Hey friends. If you're interested in hearing who can work in the United States while they're
waiting for their green card application to process, watch this video. As you're joining this
session, chime in below comment below, let me know who is watching and where you're watching me from.
If you're new to me, welcome to my channel. I'm Latoya McBean POI and immigration lawyer in New
York, working with clients all over the world, um, on family and business immigration matters.
Visit us@mcbeanlaw.com to see what we do and how we might be able to assist you. Also, before you
go subscribe to my channel, hit the notification L uh, so that you'll be the first to get notice of
my videos each week. Now let's dive into it after applying for adjustment of status, can I work
while waiting on it? And so a lot of you were very interested in the answer to this question.
I wanna take you into, uh, the categories of people who are eligible or able, I should say
to work while they're waiting on their green card application to process virtually friends. You
should know that there, there is a bar, okay, a bar to adjust in your status. If you have engaged
in unauthorized employment, if you've worked here without work in papers or the employment
authorization document, then essentially you're barred from adjusting your status here. Um,
however, certain categories of people are exempt from this bar. You can work in the United States
with an E a D the employment authorization document, while you're waiting for your adjustment
of status application to process, but for the rest of you who, um, are concerned about, well, uh,
I, you know, I don't yet have an E a D will this be a problem for me if I did work?
And so here are the groups of people who the government, um, has essentially exempted from
this bar. Okay. The first group is VAA self petitioners and beneficiaries. And by the way,
I'm looking at the government's policy manual on this issue. So if you've applied for VAA,
the violence against women act or domestic violence screen card pathway, uh, and
you've engaged in unauthorized employment, the government will essentially not hold you to that.
Okay. So VAA, self petitioners, and their beneficiaries, secondly, immediate relatives of us
citizens and immediate relatives of us citizen are the, um, a spouse,
okay. Spouse of a us citizen, a child who is unmarried and under the age of 21 of a us citizen,
and also the parent of a us citizen, just so you know, the parent of a us citizen means a parent
of a child who is older than 21. Okay. And this, the language in this,
um, this policy manual says that an adjustment applicant applying as an immediate relative
may be to adjust status, even if the applicant is now employed or has ever been employed in
the United States without authorization. Okay. Then the other categories of, um, folks who are
exempt from this bar to adjustment of status are certain, certain religious
workers, not all religious workers, okay. Certain religious workers, special immigrant juveniles.
Next is Afghanistan and Iraqi nationals who had worked in the us armed forces as a translator and,
and, um, done other type of work on behalf of the us government. They may also be able to adjust
their status if they have ever been employed or, uh, uh, or engaged in unauthorized employment.
The next category are individuals who are, um, members of the G four international organization,
employees of a G4 international organization. Next, we have those who fit into a small amnesty
known as section 2 45. I, because they had filed an approvable petition by April 30th, 2001. Those
individuals are also exempt from this shoe of, uh, working without authorization and then friends.
Lastly, there's a complex category, um, under employment based adjustment of status applicant,
certain individuals who have applied under an employment based category are also exempt,
but it's very, very tricky, very complex. Uh, you wanna definitely get, uh, feedback from a lawyer,
from an immigration lawyer about whether, um, you, you know, you're exempt under this section,
it's in a 2 45 K. Okay. So again, these are the individuals who are,
um, who are exempt under our rules. They may still, um, uh, pursue adjustment of status despite
the fact that they are now working or have ever worked in the United States without authorization
guys consult with an immigration lawyer about your situation to determine whether you fall
into of these categories, because it could really become a major problem or hindrance
for you. If you're not one of these individuals that I've described in this video, thanks so much
for watching this video, share it with others. And I will see you in the next one. Bye-bye.