Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Immigration Today. I'm Elizabeth Trifonis. And today we're breaking down policies, stories and issues that matter. You're watching now Media Television.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Welcome to Immigration Today. I'm Elizabeth Trifonis. On this show, we talk about real issues, real stories, and actually the real human beings behind what's happening in immigration today.
Our stories often take people across borders and countries. With me today is Tamina Watson, founder of Watson Immigration Law, who originally started out in London and has made her way to New York. And I'm so excited to have her here today with me to introduce herself and to tell her story. Tamina, I know we got started a little bit late, but thank you for being here.
Tell us, how did you get from London as a barrister doing criminal work to New York? What's the story? Fill us in.
[00:00:53] Speaker C: Well, Elizabeth, thank you so much for having me. I'm so honored to be with you and grateful to you and now media for hosting this, this interview. You know, it's. It's interesting because you never know where your life might end. And I actually live in Washington state, in Seattle, just outside Seattle. But I was born and raised in London, and then I moved to Bangladesh, where my parents are from. They sort of had a little time where they wanted to go back, and then we came back to London and I finished my education there and became a lawyer. And in the uk, there are two types of lawyers. There's a transactional lawyer, generally referred to as a solicitor, and a trial attorney, that is a barrister. And all my life I just wanted to be a barrister. The. The journey to becoming a barrister was pretty rocky, but eventually got there. But as soon as I got there, I met my dream man, who is now my husband, and I got married and I moved here. So I've been. I've been in the U.S. this is my 21st year and my 20th year of being a U.S. immigration attorney.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: That's what drew you to the immigration. I know you have your parents and your background, but why focus on that piece? Why is that important to you if it is?
[00:02:12] Speaker C: You know, at the time, I had just finished my own immigration issues and gotten my green card. And, you know, I was looking for a job after I passed the bar.
And even though I wanted to be a lawyer, I knew specifically that I did not want to be an immigration lawyer. So I was avoiding immigration law. I was looking for all different types of jobs. But the universe has a plan. I kept getting one immigration job after another immigration job after another one, and I kept saying no and no. And no. And then I'm like, ah, I give up and I give in universe and here I am. And then, you know, here I am 21 years later. What was interesting is the first day of immigration, I thought, gosh, why was I fighting this? This is exactly what I've been wanting to do. You know, I wanted to practice an area of law that was complicated, but it touched real lives. I'm not pushing paper forever and ever and not seeing a result in the cases.
And, you know, these are human beings that I get to touch and feel in a way that you can't do just with transactional work and where it's contracts that get negotiated for years and years.
So it became very apparent that I had a knack for immigration. Not only because I had just gone through my own immigration situation or process, but also my parents were immigrants in the uk and so even though I was not an immigrant in the uk, I was in a community that was full of immigrants. And so it became a knack and here I am. I practice primarily business immigration.
That's H1BS, O1S, L1S, E2S, you know, you name it. And I practice some family based immigration. But I do not do what you have specific expertise in, Elizabeth. Removal, defense and criminal issues that, you know, intersect with immigration. Those are, those are very, very complicated. Not that immigration isn't complicated, but, you know, I. There's only so much you can do, right?
[00:04:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: I like to tell people, you know, explaining sort of people's situations and maybe the process or the requirements. Sometimes I feel like a crazy person because it's so made up and imaginary what these requirements are and what the hoops have to be. And then as you know, every day right now it seems to be changing. We get another email or update that there's a different situation.
Tell me, when did you find, when did you found Watson Immigration Law and how long have you been doing that? I think you've alluded that being two decades now, but fill us in on that journey.
[00:04:53] Speaker C: Really good question. I actually started practicing immigration law with my own immigration lawyer. She helped me with my own process and two years later, I started my law firm, Watson immigration law. In January 2009 is when I started, but this is indeed my 20th year of practicing immigration law. And if you can cast your memory back to 2008 and 9, it was the height of the recession and, you know, it was a similar but different situation to 2022 when there was a mass layoffs that was happening in 2008-2009 and somehow the universe really put me in a position where that became the trajectory of my career. I was helping a lot of people who were engineers and different type of high skilled professionals who are being laid off. And if you do not have a position to work at, your visa is not valid. And so I started off helping people figure out how to have visas for startups and then it just led to writing a lot of books and policy issues on startup visas.
