 I hope you all are doing great during this tumultuous time. My name is Fayaz Nawabi and I serve as the policy and advocacy manager at the Council on American Islamic Relations LA office. And with me are two wonderful people that have been working firsthand ground zero on making sure that we evacuate as many of our Afghan community members as possible, and I will allow them to introduce themselves. Hi, good evening. My name is Brittany Reza. I'm going to managing attorney with care San Francisco Bay area. So my come everyone. My name is spokesman is Siri and I'm a private immigration attorney in Plymouth in California and I'm also a loving family member of the care family. Thank you all for introducing yourself. Once again, my name is Fayaz and I'm the policy and advocacy manager at care LA. And I want to thank everyone that joined us on zoom and those that are watching us at the various care chapters throughout California on Facebook live. Again, we are, you know, our hearts are going out to many of the families that are right now stranded in Afghanistan. So we're going to go step by step inshallah tada to educate and inform the community on what we can do to alleviate the concerns of many of our community members. So I wanted to just take a step back and really emphasizing what how this all started. We know that the Afghan, the US decided to pull troops out of Afghanistan and we know what happened. You all are watching the news and you know what's going on right now in Kabul. So what I'm trying to do inshallah tada is really laying down the groundwork of what we can do inshallah tada to help as many of our community members as possible. Right now there's a volatile situation in Kabul, especially at the Kabul airport. Many of you that are watching this webinar and watching this on Facebook live have family members or friends that are right now stranded at Kabul. I personally have family members and friends also stranded either in the airport or outside of the airport of Kabul. The situation is very hectic and uncoordinated right now. Many members are being asked to fill out various forms and they're getting emails from the State Department to come to certain gates at the Kabul airport. And Sister Spojma will go in more details on how that process looks and what she's seeing from clients and hearing from clients that are on ground zero at those different gates and at the Kabul airport so sister Spojma. Do you want to tell the community on the community members that are watching the webinar what to expect and what are the checklist for them and their family to get through this process. Some like everyone sorry I was muted. So, as an immigration practitioner, I have dozens and dozens of clients who are cases are either processing at the National Visa Center, or they had the interview and they were waiting to get the visa at the State Department. I mean at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. The situation is is that a few days ago there was a form called the repatriation form that was amended to be filed for anybody who has a case that's documentally ready from NBC or at the site so everybody has been filling that form out and they're getting this visa, an email with the visa on it to go to the gates so unfortunately thousands and thousands of people are getting those even though they are not potentially eligible for that. We also have many many of my own clients who are lawful permitted residents and even U.S. citizens and as we just mentioned, Faya John just said that his own father who's a U.S. citizen can get into the situation right now is very dangerous, very chaotic, and very unpredictable. So if you have your loved ones, I'm consistently hearing from people saying I don't want to send my family there. What's going to happen unfortunately as harsh as the sound people are going to have to take that risk to try to get their family if they got that visa letter. One of the things we're trying to do is to. People are saying you know if I have family members that didn't get it can I can I take them. A word of caution is you can't take them if you want there's no guarantee that they will be able to get through so we've heard of you know stampede we've heard of people being, you know, crush we've heard of people their telephones and their documentation stolen. So there is a document that was shared by by someone here and the documents. What we're seeing is if your document if you're carrying your documents like your passport your task. You're even your green card or any of those documents you should have in a secure place on yourself because we are hearing people being robbed their documents being taken. Being the culture that we are, you know, it's more safe maybe for a woman to have the documents if you can't traveling with a female. They're less likely to search them for those documentation so what you want to do is you want to carry you know photos of your passport and or your task get up and any other government ID you may have. And then, you know, work that you did on behalf of the US international so if you're coming through the siv any documents or anything you have you want to be very careful that you haven't secured so wrong. But most of the documents that you need to carry on you with is your the email that you get with the visa letter because nobody's getting through without that visa letter, although in country thousands and thousands of people are getting that letter that's a ticket. They get you into the gates, in order to process the rest of the case. I have personally heard from other colleagues that some people who didn't even have a, you know, petition or anything they got they felt that that repatriation form that has been posted, and they have been able to get through. So, again, with the caution like it was said there's you know, extreme caution, and then there are risks that we've had a client for example who's been trying. So he was issued the visa by US citizen to go to the airport and he's already been turned away three times. Two times he's been beaten not only by the crowd but also the Taliban. So the situation is chaotic. It's unpredictable. It's constantly changing. Fayaz will talk about later what legislations we're trying to do to somehow ease that tension over there. So if you do have family members please caution them, but unless you take that risk, it's not going to go anywhere. The US is not going to go escort anyone. They're not allowed. They're only at the gate. The rest of the area is the Taliban. They're trying to negotiate maybe further out to be able to escort people. And that's all process that continues to change you. Thank you for the update, Sister Spojma. Now we're going to be going to Brittany and she's going to give us an update on the humanitarian parole process and other processes. Thank you. So, yes, I wanted to talk to you about the other options that are out there for folks. So the first one I want to talk about is a special immigrant visa or the SIV. So this is a type of visa for Afghans that have been employed for at least one year with the US government. And it needs to have been between 2001 and 2023. They also need to have shown that they are experiencing an ongoing threat of harm or as a consequence of their employment. Those who are eligible for it and have not yet applied, please do so as soon as possible. And they should send their application in. There's also an expedited, they can send their application to the National Visa Center directly as well, in addition to following the normal channels to facilitate processing it in an expedited manner. I'm going to share with you a link when I'm done talking as well that has links to the email address and things like in places that you can additional