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Hi, I'm Hilary Walsh, a serial entrepreneur, award-winning immigration lawyer, law professor,

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TEDx speaker, and Raven Phoenix Suns fan. Over the past decade, I've helped thousands

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of immigrants live free in the United States. I'm talking work permits, social security

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numbers, green cards, their citizenship, VAWA, TV visa, U visa, and lots of successful appeals.

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Here's the thing, immigration law is super complicated and legal advice, well, it can be

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pretty expensive. So I created the immigration law made easy podcast to share my 10 plus years of

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experience with you for free. So if you're looking for tried and true, no BS, step-by-step

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strategies and tips on how to win your immigration case and live truly free in the United States,

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you're in the right place, my friend. Let's get started.

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Hello, my friend. Today, I want to talk to you about the difference between a 601A provisional

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waiver and a regular old 601 waiver. Hi, I'm Hilary. I'm an immigration attorney and the founder of

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New Frontier immigration law where we help immigrants live free and without fear. I'm not

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going to lie. When I was first starting out as an immigration lawyer, I did so much Google lawyering

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to try to figure out what the heck these immigration law terms were and why each form was necessary

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for each different thing, even though they looked like they were like for the same purpose.

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And it kind of made me want to pull my hair out. So this podcast, if you can relate where you're

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looking through and you're like, why is this so difficult? Why is this so confusing? What do

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each of these things mean? This podcast is going to help you with that. I have done the research,

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I've done the cases, I have gotten the approvals. We have 100% success rate for 601s and for 601As.

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So I know now what I needed to know and I'm going to teach you so that if you are like I used to be

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in a little bit confused and a little bit frustrated and you didn't know of a credible source to go

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to to learn the information if I got you. So let's start with the very first place we have to start

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when we assess what type of waiver do I need to file? Like, let's pretend you know you need a waiver.

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What type do I need to file? The first question you have to ask yourself is, where's my client?

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Or if it's if it's for you or your family member, you have to ask, where am I? Where is the immigrant?

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If the immigrant is in their home country, let's use Mexico as an example. Most of my clients are

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Mexican. We specialize in helping Mexicans and Central Americans. We'll help anybody, of course,

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we can help you. But those are the cases that we do a lot because we are next door neighbors with

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our amazing Mexican friends, okay, here in Arizona. Where is my client? Where is the immigrant? If

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they're located in Mexico, you don't need to file a 601A, the YND. And you'll figure out here in a

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few minutes why I'm saying that. You would have to file a 601 assuming that that's the type of

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waiver that you need to fix your client or your family members or your own issue with admissibility.

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If by contrast, your client or the immigrant, you are in the US as a whole other ballgame,

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you might need both a 601 and a 601A. The next question you ask yourself is, what process am I

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doing? Is the process I'm doing to get a green card going to take me to my home country? In this

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situation is that my process, consular processing, in which case I will eventually go to CU.Johara's

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for my interview. If the answer is yes to both of those things, one, I'm in the US right now, my

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client is in the US right now. And two, he or she is eventually going to go to Mexico. Or let's use

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this example for you as the immigrant petitioning for yourself, getting your own stuff sorted out.

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I'm in the US and I know I need to go to Mexico to CU.Johara's to get my papers fixed. The next

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question you ask is, what am I trying to get waived? What am I trying to get forgiven or pardoned?

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If the answer is yes, I'm in the US. Yes, I need to go to my home country to fix my status because

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I'm doing a process called consular processing. And the third question, the third answer to the

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question is, yes, I need to get my unlawful presence waived. I've been here for more than

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180 days without permission and I'm over the age of 17. I need to do what's called a 601A,

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Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver, before I leave. If by contrast, you have a fraud and

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misrepresentation issue and you got to go to CU.Johara's to fix, you got to do that waiver

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when you're in Mexico. You can't do it before you leave under most circumstances, not every

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circumstance but most circumstances. Okay, so let's put some legs on this by using example.

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Sarah came to the United States when she was, she's Mexican. She came to the United States

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when she was 15 years old. She came without permission. Okay, these are made up facts.