And so it's a very interesting time to be an immigration lawyer for all the reasons you said that. Everything is changing almost every day and it's unpredictable. What advice you gave last week wouldn't necessarily be exactly the same this week.
And that's the same on business immigration too, right?
[00:06:22] Speaker B: I think I say it often with my staff and my paralegals. They're excellent at what they do because they've all been through the, they've all been through the system so they understand what the paperwork means, you know, and you're in that line of business where paperwork is impacting a human being and knowing that makes you effective and powerful.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: I'm so curious with how, how is it going now with the business, with investors? Are you seeing trends or are people still trying to get through the system or where, where are we at today with these new business entrepreneur applications?
[00:07:02] Speaker C: Well, let's, let's maybe just touch on the H1B Visa, which is a common visa that entrepreneurs can use.
But if you, if anybody has been paying attention to the news cycle, H1B is firmly there in different ways. And you know, there's a, there's an accusation that H1BS are being, you know, abused. And the administration has had proclamations, executive orders. They, there is a fee of $100,000 that was imposed.
The federal courts have blocked that 100,000. But it doesn't necessarily mean that the administration is approving H1BS all the time.
So we have several cases that we filed using something called premium processing. You pay the government extra 50, sorry, $3,000, it's gone up. And they're supposed to look at these cases within 15 days. But unfortunately they are not adjudicating these cases. So H1Bs are a bit of a problem with uncertainties going on. A lot of big companies also are not using the H1BS at the moment.
Clients frequently tell me, you know, so and so company and so and so company said they're not going to be sponsoring H1B visas anymore. So there's a bit of a chilling effect going on on the employer, business side, the, the companies that would routinely file a lot of H1Bs shying away from it. But the individuals who are getting laid, you know, they, they are starting their own companies. And I just did a webinar yesterday. It was very interesting to see what the trends are with people. But that's on the H1B front. All types of employment based immigration cases are getting highly scrutinized. There's something called a request for further evidence that you might know RFPs. And the RFPs are using language that we have not seen before. They're scrutinizing them to the nitty gritty detail and pulling them apart in a way that you can already see that they want to essentially deny the case. So even the strongest of candidates who are geniuses filing genius visas are also seeing denials. But it doesn't mean that cases are not being approved. So I just want to make sure people do know that the system, while it is very difficult, can still work. You just have to be extra prepared, extra cool, cautious in the evidence that you gather and, and file accordingly. But I don't know if you've seen this, Elizabeth. Filing cases with uscis, no matter what kind of case it is, is also problematic. Just getting the case through the door, you know, they're getting rejected, you know, suggesting that the filing fee is not correct, which for mo, for our clients, they are correct. We triple check our filing fees. So something's happening at the gate of USCIS as well.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel like we're getting RFEs.
Well, what we seem to notice because we scan a copy of everything we send. I'm still old school. I like to send things on paper. I know USCIS is pushing it online more and more, but we get an RFE back that says we didn't submit something when I clearly see that we did. You know, it's like they're separating applications and evidence pieces in a way that is confusing. And when we send it back and say, no, no, here it is again, then we're seeing things get through the door. But you're right, it is being scrutinized and it's very complicated. I want to continue the conversation. I know that we're at the end of our segment here, but when we come back, we'll continue talking with Tamina Watson and Watson Immigration Law and get into some finer details. We'll be right back.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: We'll be right back with more insight, context, and useful information about immigration law and life. Stay with us on immigration today.
And we're back I'm Elizabeth Trifonis and this is Immigration Today on NOW Media Television. Let's continue the conversation.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Welcome back to Immigration Today. Stay connected to this show and every NOW MEDIA TV favorite live or on demand, anytime you like, download the Free Now Media TV app on Roku iOS or iOS and unlock nonstop bilingual programming in English and Spanish. If you're on the move, you can catch the show at www.nowmedia.tv. this is business, news, lifestyle, culture, community and beyond. NOW Media TV is streaming around the clock and ready whenever you are. My guest today is Tamina Watson with Watson, Immigration Law. And we began the conversation with a little bit of her journey, how she became an immigration lawyer and the difference between a solicitor and a barrister, which is not anything I ever knew.
But in the break, we were talking about what everyone might really need to hear.
I think what we need to hear is those tips and tricks on how to keep moving forward in the system. Tamina, what would you like the audience to know and what are you trying to share with everybody?