resources for where you can send those applications. If someone has already been approved for their SIV application, they should contact their congressional office to seek immediate evacuation. We've also shared some resources of other congressional offices that are supporting evacuation so you can reach out outside of your district but otherwise you're encouraged. It's a family member or friend to reach out in your district where you live. So if you live in San Jose to reach out to Zolofgrin who is the congressional representative there. If you're advocating on behalf of a particular individual. Otherwise, we've shared some resources for congressional offices that are also trying to help evacuate people. There's also an email with the State Department where people can contact which is on the resource page I will share as well if they have an approved SIV application. And we also have some more resources on where to find the details of what documents you need to apply for SIV visa. The second program to mention for this is for individuals who Afghan P2 program which is a new program introduced. It's specifically for Afghan nationals to be considered through the refugee resettlement process who have worked for US government agencies, US based NGOs, or US based media organizations who might not qualify for the SIV. They've worked for less than a year or something like that. This is a different process than the SIV process. Rather the P2 process goes through refugee resettlement processing which is a different agency than the State Department. And this program doesn't accept self referrals you can't just apply for it on your own rather the head of whichever company whichever US based company you worked for. The head of that company needs to be the one to make the application for you are the most senior person in that company. They should fill out the application and submit it on your behalf. The we have some more resources but some more details and information to if you are specifically looking into provide to submitting one of those applications. The other options that folks might have to immigrate to the United States is through the relatives. So it's supposed to be mentioned some of the options for people who have applications already pending. If you don't if you're if you're interested in applying for relatives. US citizens and lawful permanent residents can can apply for certain certain relatives depending on their category. Many of these processes take months, most of them take years. But it's a great time, you know, you can get the process started as soon as possible. That is through applying through USCIS US immigration and citizenship program with the form called I 130 also link in the resource page. And current refugees or asylees here in the United States can also petition for their children and spouses through a process with USCIS in a form called the I 730 also in the resource page. So again those those processes take years. But worth it to start right now if that's something that you want to pursue the way to expedite those processes potentially or even in cases where people. Haven't, haven't found one of those applications is through a humanitarian parole request and I imagine many people have heard about that recently. So humanitarian parole is a process by which you can ask either USCIS US customs and immigration services or or CVP custom border protection agencies the United States to allow someone into the United States who's seeking either to come here temporarily for an urgent humanitarian region reason or because they have they plan to regularize regularize their status in the United States so they're they have a family petition pending or they're going to file a family petition. Or they haven't tend to apply for asylum or something like that. We imagine that immigration is going to be inundated and be given just hundreds and thousands of these applications. So it's really important that if you do submit one. It provides as much compelling evidence as possible for why you in particular need, have an urgent humanitarian reason to come here to United States. So if there's a health reason, anything in addition to add about why you might be targeted, really important to include that in there. We'll talk about in a bit but there are attorneys around the country eager and willing to help and wanting to help folks so please. You know, do reach out and try to get legal help if you want to pursue humanitarian parole, because it is a difficult application to fill and requires a lot of documents. To apply for humanitarian humanitarian parole, you do need to go to a third country and oftentimes getting resettling to United States for someone is not going to be the quickest option for anyone that's in danger. In Afghanistan at this moment unless they already have an application approved, or you know their US citizen or lawful permanent resident it's very hard to get here quickly. So oftentimes the safest thing for someone is going to be to go to a third country, and in that third country. There we have a we have a list also of countries that you may be the Afghan people may be able to travel to without getting a visa. But in that third country, they could either seek humanitarian parole at the US Consulate, or go to a refugee resettlement site, whether it's run by the United Nations or another agency, and go through the refugee process. So in order to seek refuge or to become a refugee in United States or seek humanitarian parole it is necessary to get to a third country and get out of Afghanistan if that is really if you're really in danger right at this moment. The safest thing is to get out, if you can safely and not to just wait to come to United States because it really the consulates is operating out of the airport. Essentially it is shut down. And it's going to be very hard to do anything there on the ground. Starting from scratch. The other thing I just want to mention for anyone who's here in the United States already or who might be traveling here or might who might make it here to the United States directly. You can seek asylum. So if you come here on a visitor visa or some other type of visa or you're ready here and you're afraid to return to Afghanistan. Please seek counsel to with an immigration attorney who can advise on your individual case of whether or not you would be eligible for asylum. And this is for individuals who fear that they that the they'll be seriously harm for the Taliban or any other group. And that the government in Afghanistan is not able to protect them because of their race, and that they'll be targeted because of their race, nationality, religion, their political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. And these folks, you know, if you're in Afghanistan, safe thing might be to seek refuge in a third country. You come to United States or you're ready here please speak to an immigration attorney who can advise you on that further on that process. Supposing me to have anything else to add on that. Yeah, thank you. You covered it very well. I just wanted to add that the component of the calls that I'm getting, you know, literally three 400 calls we're getting I'm trying to stay up on top as much as I can. Most people are calling about the P two. As you mentioned, I just want to reiterate the P is like a three category. And this was a program that was started a long time ago, maybe by Obama or someone else that was utilized in Syria, and you didn't really it wasn't a success was all we hoped, because the challenges and barriers are real. P one is for those who are eligible for the special immigrant visa because they were translators. But for some reason they don't meet the one year requirement, you still have to meet the