachelor's degree. Universities tend to be more expensive, but they also were more likely to have scholarships. and many of them have on-campus housing, which would be an easier place to land or to get started because you don't have to have an apartment lined up before you get here. Community colleges are smaller. They cost less, but they have fewer scholarships. But you can look at them in two ways. Either they are a bridge to university because they will have general education requirements that can be satisfied there for sometimes a cheaper price, and or they also have technical degrees that you could earn in two years and maybe get a certificate as an X-ray technician or computer repair person or a welder or just a wide variety of fields that could get your friend or relative into the workforce faster and earning income. And they're used to people that are studying part-time while they're working. So it's a very good option to look into. To research higher institutions, I've given you two sources here. To get legal help, I just found some good information at knowing your rights as an immigrant. There are lots of resources at the UN sites. and the American Immigration Lawyers Association will help you find an attorney. And in some cases, they can point you to pro bono or free attorneys that are picking up caseloads like this. They're not a lot of them. So you can't count on this, but it's an excellent place to start and to get some reasonable ideas for who to turn to for legal help. Sometimes your institution can help you, not the international student office, but student legal perhaps, or if there's a law school, some of them will have clinics that can help with this. Things to think about, take care of your own status and be aware of what your status allows you to do. Know that this is an expensive proposition. It takes a long time. And this may not be the best time for you to try to address the situation. This might be a good time to do research, but not the right time to be trying to sponsor someone as you're trying to cover your own expenses and get your degree. But once you get that big paying job, then you'll have more resources available to you. I found this source of countries where you can get a visa online. line or you don't have to get to that country in order to get a visa than to go elsewhere. I have not spent a lot of time researching this. The site looks viable. Study it carefully, but it's another alternative to consider if your friends or relatives cannot get out of the country they're in in order to get a visa. This would be a good landing space. Don't forget to think about financial support upon arrival, you'll spend a lot of money trying to get here, or they will spend a lot of money trying to get here, and then what? You know, can you afford a place for them to live? How long will it be before they'll be able to work? Even if they come in and apply for asylum or, I mean, let's say already come in a refugee status, it's going to take at least 90 days after they file for a visa or a permission to stay before they might be able to work. So can you support them for a minimum of 90 days? And think about the viability of work permission depending on how they come in, what they apply for, and how long the processing takes. do not forget that you're trying to follow your own immigration path and you will have deadlines and perhaps costs related to that that you need to consider. I would suggest not getting their hopes up unless you're pretty sure that you've got something viable for them to move forward in. Don't say, hey, I watched this great video for Wendy and now I know what to do. It's a long path. don't get their hopes up too soon. Don't put yourself in debt trying to do this and don't try to do it alone. Every step of the way, check with people before you actually do something that you can't undo. So I would be happy to talk to you. I don't know all the rules, but I often know next steps or who to check with. there may be other people in the university that can advise you as well, or you may get access to an attorney that you can speak with. Maybe the attorney that's handling your own case, could you give you some advice on how to handle friends and relatives? But in all cases, it's such a tricky area that I urge a great deal of caution. Here's the resources that I was telling you about, lots and lots of links. here so explore them thoroughly. I put the titles up here for what area they cover. I want to talk for a couple of minutes about this state's offering resident tuition. Students that come in on a F1 visa or in many cases people when they first arrive in the country are not immediately eligible at higher ed institutions for resident rates, which in our case are two-thirds less than resident tuition. So this is a list of states that will allow refugees immediate resident tuition. Maybe they apply it to asylees. I don't know. Each state's going to be different and have different rules. But these are reasonable places to look at in hopes that if you're bringing in a student, this would be a less expensive alternative for them. And I think that, I think that means that institutions, at least state institutions in these areas, may be more likely to have scholarships available for refugees and asylees. So this, I think, is a valuable list. This is a place where you can get some legal assistance as well. Here's an explanation of how you can get federal aids. Obviously, I did not yet add a link to the directory of colleges in the USA and Canada. And my intention is to sort of update this as I go along, get some more eyes on this to see if other people have suggestions for you. But I wanted to start somewhere. And if you look at these sites and find that they're not useful or the link doesn't work or something, please let me know. And I just want to keep this current and updated as much as I can. This is U.S. visa information and Canadian visa information. And I just, again, I want to caution you that this is a hard process and there's nothing fast about it. You don't have very many options, but you have some. So I hope this gives you some hope, gives you some new ideas. You can continue to help by raising some money, identifying resources for your relatives, and most importantly, in what they want for you most is for you to be successful here and then you'll have more opportunities to help them as you begin to raise money. And I see I said being successful here at and I met fill in your university here. Anyway, I hope this gives you some good ideas and I sincerely hope that you're able to get your friend or relative here eventually. But I want you to know we're glad you're here.