[00:12:11] Speaker C: Well, thank you. That's a really great way to make sure that people understand what they should be doing to protect themselves. When it comes to immigration, you have to take control over your own life and make sure that you are complying. You can't say that my lawyer didn't tell me that's not going to work. You can't say that my employer didn't do this. That's not going to work. It's all about you making sure that you are in compliance of that particular visa. So no matter what kind of visa you have, know the rules about that.
Any work visa, if you're in the United States, you must be getting paid for that job.
And so if your employer hasn't paid you to have a discussion with them about why you're not getting paid, or if you are getting paid, you must get paid the amount that was promised according to the immigration form. So USCIS had been promised a certain amount. Make sure you're having that. So making sure that compliance includes the paperwork. If you are traveling around domestically, make sure that you have your approval notice, your passport, your pay stubs, keep them in the back of your bag or somewhere readily available.
If you are a work visa holder and your work visa has come to an end, but a renewal has been filed for you, you are actually one of those categories which is afresh in the risk department, particularly if you travel domestically. So if you are traveling domestically, which has not necessarily been a problem in the past for people who have visas or Even undocumented.
Now, it is a place where you can be detained. So be careful about travel. I write a column in above the Law. It is a legal magazine. There is a comprehensive article about travel issues.
Know where you are in this immigration journey and learn about compliance. Compliance is the name of the game. Now, if you are an international student, you also should spend specifically not travel at all because the international student visa rules are about to change. They were about to change on September 15th. A federal judge has blocked the rules, but they could go into effect anytime. And if you have traveled and you return, you will be subject to the new rules when they get into effect. And you don't want to do that because the new rules are very, very stringent and they will be difficult for you to move from one stage of student visa to another. So definitely do not travel. But if you are an international student, absolutely make sure you are on top of what's happening. Stay in touch with your designated student officer or any other information that's being given out in your schools. You know, there are international universities in all of our states, in Washington, in Wyoming, on the East Coast. No matter where you are, because you're listening to this show from where you know different parts of the country or even the globe, understanding that is going to be important. If you are a tourist coming into the United States from outside the country. Understand what the changing dynamics are for immigration officers interviewing you. Because when they are interviewing you, there are some new questions in addition to social media that they are vetting. They are vetting your background, possibly previous applications, to see if there are inconsistencies. But some of the questions are trying to determine whether you will go back home or not. And one of the questions for tourists, you know, you, anybody listening might have a parent or a sibling trying to visit the United States and they will face these questions. One of the questions is, are you afraid to go back home?
So if you're from, you know, somewhere in Latin America and you get this question and you say, yes, I'm afraid to go back home, you will not get that tourist visa to come back, come into the United States. And that is universal no matter which country you're in. So there are many different types of issues that are cropping up for every type of visa. But compliance is the name of the game. So make sure that you are complying. Now, if you are on the path to a green card, and that's generally referred to as family based immigration, but you could be getting a green card through employment based categories, you might Be pending an interview and you might have something called an advanced parole. Advance parole is temporary travel permission.
One of the things that's happening in recent times is if you are traveling on an advanced parole, you are not being allowed to come in or you're having challenges coming in, you're not being admitted in the right category. So it's important that you don't travel if a green card is pending. Now, if you are a green card holder, traveling is a different issue. And this is where you know you must speak with Elizabeth and her team, particularly if you have a criminal issue pending. If you have criminal convictions in the past or even if they're pending, green card holders are not being admitted as green card holders, if you're admitted at all. So there are different types of issues going on. You have to protect yourself and the way you protect yourself is have knowledge and comply.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Agreed. So many, so many things that you touched on that are super important. There's been a change in Yarrabelli and Arabelli, a case that we've all relied on for a long time.
It was always fun to say, but things have changed with travel. The ability to utilize advance parole. And if you're not careful, you may find yourself outside the country and even barred for 10 years from even applying to come back in.
But also, Tamina, you make a great point about sort of this domestic travel. We're seeing a lot of people come to our area through Salt Lake City and we are seeing people detained at the Salt Lake City airport. I recently had a 17 year old detained.