other requirement to get the letter from your superior. Well, we all know the US is gone. Who are you going to get the letter from. Also, for P two, which is the NGO the night if you were for an NGO if you were for nonprofit. Again, you could not have been a volunteer. You could not have been a subcontractor. And if you were an employee, the highest level person in that company had or nonprofit has to file it for you. The challenges I'm hearing is well they're gone I can get a hold of them. The third component again is the family reunification. It's a term of art that nobody knows what it means as we're speaking the American Immigration Lawyers Association is trying to get clarification for what family reunification means. And again, you know people are saying I want to file it where you can't file the P one it's a I mean you can do you have to have all the documentation P two you cannot file the organization has to find it on your behalf. If you want to do the P three that's fine. But in all those three categories the biggest obstacle still is as of now. And, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association will get into it is advocating to change some of the requirements, because you can file it in Afghanistan, but you have to leave to a third country to continue the process and you have to register with the So the obstacle nobody's getting out there's no flights going so USCIS just threw something blanket out there, but it's not realistic for most people so I'm getting inundated with hundreds of call I'm going to be two I want to be one I want to be three. Right now, I mean you can do it better you have to get yourself to a third country so they just want to kind of pinpoint on the P program. And just one last thing to mention as well is that the International Refugee Assistance Project IRAP is the leading organization supporting individuals seeking SIVs or P two visas so I encourage you to review their resources or contact them if you have any questions. And then also parcel quality center is helping mobilize and volunteer attorneys to support individuals seeking humanitarian parole. So I also sent a link to their web their web form if you're interested in seeking assistance and with humanitarian parole. Thank you Brittany and thank you as much may. Again we want to emphasize the importance of, you know, filling out those repatriation forms fill out all the documents. Please do not go. Please emphasize to your family and friends that are in Kabul in the outside of the airport, you can't go to the airport without filling out those forms. The only way you get to the airport is when you fill out the forms, your family members and friends will receive an email from the State Department and then they'll tell you, okay come to the gate at this specific gate at the certain time. So these, these situations are still developing. I know my family is currently going through it and we're getting several calls and trying to help community members go through this process. Again, for those individuals that are going to be going through the checkpoints of the Taliban and then getting to the gates. Make sure you have multiple copies of your documents do not lose them we're hearing cases of the Taliban looking at someone's document. And if they feel it's fake they rip it in front of them. So you do not want to be stuck in that situation where you have your original documents ripped up. The other thing that sister supposed may mentioned earlier. There are some cases where folks fill out the repatriation form, and they were able to get through the air international airport checkpoint and through the gate with their whole family, even though they didn't fill out the documents for their whole family. However, at the same time there are cases where in a person try to do the same thing, but they were not allowed to go through the gate, except the individual that filled out the repatriation form so they went there with their wife and child, the wife and child was left. And they were only allowed to get through. So if you are going to be doing this, this is very risky, very dangerous because again there are stampede happening at those various gates, we want to make sure that everyone is safe and sound through this whole process. Please follow the steps. Make sure you fill out the forms, wait for the email from the State Department and then follow the instructions that the State Department gives. Finally, I'm going to be going through a portion of the policy aspect of what care California and care in general is doing to support the Afghan community during this tumultuous time. We are meeting with many members of the House of Representatives. We also meeting with US senators also throughout the entire country. Just today I had a meeting with Senator Feinstein. Thank you Dr. Sardin and the individual group that helped make that a reality with their staff. And we updated them on what is happening. So far what the House and the Senate has done. The House created a caucus, the, you know, honoring our promises caucus, which is basically a caucus formed specifically for what's happening in Afghanistan. Over 48 members of the House of Representatives have joined that caucus, and they've already sent a letter to the president's administration, demanding that the refugee cap be increased for the Afghan refugees that are going to be increasing a number. And they're also emphasizing the importance of evacuating those that are going to be receiving those SIVs that have worked with the US government that have worked in the various embassy in the embassy in Afghanistan and making sure that we also evacuate activists that were on the ground in Afghanistan during this past 20 years. So that's what the House is doing. The Senate just sent out a letter also with about 42 members of the US Senate. Emphasizing the same thing. But in addition to those issues that they're emphasizing, they also emphasize the importance of evacuating ethnic minorities from the Hazara community from the Shia community that have been historically persecuted by the Taliban, especially in the 90s. So again, these are just some of the things that's happening at the House and the Senate. Right now there's conversations about introducing a bill to make these demands, actualize these demands in both in the House and the Senate. There's two companion bills about to be introduced. We will update the community as soon as the bill gets a name and a number. The conversation and the letter and the writing of the bill is still being worked through. And inshallah, as soon as those bills are ready, we will definitely update the community and make sure that we get our community members to contact their representative to make sure that they either cosponsor the bill or vote on these specific bills, inshallah, with that being said, I know we have many questions coming up. We're not in the Q&A section yet. But I'm going to go back to Sister Esposime. She's going to be talking a little bit about AILA, a wonderful organization that's doing great work around this situation that's happening in Afghanistan. Thank you so much. So I know we're going to get to the questions later. One of the things that I wanted to go back to in this information was just given to me maybe about 15 minutes ago prior to the call. Now, alhamdulillah, we are seeing people actually getting out. Now the questions are coming in. Where are they being taken? How long are they being held? What's the process? As you know, for national security reasons, we have limited. So I'm part of what's called AILA, American Immigration Lawyers Association, along with Brittany, and thousands of other immigration attorneys across the country. All of this chaos unfolded Friday. The American