WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:01.750 My name is Janet Moon, 2 00:00:01.750 --> 00:00:04.010 and I have a small immigration practice 3 00:00:04.010 --> 00:00:05.490 in Syracuse, New York. 4 00:00:05.490 --> 00:00:08.550 line:15% We typically are helping families, 5 00:00:08.550 --> 00:00:13.550 line:15% so couples, parents and children, siblings 6 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:16.860 line:15% get Green Cards for their family members. 7 00:00:16.860 --> 00:00:18.780 line:15% We sometimes help people get a fiancee 8 00:00:18.780 --> 00:00:20.580 from a foreign country to come here. 9 00:00:21.460 --> 00:00:23.600 So mostly different types of family units, 10 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:25.410 sometimes adopted children. 11 00:00:25.410 --> 00:00:27.900 line:15% They come in, and they sit down and meet with me 12 00:00:27.900 --> 00:00:30.000 line:15% for maybe two or three hours, 13 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:33.560 line:15% and that gives me enough information about their situation 14 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:36.060 line:15% to either do the further research I need to do 15 00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:37.860 to know what to do for them, 16 00:00:37.860 --> 00:00:40.610 or I know enough already to be able to tell them 17 00:00:40.610 --> 00:00:42.930 what their legal options are, 18 00:00:42.930 --> 00:00:44.700 and then we just spend a lot of time 19 00:00:44.700 --> 00:00:46.730 making sure they understand those options. 20 00:00:46.730 --> 00:00:47.850 So it's a lot of one-on-one 21 00:00:47.850 --> 00:00:49.960 and really connecting with people. 22 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:51.870 So an example of the kind of client 23 00:00:51.870 --> 00:00:53.730 we might meet with in consultation 24 00:00:53.730 --> 00:00:57.990 is somebody who came to the United States as a student, 25 00:00:57.990 --> 00:01:00.270 and now has met somebody that they would like 26 00:01:00.270 --> 00:01:02.590 line:15% to get married to, who is a US citizen. 27 00:01:02.590 --> 00:01:05.700 line:15% So that might be a very straight-forward scenario, 28 00:01:05.700 --> 00:01:08.510 line:15% where we would tell them that they have the option to 29 00:01:08.510 --> 00:01:09.980 line:15% what's called Adjust Status 30 00:01:09.980 --> 00:01:12.770 and apply for a Green Card from inside the US. 31 00:01:12.770 --> 00:01:14.770 But there might be complicating factors 32 00:01:14.770 --> 00:01:16.067 that we would then tell them, 33 00:01:16.067 --> 00:01:18.037 "You are not a good candidate for Adjustment, 34 00:01:18.037 --> 00:01:20.077 "and you may need to leave the country, 35 00:01:20.077 --> 00:01:22.340 "or you may not be eligible for some reason." 36 00:01:22.340 --> 00:01:23.920 Common things that we're looking for 37 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:26.410 that people may not know about before they meet with us 38 00:01:26.410 --> 00:01:29.430 are the impact of criminal convictions, 39 00:01:29.430 --> 00:01:32.980 if they've in the past violated immigration laws, 40 00:01:32.980 --> 00:01:35.573 whether it was knowingly or not, 41 00:01:36.470 --> 00:01:37.890 so we're on the lookout for things 42 00:01:37.890 --> 00:01:40.023 line:15% that might mess up somebody's plans. 43 00:01:40.970 --> 00:01:44.140 line:15% But often people come to us with a fairly basic scenario. 44 00:01:44.140 --> 00:01:46.520 line:15% They want to get married, they want to bring their parent 45 00:01:46.520 --> 00:01:48.210 line:15% to the US, that kind of thing. 46 00:01:48.210 --> 00:01:50.520 Because my practice is primarily focused 47 00:01:50.520 --> 00:01:51.850 on family-based work, 48 00:01:51.850 --> 00:01:55.083 and we don't do any immigration court practice, 49 00:01:56.003 --> 00:01:59.330 I can really practice from my office, 50 00:01:59.330 --> 00:02:03.990 however, that doesn't mean I get a nine-to-five work day. 51 00:02:03.990 --> 00:02:08.990 I'm often doing at least 10 hours average, 52 00:02:10.320 --> 00:02:13.570 and I have a small firm, and I run my own firm, 53 00:02:13.570 --> 00:02:16.440 line:15% so I have a little bit more control over my schedule, 54 00:02:16.440 --> 00:02:19.380 line:15% but my experience of other people in this field 55 00:02:19.380 --> 00:02:20.940 line:15% is that the demands are fairly high. 56 00:02:20.940 --> 00:02:22.270 line:15% If you're working for a bigger firm, 57 00:02:22.270 --> 00:02:25.880 line:15% I would expect to spend maybe 12-hour days 58 00:02:25.880 --> 00:02:26.920 doing immigration work, 59 00:02:26.920 --> 00:02:28.450 because there's a lot of pressure 60 00:02:28.450 --> 00:02:30.283 on how to price this type of work.