He was going from Salt Lake to visit family in New York actually, and he was released to his mother. But the problem was is when mom was called to come get him. She's also in an asylum process and, and we ended up with two cases in dealing with that. So it is super important to know how you're moving about and to be very careful with how you're moving about when people, you know, we say it all the time. But reach out to these resources. Tamina, how do people get a hold of you to ask you questions? What's the easiest way to reach out to you and to find you?
[00:18:52] Speaker C: Oh, thank you, Elizabeth. Our website is www.watsonimmigrationlaw.com.
our phone number is 206.
Oh, I've forgotten my number. 20652.
I'll have to send it to you. I can't remember my phone number at the moment. And our email address is infowatson. Immigration law. I've had this phone number for 20 years. I don't know why I don't remember it, because you're on the spot and
[00:19:21] Speaker B: things are recording as all these things are changing and case laws changing and injunctions and forms. I noticed an i765 form, it changed on September 14, it changed back on September 15, it changed again. Because these injunctions, everything's really moving very quickly in the immigration world.
Should we be hopeful about it? How do we sustain hope about this American dream, if you will? What's your tips and advice for us to stay positive?
[00:19:52] Speaker C: Well, that's, I think we all must have hope, because if we do not have hope, we cannot move forward. But you need something to help you keep that hope alive. Because when you look at anything, whether it's the news or around you in your communities, it's, it feels hopeless sometimes. And so to make sure that you keep hope, you've got to find joy in your life. And I, I learned that the hard way.
You know, between the 2017 and 2020 era, it was very difficult to sustain as an immigration lawyer. So how you find joy is a human issue, not just a lawyer issue. Because whether you're an educator, where books are banned and education is criticized, if you are a health professional and medicine and immunization and what have you, everything is under attack. If you are in higher ed and higher education institutions themselves are under scrutiny. It doesn't matter which, which level of society or what your profession is or what kind of work you do.
There's a lot of worry and concern.
And so as humans, we've got to find ways to sustain ourselves. And as an immigration lawyer, and you probably agree with this, Elizabeth, you, you cannot help but take on the burden of your clients problems. And when you take those problems on, you're actually taking them home. You're spreading the problems with whoever you're speaking with, not that you're sharing the case info. It's that emotional burden that weighs you down. And then you're spreading that emotional heaviness that you're exuding, you know, to your children and your family. And so it affects everybody else. So it's important that if we can find joy in our lives, we're injecting joy in others. And I've taken that to heart. I discovered bird photography during the pandemic.
And in fact, it started with a little sparrow. I looked at a little sparrow and suddenly thought, wow, I've never really seen a sparrow before, which is not true. I've seen sparrows all my life. But suddenly I felt like I saw saw one and that was the beginning of, you know, finding birds. And it's changed the trajectory of my life, actually. I'm more adventurous. I'm taking pictures of anything and everything that moves. And I now create coloring books with my bird photography. And I have my first photo exhibition coming up. And what I will say is that the joy of birding, once you have found joy, you can't help but share the joy with others.
And other people get infused with that joy and find their own joy. It's almost like you've got to have permission for yourself to say, yes, I will spend a little bit of time on me.
And then other people find permission to do that, too. And so I'm a big proponent, I am a joy advocate that you find joy for yourself because it will make everything better. It will make yourself better, it will make your work better, it will make your surroundings better. And that will help keep the hope alive and help you keep making sure that hope is the guiding force for everything.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: Tamina Watson, that's such a powerful statement, that ripple effect, that butterfly effect of how we show up.
Yesterday I showed up messy, but I showed up and kept moving it forward and gave people, my staff, judges, permission to do the same. Right.
We know that if we don't try, we don't attempt. We know the result. And if we work very hard at moving things forward, we may get just to where we're trying to go at the end of this segment. I'm so looking forward to continuing the conversation with you, Tamina. We'll take a break at this time and we'll be right back.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: We'll be right back with more insight, context and useful information about immigration law and life. Stay with us on Immigration today. And we're back. I'm Elizabeth Trifonis and this is Immigration Today on NOW Media Television. Let's continue the conversation.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Welcome back. I'm Elizabeth Trifonis and my guest today is Tamina Watson with Watson, Immigration law.