Immigration Lawyer was somewhat known as the weekend rightfully. I emailed someone and I was grateful that they called me. The board of directors on Saturday night said, well, couldn't you just post me? I said, let's start advocacy. The biggest thing is advocacy at the highest level. We had a call with like 50 lawyers on Monday and then on Tuesday, we had 650 immigration lawyers on this call. Now, to me, that is astronomical because I want people to know as much as despair that we have as Afghans. I personally have my cousin who's a translator in Kabul. His brother's here and the other brother's there. He served with the military for almost 11 years but didn't have some papers to get out. So the pain in the heartache, I feel, is not only as a Muslim as an Afghan but also people who are out there on the front. On the front line, and we know that the Taliban are going home to home because the people are reporting to me and the clients are reporting to me. So back to the question of what's happening for the few that are lucky to get out. If they're U.S. citizens and they're green card holders, I'm presuming they're being taken to Qatar and just process in Latin or they're being taken to Fort Lee. So we don't know the logistics. But if your loved one is lucky enough to get out and say they were documentally done at National Visa Center or they were at the State Department, I mean the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, they were done. Or they got lucky. They had nothing like Brother Freya said. They had nothing but they got in. They're being taken to Qatar. They're being processed there. Now we're not being told what's happening. And I just asked the ALA representative about 15 minutes ago, some of the top people in ALA know the Department of Defense are working tirelessly to see what we can do and what we can go forward. But if your loved one ends up in Qatar, please understand it'll be months before they come to the United States because they have to finish the consular processing abroad. They are not going to allow people to come in the medical examinations, the security checks, all of those have to be done. Now, if that process is going to take five, six, seven months, there is something called that, you know, Brittany referred to the humanitarian parole to say I want my family member to come here and process them here. But keep in mind that this is going to be a long haul. There's backup and backlog in USCIS unless the State Department or DHS or USCIS takes a drastic action and says we can't house them in Qatar for six, eight months, let them in. But I highly doubt that that would happen based on what I'm hearing. So please be understanding, please be patient. Again, all of us inundated are with hundreds of calls. Personally, myself, I know people are angry and they want this thing because I'm an immigration lawyer, a British immigration lawyer, if I as connected, we have something, we are all desperately trying. So why why the advocacy portion is important and, Alhamdulillah, I'm blessed for our community. Everyone coming and supporting and doing the going from advocacy works to reaching out to their congressman to doing even the the protest that I saw one in Heyward yesterday so kudos to everyone for playing the part but I think, you know, reaching out to your local congressman reaching out to your local congressman and putting pressure we have Eric Swalwell who's doing a great job. The largest Afghan population outside of Afghanistan is in and Fremont, you know, and we have little cobbles so he's doing an extraordinary job he has a town hall tomorrow if you're interested in going. I believe that 12 o'clock you can go to his website and see where it's at. Now the advocacy what are we doing what what do we want you know, like Brother Faiz or maybe you mentioned already what the American Immigration Lawyers Association is to push for if they get sent to Qatar or they get somewhere, you know, exempt some of the tests like the DNA testing, and then expedite the processing for asylums and expedite their interviews for asylees. People might not know but there's a large number of Afghans here that don't have legal status, and they're living in limbo so what we're asking Congress to do is give temporary protective status TPS Cubans I mean there's El Salvadorians Hondurans Haitians. Many countries get the TPS status we want TPS for the Afghans that are here. Brittany mentioned in detail humanitarian parole. Now everybody who's filling out this humanitarian parole please do not expect the magic wand that your family is going to get in. I know for a fact a couple of attorneys have gotten humanitarian parole. They filed in months before they have not been able to get their clients through the mayhem and the stampede that's going on in couple right now. We are also trying to provide to get more coordination with the Department of Defense to protect and provide some sometimes a barriers to protect those people are coming in. Because we are here and that people are being killed people are being hurt, and it's heartbreaking for me I have a personal story of a client who got that he's all done he's ready he's a spouse of a US citizen. He's gone three times and he's been beaten and he's been bloody and he's gone back. Every time I have to tell him, please go back. It's like, God forbid something happens to him. It's like I'm his attorney so so that that secondary emotional impact is really really dire and none of us and including many attorneys and human rights activists everybody and many of you are probably not sleeping and I doing so. So that is what we're trying to do we're also trying to get from me my one of the biggest thing is get Congress. As brother Fayaz said, you know they're doing a Congress the Senate see what we can pass is maybe get a mass humanitarian intervention maybe get some sort of refugee status to get like, we know I came as a child of the 1980s refugees for the country, maybe we can get something. Is it highly likely I don't know, can we be optimistic. Yes, can we push for it. Yes, but please if you're calling me you're calling Brittany you're calling other attorneys. The forms are there their time consuming is that something quick that's going to just fix it. And there's absolutely no right now as disheartening as the sound and I am sincerely sorry to say but there's no process in this that you can bring your mother your father your uncle you can't your brothers your sisters your relatives in your village. It's not going to happen it's not there. You know for their safety. If you do decide to do for your family, the P program or try to get the visa and they actually get it. Again, I want to reiterate the safety is number one issue. You want to risk it and you want to take it. Please be cautious. The last portion of it is we're asking USC is what does it mean for family reunification the third prong of the T program. Does it mean it's family reunification for anybody if I have a brother a cousin and sister, or does it mean if somebody who is a special immigrant translator and their families are at risk is at those people. So up to date we haven't gotten it. We're all working around the clock with our different organizations I personally am on the top one of the person that got put on the task force for the Afghan crisis that we have right now with a lot and I will try to put everything I can on my website. We're trying to share information with another so many people are doing it, but we, I don't want to sound pessimistic I'm just trying to give the true correct information like brother Fayaz brother is a US citizen and he's trying to get his father out. And if we can get us citizens out and we can get green card holders out and we can get people