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This is not a real case. Okay. Sarah came to the US without permission when she was 15. She's 22

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years old now and she's married to a US citizen. So she wants to get her green card through her

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marriage to her partner, okay, to her spouse. Because Sarah is currently in the United States,

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question one, she needs to go to CU.Johara's to fix question two. And she's been in the US for more

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than 179 days and she's over the age of 18. Question number three, we know she has a lawful

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presence issue and the US government will allow her to file that waiver now and wait it out while

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she's in the US before leaving and actually going to her appointment. That's called a 601A,

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Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver. Let's break down what those terms mean because I think that's

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really helpful. It all makes sense for me. Sometimes I feel like in immigration law, it's English,

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but I don't understand what the words mean. It's like, I know you're speaking English,

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but what does this even mean? I feel that way when I speak. Sometimes here's Spanish too,

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but that's also because I don't really speak Spanish very well. Truth be told. Okay, so let's

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break down the weird English of immigration law. Provisional means we're giving you this provision,

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we're giving you this benefit, we're giving you this extra allowance to allow you to file your

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waiver in the US and wait it out while you're here. The reason this is an allowance, this is a

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provision, this is a perk, a treat if you will, whatever, is because most other waivers, you

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have to file in your home country and you have to wait there for them to be adjudicated. The

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real benefit of a provisional unlawful presence waiver is right now they take almost four years

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to get an approval for. So if you had to file that while you were in Mexico, you would be waiting a

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very, very long time. And in fact, you wouldn't file a 601A, you would file a 601, but you'd be

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waiting for a very long time. So the nice thing is we're not like the US government has said,

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we're going to give you this allowance, this provision to allow you to file the waiver here

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in the US, wait it out while all those years while it's being adjudicated, you can wait here,

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continue on with life, you're with your spouse, possibly with your kids, live in your life.

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And then once it's approved, we can continue the process with the consulate. But if it's not approved,

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no harm, no foul, you just withdraw your application for the green card. Okay, so that's the provisional

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waiver. If however, let's use a different example, because Sarah obviously in this circumstance,

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Sarah needs an unlawful presence waiver, she would file the 601A before she went to her

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interview in C.J. Horace, okay, that's the 601A waiver. She's in the US, she needs to leave to

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fix her status. And she has an unlawful presence bar that she needs to have waived. Okay.

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Next up, let's pretend Sarah, let's use a different name, let's use Maria.

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Maria is from Mexico. Similar to Sarah, she entered when she was 15. She has DACA. Okay,

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she got DACA when she was 18, and has always had DACA, her whole life, she's never had any

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laughs in DACA. She wants to go to C.J. Horace to fix because now she's married to a US citizen,

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and through their marriage, she wants to get her green card. Wonderful. Sarah's, sorry, Maria is

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in the US. She wants to go to Mexico to fix, she needs to go to Mexico to fix through C.J. Horace.

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And then the next question is, has she been here unlawfully for more than 179 days after the age

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of 18? And in this situation, it sounds like no, because she's always had DACA. So she's not been

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accruing unlawful presence. So she would not actually need a 601A waiver in order to leave.

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So she would not need to file the waiver. That's awesome. She may have other issues. Maria may have

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other issues, like a fraud and misrepresentation or alien smuggling or something else, that could

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be a separate issue, but she won't need a 601A waiver. Okay, she doesn't have an unlawful presence

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bar. And that's the only thing that a 601A can help you cure that can help you forgive,

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to pardon, to fix is the unlawful presence bar. Okay. Let me give you a third example.

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Let me use a male name, Raul. So random, the names that come to mind, but Raul is Mexican.

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He entered the United States without permission. When he was, let's change this actually, he entered

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with Avisa when he was four, his parents brought him to the US. He had Avisa. He entered when he

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was four. He's been here ever since, has never left. He's married to a US citizen now and wants

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to get his green card. So Raul's in the United States. He wants to go to see you. Horas.

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He's being told to go to see you. Horas to fix. And yes, he would need, he's been here for more

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than 180 days, 179 days after the age of 18. In this situation, Raul doesn't have DACA.