And we left off talking about joy. And sometimes in our breaks we end up in these great conversations as well. That it's interesting, once we get recording, it sort of shifts a little bit. But we were talking on our break actually, Tamina, you throw joy parties and I would love to hear more about that. And why, why what is a joy party and why is this an important
[00:24:20] Speaker C: thing that you're oh, my gosh, I love joy parties. I coined the term and it's really where we gather. And it started with my immigration lawyer friends here in Washington State because I was worried that we wouldn't have enough fuel in us to keep going once these new policies would come in.
And so the joy party is a simple premise that you get together, you break bread, but you only talk about joy.
It is human to get together and talk about your problems.
And once you come into a room and talk about problems, and if you bring a number of immigration lawyers in a room, you're all talking about your problem cases and you leave a room even more drained than you were to start with. So a joy party is really where you talk about joy. What brought you joy today, how you know and you get, you get inspired by others. At our very first joy party, one person said, you know, I used to love surfing, but now I live in Washington state. Where can I surf? And so everybody just pitched in to talk about, well, you could go surfing here and there.
You can talk about problems, but in the context of why joy is necessary. But it's, it's become. I've done a lot of these in 2025 and 2026, and I'm going to have at least one more by the end of the year.
And it is an inspirational time for people to get together and they can talk about things like, oh, I love crows. Like, who talks about crows being, you know, their pets? You know, it's. There's a segment of community, apparently, who love crows. And so it's, it's been really interesting learning about what, what calls people's attention, whether it's.
It could be their children, but not necessarily, you know, fast cars and fashion, and there are some fashionistas among us, it's just been really wonderful. But the reason for joy is that if, if you can put your attention. You know, there's a saying that energy goes where attention flows, or wherever attention goes, energy flows. I think if you can put it into joy, it means that whatever you touch will have a joyous effect.
Where, even if it's a very difficult, complicated cremagation case because you can't help but think about the client who might get detained. But if you can just change your shift your, your thinking and say, well, I'm going to do this with so much love and this client is going to be released, there's a lot more positive energy in the work that you're doing. And so that joy party is really a reinforcing mechanism to just say, we are human and we are here to have joy. That's the one thing we're not taught, even from school.
And so it's become my mission to help people remember that joy is part of our human experience.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: I, I find that message to be very helpful. As I'm, as I mentioned, I'm going to be traveling here to go to the Aurora Geo Detention center which is where our people when they are detained by ICE are housed and sat. Sadly, my opinion right now, for very long term detentions until we can get habeas corpus petitions granted.
But you're right to go in. Sometimes I don't have good information, happy information for somebody, but I can go in and sit with them and try to find the silver lining. Right. And hold space for that.
What are some tips that you would recommend for people, maybe even not non immigrants? What are, what should the US citizens be doing about any of this, if anything at all?
[00:27:59] Speaker C: I mean this is a time where everybody should be doing something. So I'm so glad you asked that question. And I think, you know, everybody should listening and, and anybody listening, taking some tips from this meeting today, this conversation today should absolutely share that, share it with their friends and family. Because as you mentioned before, the term ripple effect is a true thing. You know, we can all make a difference. So depending on who you are, what you do, you have a role to play. If you have a business and a lot of hospitality industry businesses are suffering, construction industry businesses are suffering, speak up and how do you speak up? And you know, a lot of people are afraid to speak up. You don't necessarily have to go to the media to speak up. You can call your representative, your senator, your congressperson and explain what your problem is.
Our representatives when they go to Congress have to have the confidence to say my constituents have told me whatever it is that you've told them. So tell them what you need them to know and that will have an absolute positive effect on how your representative can represent you. Now Congress is a different beast. You know, there are different issues. We don't have to worry about it. When you are an individual, you think of yourself as a character in a story. Your character has one role. What is that role? Do that role. And that role is to speak to your congressperson and say, this is my problem. I don't have anybody working for my construction company or picking the apples or serving the food or you know, being a nurse or whatever at a hospice, our workforce is affected, but that workforce means our consumers are affected. And so if you are a consumer who is somebody who is as a hospice and your parents don't have any nursing care, you can speak from that perspective and call your representative and say this is the problem. There Aren't any workers.
We have to make sure that the problems that are happening at a grassroots level are being conveyed to the people who are actually representing us. Now, they may know overall what's happening, but when they have concrete stories that they can share on the floor of Congress, that actually makes a difference.