that legitimately need to get out because they've already been given documents. It's going to be very difficult to get those who want to just get out. There's no huge human mass migration from a once done unfortunately right now, because there's nothing in process. So, I will leave you with that I hope that information is helpful. And then we'll continue on. Do you have anything to add. Yeah, I think that was very, very comprehensive thank you. Okay folks, again, we are looking at a very dire situation. The consulate is at the airport. There's a lot of slowdown because of safety and security reasons at in Kabul and especially at the Kabul airport. So please be patient with us. I know I'm getting phone calls from around the world, not just from around the country. I've gotten phone phone calls from folks in Germany and Italy and some of them were sending me messages in Italian and German I don't speak those languages so we're trying our best to help as many people as we can. So please be patient with us inshallah data during these during this process. The other thing I wanted to emphasize was one of the things that we're working towards and, you know, making sure that members of Congress are aware of and inshallah by that by that, they're also going to be making sure that the Biden administration is aware of this is we want to increase the refugee cap Currently, the refugee cap in the US is at 62,500 individuals. That's a that's a very low number. I'm the last better than the Trump administration during his last year the refugee cap was at 15,000. If you believe that, but right now it's at 62,500. So one of the asks we're making of the Biden administration is to increase that number by another hundred thousand. During the evacuation of Vietnam, the refugee cap was increased by 120,000 people so inshallah data we're making that ask that way we get all of our families inshallah data those people that are SIV that are applying for the SIVs and our priority to a priority three to make sure that they get through this process inshallah time. So with that being said we have some questions and I'm also telling folks right now on Facebook and on the webinar if you have questions please put your questions in the chat and we're going to answer those questions to the best of our abilities inshallah time. So first John just before we go to the Q&A. I just recall that one of the questions that was asked when you fill that the repatriation form as unbelievable as it sounds it says that at the end of it if you recall Britney that you will be required later on to pay for your ticket you will not be able to get your green card or paperwork one of the things we're trying to work on is to waive those fees and not that that's something to worry about right now we want to get our loved ones. We also it's very much unknown when those are those people that are in Qatar they're going to be housed in a special place. Who's going to pay for their cost during that time that they're there what's going to happen to them where they're going to be. A lot of that is unknown a lot of that information is not released it's too early and we're hoping as we get them one of the places I know care has a great resource tool. I'm trying as a solo practitioner put up information as much as I can on our law office page but there's a lot of unknowns and people just need to understand and be patient that you could have been told something and it changes in an hour because the situation is just so chaotic right now. Okay. I have one question from what he does I on the care California Facebook live stream and the question is if someone has documents in hand can they be evacuated. Not the calm approval I don't know what that means at the end not the COM approval if someone has documents in hand can they be evacuated. Well I mean everybody has documents in hand right we have lawful permanent residence we have green card holders. There's a different questions right first you got to get through the mayhem at the checkpoint. Then if you get through you're looking at to get to the checkpoint then you have to get into the US Embassy where they process the documentations and then get you on a plane only one plane as far as I know was going a day out. They may be changing that now so to answer your question. If you have document if you're talking if you have the documents on my basis did you fill out the repatriation form just in the hopes of getting that visa letter because everybody's getting it so to answer your question if you have that visa form that potentially may get you in and you have all your documents. Because of the chaos you might get lucky and you might get process like brother Fayette said earlier there was a family the whole family got in right and then there's a family that the husband got in the children did it. So to answer your question I mean if you have those two things and you're able to get through. More likely now I'll tell you a story my friend close friend of mine that day that the Taliban came. Everybody that was working at the airport scrambled because the US military was there he ended up on that plane and he was just a worker at the airport. And now he's in Qatar what is he going to get eventually like Britain said maybe I get asylum maybe they have some other forms so to answer your question. Yeah if they have documents and they do their repatriation and get that visa letter. There's always a chance. Okay I haven't seen any other questions in the live streams. Are there any frequently asked questions that yourself suppose me or Brittany have received from the individuals calling about their family members in Afghanistan. Brittany do you want to go. Yeah I think I think the most common question we've seen is obviously I imagine questions most people have is how can I help my mom or my brother and my sister. Get out of Afghanistan or to become here with me. And like I mentioned earlier this depends on. Well there's like we've all mentioned I think a few times now there's no quick way to get a relative here. Particularly if they're not in direct danger and even if they are it's still not a quick process to happen. But the processes that that you can pursue is that if it's a relative depending on your relationship to them and your status in the United States whether you're a permanent resident or green card holder may be able to petition for them as a relative. US citizens have priority and in most cases if if it's a what's considered immediate relative so like a spouse. Children under the age of 21 or a parent that that process may only take a few months. But if it is a brother or sister the process of a family petition can take 10 2015 years. But with that said if it is an urgent humanitarian issue. You can also pursue humanitarian parole like we we've talked about a few times there but it's not again not a quick process nothing. The US government doesn't US immigration agencies don't work quickly and we're working with on advocacy to get them to work quickly but there's not a lot of quick action to take. Additionally if someone goes to a third country they can seek refuge in the United States. I've seen I've also was shared recently with some good resources for that that if you have a relative who's going to go to a third country to seek refugee status. It's a good idea if they have letters of support from you know your address and talk to the the United Nations or whichever agency is doing their intake. Let them know that they have relatives here in the United States and that is where they they want to go. That way early in the processing they're aware that there there are is someone in the United States there that's willing to support them. And those letters might contain you know information