FULL TRANSCRIPT
[The following is the full transcript of the blog video: Communist Party & USCIS Policy Manual]
What is the impact of your membership in the Communist Party on your green card application or your citizenship application? My name is Erick Widman, I’m an Immigration Lawyer. And we’re going to lay out for you the various considerations that you have to keep in mind if you have been a member of the Communist Party, USCIS. If you’re going to be applying for your green card USCIS has a policy manual, where it lays out its views on what is okay and not okay, and what standards the officers should use when they’re adjudicating cases. So, uh, periodically, they update this policy manual. And sometimes they go too far, especially with the current administration. And most recently, there’s been a policy manual update, which goes way too far in regards to understanding when someone has a meaningful association with the Communist Party and when it doesn’t. So, the policy manual is guidance for officers and it has real impact, it has real teeth. But thankfully, there are also exceptions, there are waivers. And eventually, these policy manuals likely can be challenged in federal court, and they’ll get changed. But for now, what we have to do our best to figure out and you have to determine whether it makes sense to apply for your green card with us is, rather than trying with the State Department because the standards are actually different there. For the most part, people shouldn’t run away from us but be aware of this new requirement. So what policy manuals now saying is that you don’t have to have a truly meaningful association that requires a deep understanding and commitment to the Communist Party. All that matters. All this required to show that someone is inadmissible is an awareness of the political nature of your involvement in membership in the party. So that’s a massive change, moving from awareness. And putting aside the commitment that other course courts have required. Moving from that over to just a mere awareness from commitment to awareness. Thankfully, even despite these changes, there are exceptions. There are waivers available. So the policy manual lays that out as well. And other law firms including ours, at some point want to challenge this directly.