But that also helps our state representatives, not just Congress. There's a misconception that state representatives can't do anything. You know, it's not. It's not immigration. Immigration is federal, but that's not true. There can be state policies, whether it's for education, whether it's for, you know, finding legal representatives, you know, having legal aid. These are the things that our state representatives need to know. And then there are community organizations that are helping people like Elizabeth, like Elizabeth's colleagues. You know, there are many nonprofits that are suffering for funds because there are federal, you know, deterrence in giving funding these days, or they're being cut help organizations. $5 might seem like too small for you to think about giving, but $5 actually can add up.
So it doesn't matter what the amount is. Donate where you think you can make a difference. So there are many things you can do. Pick your lane and do it. It might take only five minutes for you to do something, but the ripple effect and the aggregate value will be really, really helpful.
[00:31:26] Speaker B: Agreed. I went to law school in San Diego, and sometimes I get teased that I came to Wyoming to do immigration law from the border to the interior.
And I get asked often, is ICE really here? Is that really happening? The answer is, oh, yes, it is.
Our Wyoming Highway Patrol, when you mentioned working on a local level or state level as well, our Wyoming Highway Patrol has an agreement with ice, so they're essentially ICE agents, and that's a state thing.
So us speaking up to our representatives in the state, if that's not what we want, is crucial. And I like to remind people, right. Law is imaginary in a lot of respects. We make it up. So if we don't like it, guess what? We have the control to collectively decide we want to do something differently.
There's so many different things I want to ask you about on tips and tricks and how to do this better. But I think ultimately people need to use their voice and reach out and speak and talk to you and talk for themselves.
Yeah.
[00:32:32] Speaker C: And one of the things that they can do is you. Maybe you don't want to speak to your congressperson, but let us to the editor in a newspaper, which you know can only be 250 words, are often very powerful. That's the way, you know, every lawmaker will read a local newspaper, a state newspaper, voice your concern that way.
There are. There are many ways in which you can be heard without the fear of retaliation, too. That's one of the things that people are afraid of. But, you know, your neighbors, your community, they're your neighbors, your communities, they're friends of your children.
And this is, you know, our societies, we have responsibilities and, you know, exercise your rights.
You know, it's. I think we all have constitutional rights.
And yes, a lot of things are being questioned at the moment, but the rights have not gone away.
And so do the thing that makes you comfortable in the way that you are comfortably able to do it and just do something right.
[00:33:38] Speaker B: I say that all the time. We all have rights, but you can't use them or utilize them or leverage them if you don't know what they are. So the first step is, hey, what are my rights? Find that out.
Then when you know them, utilize them, push them. We know that if we do nothing, what we will get. But if we push back a little bit, that's how we're going to collectively get to the next stage.
What would be one of the goals you would see for your maybe community or your state or your area? What's something future, future reaching that you would love to see accomplished here in the next, I don't know, year, six months that you're interested in moving forward?
[00:34:27] Speaker C: Well, for immigration, I would love for people to simply stand up and essentially find reasonable ways in which they can voice their concerns.
It's important that you follow the law.
You don't cause any problems for law enforcement to enforce the law. But that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that as, as a citizen, you can absolutely make sure that your voice is heard by calling your congressperson, for example. But on a human level, I would really love for people to find joy for themselves. I think if everybody were to find something that brought them joy, there's a collective aggregate value of everything become becoming happier and nicer. And, you know, we all want to have a better society and community for our kids.
So let's make sure that we are creating a future that is safe and secure and happy for our children.
[00:35:30] Speaker B: Thank you, Tamina. We're going to take a break, but when we come back, we'll finish this conversation as much as this kind of conversation can be finished.
And we'll continue talking with Tamina Watson. We'll be right back.
[00:35:42] Speaker A: We'll be right back. With more insight, context and useful information about immigration law and life. Stay with us on IMMIGRATION today. And we're back. I'm Elizabeth Trifonis and this is Immigration TODAY on NOW Media Television. Let's continue the conversation.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: Welcome back to IMMIGRATION today. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite live or on demand. Anytime you like, download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS.
I like to stumble over that iOS part and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish. If you're on the move, download the app and see the podcast version at www.nowmedia.tv. from business and news to lifestyle, culture, wellness, community and beyond, NOW Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are.
I'm excited in this last segment and I think this conversation could go on for a long time to visit with Tamina Watson and Watson, immigration Law. And on the break, you had mentioned that it feels like the doors to immigration may be closing, but there are some wins and I'd love to hear about those wins. What are you seeing in doors actually being able to be opened and people moving forward?