about the kind of support you're willing to provide for your relatives if you're willing to house them. You know give them food and shelter that kind of thing can all be really helpful to include in some kind of letter of support. If you're your relatives are making that journey. Yeah so the main the other main things is a kind of a family petition or a refugee status depending if you're not someone who's worked for the US government. So one of the one of the the thread of questions I'm getting is I want to go to another country. The caveat of that we all know if you're following the news that commercial flights have stopped. It's only the military planes that are going. The borders are close to other countries. And again I'm coming from a practical place and I and I share the desperation and I'm not down playing but we gotta we gotta look the practicality of it. The whole country in Afghanistan I mean all the people in Afghanistan want to get out. That's not going to happen. If the borders open up other countries and they're taking it for example I know that India is doing a thousand or 10,000 I don't remember the numbers. They're going to be offering. You can't go to India right now because even if you get the visa the airports are shut. I'm hearing people saying I want to go illegally to another country. Morally and ethically I can't advise that. If you think it's risk for you to go there are checkpoints at every point. If you're coming for example from Jalalabad to Kabul I know that is at least 12 checkpoints. My green card holder clients were afraid to go through each checkpoints and I said point blank. If you want to get out that's the only thing we can do otherwise you just stay in your house until things change. But remember also for those who don't know August 31st is the deadline of when the military is going to stop their operations. Unless the senators and the Congress meet in the legislative makes a decision to forward that a little bit longer. Right now the date is August 31st. So a lot of the questions I get is I want to go to another country either legally or illegally. Legally right now there's no options as we see this chaos at the airport. If it should open up in the next week or two and they can get an EV set to India or something like that. The second question I get a lot is so and so told me they can get me out for $10,000. Highly unlikely that someone can get you out. That's just my humble opinion. And again I'm not in that desperate situation but I do feel it. So if it's too good to be true it's likely untrue and there are going to be a lot of scammers. So you want to be careful with where you're investing not only the money but the safety and security of your family members. The third question that I keep asking is I have a lot of cases that USCIS I just filed a month ago, a week ago, six months ago, eight days ago. If you want to fill out the repatriation form in the hopes that they get that and somehow they can get in by all means go ahead. But that form is intended for citizens, green card holders and those that are documentary ready at NBC. But we are also seeing that if those who didn't do any of that qualify, they're not screening that they're letting people in. So again for those who have petitions for their loved ones, Brittany can attest to this. There's no way to speed it up here. And even if you spring it up here and you get it to NBC, where is it going to process the embassy? The US embassy is closed. The fourth biggest question Brother Fayaz I keep getting is I need someone to escort my brother, mother, cousin, aunt, uncle, whoever it may be. I need them escorted by the US military to the airport. That is not going to happen. They haven't allowed that. There's no negotiation. There's no talk. There's not human manpower and US has not shown an interest in doing that. They may push the barrier further than where it is right now. As Brother Fayaz can say, you have the gate to get in. Then you have a little area for where the Taliban are doing the screening. I believe Brother Fayaz, you said that they're trying to push that further out so that people are not getting stampede. So someone called me about an hour ago and I happened to get the phone. And again, there's only four of my paralegals and myself, literally Wallahi in the last today on loan. We've had about 450 calls. I'm trying to get to everybody that I can. What people want to know is, is there any way to get those people on escort? Well, one of the colors I happened to pick up the phone was crying and said, her cousin and two brothers, Taliban came into the home. And one of the Taliban apparently wanted to shoot the cousin because he worked for the UN with medical supplies. The other Taliban didn't allow it, but they took him. Now the other two brothers are on the hide going from home to home. Can you help me escort them? How can I escort them? How can we get someone to physically escort them when they're already in hiding? There's Taliban checkpoints. So I am not undermining the severity and the anxiety and how you guys are all feeling. But at this point, there's no options and how much do we want to risk security? I think those are the two balances you have to do. So brother Fayaz, those are the main questions that I'm getting. Okay, I have two questions from Facebook. First question from Ed Kisam. Are there ways someone who does not have a password can get out of Afghanistan in order to get to a third country so as to apply under P2. So they don't have a passport, but they get out of Afghanistan or to get to a third country so they could apply for P2. So I've heard that people can, but first logistic is getting to a third country right now or eventually and you don't have a passport. I think that whatever country they go to are going to understand the situation to do the P2. But if you're talking about the P2 working with a nonprofit organization, what you're going to have to do is reach the highest reach wherever you can. So a perfect example was I was going to call somewhere else and the guy said I work for Save the Children or something. So yesterday at two o'clock in the morning, I'm trying to go through my messenger and Facebook and someone said, Hey, I work for the nonprofit Save the Children. Despite the lack of sleep for somehow I remembered it. I quickly texted that person. I said, Hey, you have an employee that reached out to me. Can you connect with them? And I'm humbled to be able to make that connection and I pray that somehow he gets it. So my point is for the P2, you got to find the person in the highest. So number one right now is safety. If you can get safely to another country, worry about the passport, worry about that stuff later. There will be a way eventually. I don't know what your take is on in Brittany, but once you get out, you're going to have to figure out how that organization is going to meet the P2 requirements and they may get changed. They may not, but there are criterias for the P2. I don't know what your thoughts are, Brittany. Yeah, and I think I think that's right that yeah, do what you need to do for safety at the moment and yeah, we'll see we'll get more information about the P2. One thing I will also flag is that the Taliban do have checkpoints at the different borders. So borders that are going to Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iran, they're already in control of are being controlled by Taliban. So that's something to be very aware of. Mr. Ed. All right, next question from Omar Aziz. Apologies if this was already answered, but what's the likelihood of getting humanitarian parole for people who don't have affiliation working with the US government? I think you hinted on this already, Brittany, but what if you want to