Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing I-601 Waivers. For those who are unaware, if you are denied for a US Visa, if you are denied a US Immigration benefit based on what is called a ground of inadmissibility, it may be possible to get that ground of inadmissibility waived through usage of what is called an I-601 waiver. 

So for example, if one has a prior criminal conviction for something like for example what is called a crime involving moral turpitude or has been previously involved in it doesn't even have to require an arrest or conviction,  involvement in usage of prior drug usage, prior crime involving moral turpitude if it is admitted to but even if there is no conviction for it, prostitution, prior overstay in the United States, these are just a few, to name just a few; aggravated felonies things of this nature, a prior deportation could be a ground for inadmissibility. These may or may not be waivable depending on the facts of the underlying case but that is not really the thrust of this video. 

We are presuming the 601 has been approved and the question that is being rendered in this video and I am not really trying to put the US Embassy on the spot here, I am bringing this up because a lot of people have been emailing me lately about this and I have been trying to stay on top of this as best we can especially for our clients, we are definitely moving that through but the overall topic, folks that have contacted us that have dealt with their own 601 and been approved on it and then they are basically saying to me and "why isn't the Embassy moving? I have got my approval, when am I going to get my Visa?" Look COVID-19 knocked everyone for a loop basically for the past year. There is quite a backlog. Now that said I am not trying to make excuses here application that was denied at the end. If an I-601 waiver has been approved on a visa application that was denied at the Embassy then it stands to reason they need to go ahead and re-adjudicate go ahead and approve that and move the case on through. So, really I don't even think of it as re-adjudication; they just need to go ahead review the case make sure nothing has materially changed and then see that the ground of admissibility that the finding was made for, you need to go ahead and now approve the case.

In the past this was a pretty fluid endeavour. I don't know exactly what is going on internally with respect to the administrative process associated with approved 601 Waivers. They do seem to be moving dramatically more slowly. I am going to go ahead and put that under the category of just general COVID response, just the log jams associated with that. 

Now with our clients, where we have been dealing with 601s and we are now dealing with the back end of getting the Visa approved, the Embassy has been quite responsive albeit it is moving slower than normally is the case. Again, I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to the COVID response and the fact that the Trump Administration created a number of protocols that in my opinion were not overly conducive to processing out much of anything. That stated, we are now in the Biden Administration. Hopefully we are seeing the COVID issue subside. Hopefully we will start seeing a lot more of these cases move out more smoothly post 601 approval. We will definitely keep people updated on this channel is the situation proceeds.