[00:36:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:59] Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you, Elizabeth, again, for having me. You know, there is a lot of concern and stress about immigration law in general and what happens when people are trying to open businesses. And what I have said to people is that the American dream is still alive, but you have to be prepared for your immigration cases to be successful. And how can you do that? And the cases that can succeed, succeed still are people who are bringing something to the table to the United States. And you have to prove it. You can't just say it, you have to prove it. And so when people are proving that they are either investing in the United States with a lot of money to open their businesses and they have, you know, business plans to create jobs, cases can still be approved. And one of the things that I advocate for people who are particularly laid off. So if you think about people who are coming from outside the U.S. or people who are already inside the U.S. i'll just address it in, in both ways. I, I am very fortunate to go to different parts of the world to speak about how people can expand their businesses into the US and if, if that's you, you often people are coming to the US as business visitors and that means you're complying with the rules to, you know, not going to be working here, you're not going to be living here. You're simply exploring business opportunities. Those are still successful. Often if you have already opened a business in the United States and you're trying to bring one of your managers or somebody else to train local workers. The B1 visa that is the business visa has a newer section in it that is for trainers. So if you have people that are good at training your local staff, you can use the B1 visa for that. And that is successfully being used. The other thing that is being successfully used is the expedited fee that is at the Department of State at consulates for 750. Some of these tourist visas, business visas can be expedited because there's a very long wait to get those appointments that appears to be successful in getting those appointments. And when you are expanding into the U.S. yes, there's a lot of scrutiny. There are lots of RFEs that we mentioned earlier.
But if you are able to prove that your business has all of the elements that a business should have, it has an office, you've transferred your funds, you have at least one or two people already working. Maybe you have a plan to show how your business is going to grow. If you have contracts that people have already signed to say, we have an agreement to do this type of business with you, those strengthen your cases. So we have seen success in what's called an E2 visa. People from Mexico and different parts of Latin America can actually succeed with an E2 visa. It's an E2 treaty investor visa, typically. And you know, you're not supposed to have a favorite of something, but when it comes to all the visa categories, I would say the E2 is one of our favorites at our office.
So yes, you know, if you are talented and if you can put improve the talent and if you are bringing something to the table to the United States that will have a long term benefit, those are the things that should succeed. They don't always, but they should and they can.
[00:40:25] Speaker B: And you mentioned the E2 visa. Can you go into a little bit more detail on what those requirements are? I've been hearing a lot about them. And that's not the area of immigration law that I play in.
What is the E2 visa? What do you sure.
[00:40:40] Speaker C: The E2 is an investment visa. You are buying a Starbucks franchise or a Subway franchise, or you're starting your own little, you know, tech company in the US it can be any business that is for profit. You know, we've done it for horse farms and people selling clothes, apparel, wholesale clothing companies. We've done it for tech companies. We've done it for different type of, you know, kids, extracurricular, whether it's language or swimming or you Know kung fu or whatever. We. It can be any business that you can think of. So think about what your own superpower is and your super knowledge is. And you want to have a business, it's really having a business that has injection of funds from you as an investor. Typically the rule of thumb is $100,000. And then you have to trace the funds. Where did the money come from? Did you earn it? Did mom and dad give it to you? Did you sell the house to fund the business?
They want to see the source of the funds. And then the government really wants to see how did it arrive in the US because we want to make sure it's not black money. It's clean money. It's traceable. So the bank transfers and so forth. And then you have to show that your money is at risk. You can't just put money in the bank and say, I've invested. You've got to have a good faith effort in setting up the business and that you have spent some of the money.
And then you have to have a business plan to show that the business is going somewhere. You know, the first five years of projections, whether it's, you know, revenue and the balance sheets and, and how many people you're going to be applying for hiring. Now, one of the things that people ask me often in an E2 is are there a set number of jobs I have to create in an E2, you don't have to do that in an E2. It's really about the story of the business. How many jobs are this, this business going to be sustaining? But there is a different visa category called EB5. That's where you have to invest $1 million, actually 150 or 800,000 in a rural area. Wyoming might have a lot of rural areas actually where the 800 would apply, but for that, you have to create 10 jobs in a set amount of time. But the E2 is really fantastic because you can make sure that your American dream comes true.