reiterate what you mentioned? Yeah, so humanitarian parole is not limited to people who work for the US government in any way. It's something that can be used for individuals from any country. But what it is, is for people who have an urgent exigent need to come to the United States. So what we typically see outside of this crisis is that it's granted for people who have an urgent medical need or they need to care for someone with a medical need. Something like that. That's the scenarios where I've seen those requests be successful. So I don't know if you have any other examples. Yeah, I mean, the humanitarian, it's not like I'm Omar John. This is my nice to have you here. So the humanitarian, the humanitarian parole is not something new. I mean, people use it all the time. It's been used for, for many, many times and you can have somebody who needs humanitarian parole because they have an urgent surgery that they need and somebody can sponsor them here to do it. The Afghan crisis right now is a perfect example. The ways to procedurally work without getting too legalized is that you file the humanitarian parole with USCIS, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, and then they forward it to the State Department and then if when it, if I'm sorry, we go to USCIS gets approved, it goes to the State Department who then forwards it to the embassy. Well, we don't have an embassy in Afghanistan. So if a person can get to a third country, if they get to a third country, then they can definitely, you know, work to get it to that embassy to be able to get the humanitarian parole. Hundreds of attorneys across the country, including the organizations that Brittany mentioned, PARS, P-A-R-S, they're going to be having a list of attorneys. So they are a smaller organization with a couple of attorneys, but what they've done is joined the coalition with the American Immigration Glorious Association, who are trying to find attorneys across the country on a list to volunteer and do the humanitarian paroles. If they get inundated with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of humanitarian parole, maybe Congress will take action on that. I know one attorney, like I said earlier in the course she had done it, but she can't get the client through the checkpoints to get it. So the logistics is you go through the process to get it, but then the procedural groundwork of getting in at the airport is the other challenge. So yeah, it's not limited to SIV. It could be anything. It could be any category, but especially the dire situation in Afghanistan right now. So if somebody gets to an XYZ country and they have somebody here in the US, an attorney that can help the humanitarian parole for them, even if they don't have a passport, even if they don't have travel documents, whatever, they can coordinate with that embassy. And I've been practicing immigration law for almost 12 years. I don't know how long Britney's been doing. I know that we went through the Muslim ban. For me not to be biased, I mean the Muslim ban was just heartbreaking and devastating. I did a lot of those cases. This crisis is on a different level. And I am sorry about Britney agrees or disagrees. It is so catastrophic that even the legal avenues that are there can't be pursued because of the logistics on the ground. That's the best way I can put it. Thank you for pointing that out. So I'm going to go back to a comment that a community member made and that's Horace Khan. He mentioned and I already answered the question, but I want to flag it for everybody. Can you guys share a template or what wordings to be included in a support letter for family members to apply through UNHCR. So that's something that we could definitely do on our end and I already answered the question that we will, inshallah, have a template ready. Also, ALA most likely has those resources already, but on our end we're going to make a concerted effort to provide that resource to the community, inshallah. The other question that do you have, do you have something to say? Okay. Okay. The other question from sister Zikir Raoufi is with I-30 we already applied in 2019. What are the next actions? They applied for an I-30 in 2019. What are the next actions? She's from a member of the Afghan community. Brittany, would you like me to answer or do you want to answer? It doesn't matter. I think I can go for that. So I'm assuming you mean I-130, which is the family petition. So we can't give specific case advice here today. We can only give general advice. And with that information provided, it's hard to know exactly where that case is procedurally, but kind of I could talk about how the I-130 works and what the process that it follows. So an I-130 is first filed with immigration USCIS here in the United States and what an I-130 is the petition for a relative. And these can be filed by US citizens or lawful permanent residents for relatives in certain specific categories. The first step is to file that application with USCIS here in the United States. They will approve or deny the application typically within a year or two. Sometimes they take longer. Sometimes it takes less time, but that's just the first piece of the puzzle. The case is then brought to the NVC, which we talked about a few times today. That's the National Visa Center. They're the ones that coordinate, you know, bringing the case from immigration here in the United States to the consulate abroad. So NVC will then send the file to whatever consulate was designated when the application was filed. In cases where it was Kabul, they will be reassigned somewhere. And this is where the logistical challenge comes in right now. If someone is in Afghanistan, where are they going to go to consulate process? But the next step then would be to fill out a form with NVC and the consulate called the DS-260, which asks similar information and gets into more detailed information about the applicant who would be emigrating to the United States and filing additional documentation and proof that they're of their eligibility and this is where a background check is run and all of that kind of stuff. Eventually they would be called for an interview at the consulate where they would present their medical exam and their passport and their documents and a consular officer would make a decision on their case and potentially give them a visa to come to the United States as an immigrant and essentially that have a green card upon arrival to the United States. But it really varies on where your case is in that process of trajectory. Okay, there's two more questions that came in. One question deals with the I-130 again. And this question comes from Mariam Aliomar and that is, can we expedite the process of the I-130 for Afghan siblings in Afghanistan because of the situation there? My sisters and nieces are terrified and it's not feasible to wait for 13 years in this situation. So I wanted to add to what Brittany was saying on the I-130. So there's two categories. One is the immediate relative category without getting too technical again just so people understand. There's the preference, there's the immediate relative category. So in our world we're thinking brother, sister, mother and father and they're all like immediate relatives. In the immigration world, that's not how it works. In the immigration world, an immediate relative is your children under 21 and not married, your spouse and your parents. So when you file an I-130 petition for them, it goes through USCIS, it takes 8 to 10 months to get it approved and then it goes to the National Visa Center, you do the rest of the work and then it goes to the consulate abroad, schedule it for an interview. In the normal world, if it was Afghanistan, we're talking