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I would say pump the brakes, hold up. Why is Raul leaving the country when he could adjust

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status here in the US and he won't need a waiver for his unlawful presence because he's not going

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to leave triggering the 10 year bar. So he doesn't have an unlawful presence bar issue until he leaves.

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So why don't we just file for an adjustment of status for him? So I would say, hey, Raul,

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pump the brakes. Let's look to see if you even need to go to see you. Horas. Why don't we just

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get you your status fixed here? In which case you will not need to go to see you. Horas. So

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you really don't get past point two and therefore will not need a 601A waiver. Whoa, this is getting

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complicated. You can see why, why when I was a young lawyer, my head was spinning because even as I

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explain this and try to make it super simple, my brain gets twisted into little pretzels as well.

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So if that's happening for you, it's okay. We'll, we'll slow it down. Let's do another example. Okay.

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If, um, let's use Samantha. Samantha is in Mexico. She's married to us at US citizen. Samantha, um,

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was in the US for a while, but ended up going back to Mexico four or five years ago because she

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needed to see her mom. She left on her own, uh, need. She wasn't deported or ordered, removed

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or anything, but Samantha had unlawfully been in the US for a really long time and she left

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because she needed to go see her mom. Her mom was not well. So now they're going through the

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immigration process where her husband is petitioning for her, her husband's a US citizen.

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What do we do to Sam? Does Samantha need a 601 waiver or a 601A waiver?

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Where's the client at? Where is the immigrant at? If they're in their own country, stop.

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You do not need a 601A waiver. You only need a 601A waiver if they're in the United States

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when they're filing for their green card in another, going through the process in another,

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their home country. Consular processing is what that's called. Okay. So in this situation,

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so in this situation, Samantha's already in Mexico, so we don't need to file a 601A.

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We don't need the provision of allowing her to be in the US while the waiver is being adjudicated.

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She's already left. So instead, what we would do is we would file for her green card and then

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the consul's going to tell her, you need to file a 601 waiver for, or you got to wait out the,

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the 10 years and we would say, Hey, we're going to file a waiver so that we don't have to wait

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the 10 years based on her US citizen spouse. Okay. So the big difference, and we're going to close

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this episode out is where's the person at and what are you trying to have waived?

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If the person's in the US and they're trying to waive on lawful presence when they go to

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another country, you can file a 601A. If they're trying to waive previously being deported or

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having a fraud and misrepresentation issue and they're trying to go to another country in order

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to fix, you don't, that's not what the 601A is for. Okay. And if they're already in their home

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country, you don't need a 601A. Don't even be messing around with that nonsense. You need a 601

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for the most part. I'm going to end this podcast, this episode by saying, I'm not talking to you

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about your specific case, even if your, your facts are super simple to the examples I use,

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Sarah, Maria, Raul, or even Samantha today. Any of those situations, that's great. I'm glad that

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they're similar, but they're not your case. Please contact an experienced immigration lawyer. I've

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been doing only immigration for over 10 years and I would love to help you be able to kind of sort

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through this and know exactly what it is that you need. And again, we have a hundred percent success

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rate on waivers because I love doing these waivers. I love rocking out. So even if you feel like,

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I don't know how to establish hardship, I don't think that there's hardship there.

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Don't give up hope. Hardship exists all around us. We live in 2024, hardship exists all around us.

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We even offer a money back guarantee where if we don't win your waiver, we give you your money back

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for 601A waivers because we are that confident that we can help you. So contact me at New Frontier

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Immigration Law if you want this done and done the right way. And if you're a lawyer listening to

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this, keep up the good fight. Reach out to me if you have any other questions. I'm here to help,

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and I want to help change a million lives. And that includes helping educate attorneys so that

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you can go out and help your clients as well. Have a great day, friends.

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My friend, I'm so glad you joined me today. If you have a friend or family member who may need

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some immigration law guidance or even just day-to-day encouragement, please send them a text or email

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or a DM on social media and say, Hey, I think this podcast is going to help you. I sure wish

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someone had given me the tips I'm sharing here years and years ago when I was starting out as

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an immigration lawyer. Thank you so much for being here. I'll see you next week. Same time, same place.

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Adios.