It's relatively quick from beginning to end, maybe six to seven months to be able to come to the United States. And what I find with most of our immigrant entrepreneur clients is you are determined to succeed. It is your business, it is your money. And we have found people to be very successful with their businesses, their lives, their futures using this visa.
[00:43:28] Speaker B: Now, of course, people can reach out to you to learn more about the E2. Are there other resources or other articles that you would refer people to to find out more on how to apply for that E2 in the proper fashion?
[00:43:41] Speaker C: Thank you for asking. You know, I actually have a book called a Visa Guide. It's actually called the Startup Visa US Immigration Visa Guide for Startups and Founders. And it actually lists all of the visas that are available for people who are trying to get into the United States as entrepreneurs. How you use the visas in which.
In which way. That book is on Amazon. The name of the book is the Startup Visa US Immigration Visa Guide for Startups and Founders.
Beyond that, you can go through our website. We have information there. But there's nothing better than the USCIS United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website because it has policy manuals, guidance forms with instructions. All of that information will help people have firsthand information from the source.
[00:44:35] Speaker B: Yeah, the uscis.gov is a very.
It's got a lot of information.
It is actually the instructions that are on that website are considered law, in fact, for people that are reading them and trying to follow them.
I mean, from writing books to taking photos of birds, to joy parties.
Where do you find the time to sustain yourself? Where, where?
How?
I guess, what's the secret? Tamina, have this put together.
[00:45:09] Speaker C: Oh, you know, I steal time wherever I can.
So it's. It's really sort of knowing what your life is, making sure that all the balls are up in the air, nothing can drop, because every one of those are very, very important.
But you are just as important. So if I were doing something like you, where, you know, you're hopping on a plane to go to Aurora, it's a different city, maybe there's a park next to it. I would take 15 minutes to go into that park and see if there are birds that I haven't seen for a while. You know, that is exactly what I would be doing, quite literally, if I were you. And so that's how I roll my weekends, my mornings are really important for that. And so finding the time is the biggest constraint that people say that I don't have the time. And I was that person. I didn't think I had time. But suddenly when you love something so much, you actually do find the time. And that's why I wrote a journal called Finding Joy. It was sort of my journey, my step by step, and how I found birding. Because if you find that whether it's running, jogging, biking, knitting, you know, swimming, whatever it is that you love, you will find the time, I promise you.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that is my goal moving forward, to prove that I can work less and accomplish more and take those breaks. Yesterday, in fact, we had a hearing that was running long because translation can be difficult in court sometimes.
And the judge wanted to know if we could push it past the 5pm hour.
And baby lawyer me would have said, yes, of course, I'll cancel my five o' clock appointment. But me, I actually had a therapy appointment at 5pm for myself, and that's important to me. And I did. I told the judge, I said, I'm sorry, judge, I can't. I have this mental wellness appointment that I need to maintain for myself.
And the moment I said it, she immediately said, well, of course, course, of course. And we got things accomplished in a timely fashion and still was able to preserve that time. Right? We have to take care of ourselves.
And so I think your wisdom on this is brilliant. And I, I, part of me felt like I shouldn't have told the judge I had a therapy session. And the other part of me very much needed to know her, to know why it was so important that we stayed on time.
[00:47:33] Speaker C: I'm so glad, I'm so glad you said that, Elizabeth. I really do think it's important. And in fact, in January 2020, no, December 2024, I reached out to everyone in my community and I said, I want a list of therapists.
I need a list of therapists so that they can help. My immigration lawyer friends and people signed up. We had so many therapists sign up and they donated time for our immigration lawyer community. Here we have a wellness leader in our local chapter and she took the list and she ran with it. And every month, the therapist actually sat down with our immigration lawyers to give tips and tricks. It is, it is not a small thing because if you, as a professional do not have the mental wellness component, how can you help somebody with such serious issues going on in their life? So thank you so much for sharing that. I commend you for that and I hope that you will continue to do that and spread that. That's the ripple effect that you can spread.
[00:48:38] Speaker B: Tamina, we've been talking about hard things. The doors that are closing, doors that are staying open, entrepreneurs bringing something to the table, joy and the ripple effect. And I so appreciate your time. Thank you, Tamina Watson, for joining us on Immigration today.
[00:48:54] Speaker C: Thank you so much for having.