between about a year and a half to two years from the time you file it with USCIS until you get an interview at the consulate. When you go to the preference category, that means, so again I'm starting to go back a step, if you're a citizen and you want to file an I-130, you can file it for your parents, your children under 21 and not married and your spouse. So that goes through the way I said. If you're a citizen and you want to file for your brothers and sisters, they fall into the preference category, which means you can file the petition and maybe you'll get the petition approved within a year at USCIS, but then you're going to wait an average of 8 to 12 to 27 years in the Philippines for that visa or India for that visa to become current and National Visa Center to process the case. To answer the question, no, there's no way to expedite it despite the situation we have going on. Now, if you're a green card holder, you as a green card holder, I get hundreds of these calls every month. No, I heard from my son, so you can. I'm going to be very clear. If you're a green card holder, you can only bring your children under 21 and not married or your spouse. You cannot file an I-130 for your parents. You cannot file a green card application for your parents. I want to reiterate that because a lot of new arrivals, particularly new arrivals from Afghanistan have misinformation, misunderstanding. So no, you cannot file for your parents if you just filed your citizenship application. You must have your naturalization certificate to file for your parents. So if you're a citizen, you can file for your parents, your children under 21 and not married or your spouse. And you go through that whole process. If you're a citizen, you can also file for your siblings, but it's going to take years for that petition to become current. So no under current situation. There's nothing that's been proposed to expedite those cases here. Please keep in mind and look at the reality. We have U.S. citizens stuck at the border. We have green card holders. We have translators. We have other people that they're desperately trying. So unfortunately, in the hierarchy of immigration world, right now at this moment, they have an expedite of those cases. I've tried many times to expedite Brittany. I don't know if you've ever tried. I haven't really had that much like explaining in the past. Yeah, same. Yeah. Expelling seems to take it nowhere with the US GIS. I think the other thing to mention, so this is where humanitarian parole might come into play. If your relative has a petition pending, but they also have a really urgent reason to be here. They're under, you know, an immense amount of danger. They have a major medical issue, whatever it is that might be when humanitarian parole might come into play for them. So I'm sorry for that. I tend to go on a tangent explaining something. I hope it was helpful. But what was your question? Did I ask you? What was your question? No, no, no. You answered the question and then you answered more than that. Okay, so the next question and I'm going to be kicking this to sister Brittany and this deals with SIVs. From Jamal Nasser, he asks, Salam, my brother's SIV case was denied. He worked for more than three years. Is he eligible for a visa? So I'm guessing he worked more than three years with the company. Is he eligible for a visa? So this is where I'd recommend that you reach out to the International Refugee Assistance Project. They have thorough resources on denials, I believe, and provide direct assistance to individuals. And it's possible if someone was rejected for the SIV that maybe they would qualify for the P2, the P2 Afghan process. So that would be another option to pursue. I suppose we just mentioned the sibling-based family petition takes decades. So that would I'd recommend looking into the P2. Okay. And then the next question is from Zakiya Nuri. Could you please say some information about my fiance's visa that got denied two weeks ago and says if you want to reapply, respond back within 30 days. I don't know. I think there's more of a personal question. Well, I'll just answer in general. The process, how one denials. Okay, yeah. So I don't know. So again, like Brittany says, we're just keeping it general. So again, you first have to file the petition with USCIS. If it's approved, it goes to the National Visa Center for the rest of the processing and then it goes to the consulate for an interview. I don't know. I'm going to assume both. Assume that it got denied at the USCIS stage. They're going to send you a letter telling you why the petition was denied and it's likely due to some documentarily problem that wasn't done correctly. And it's very common. One thing I reiterate and I'm one of those attorneys that I don't put fear into people. I think if you think you can do it, you can do it. If I was doing, I only do immigration law. If someone asked me to do something in family law, I wouldn't do it because I don't know anything about it. Doing these processes are very, very important to have an attorney do it. I know it's expensive and, you know, but they're doing it the right way. But if you've got denial at USCIS, you know, call an attorney, you know, maybe pay a consultation fee and find out why it was denied. If it was, if it got approved at USCIS, you went to the National Visa Center, then your fiance or your husband had an interview and they got denied over the, even though it got approved at USCIS, but it got denied over there for some reason, because of fraud or because of national security or whatever it was, they will eventually kick it back to USCIS to give you a detailed denial letter. In the last few years, I don't know if you experienced, my experience, I do a lot of these is sometimes you never get that denial letter. And you're going to have to figure out why it was denied and try to reapply for the petition. So to answer your question, depending on which stage it was at, if it was at USCIS, you have a better chance, maybe it was documents, but if it was at the US Embassy after the interview, you may potentially have some issues. Okay, thank you, Sister Spojma. So we're going to go to a question from the Zoom chat. I know you tried answering it, but then they had a follow up question. I'll read the full question, the first question, and then the second question. Salam, this is from MZ. Salam, I have a cousin in Pakistan as a refugee, but she is Afghan. She has a brain tumor and is very sick. Can we do the humanitarian parole route? She is 10 years old. The follow up question was, how do I start? Do I start the process here in the US? Or does her parents have to start in Pakistan? So who wants to take this question? Well, the humanitarian parole doesn't matter. I mean, Brittany, I appreciate you can add more. I'm just going to let her talk, but I just wanted to say that the humanitarian parole can be done anywhere. But if you're talking about medical, you're talking about possibly having someone sponsor them. Because when you do the humanitarian parole, you do have to do the financial documents to show that someone can support you here if I'm not correct, Brittany, right? For the humanitarian parole, you have to fill out the form I-134, the affidavit of someone. So if you're bringing someone in for medical, I'm assuming that you'd have to have someone that would cover the cause like a hospital or somewhere in that documentation when you're asking for it. Brittany, I don't know where your take is. Yeah, that's right. So the two ways to file for humanitarian parole is by filing form. So with USCIS here in the United States by filing form I-131, an application for a travel document and requesting humanitarian parole through that route. Like I suppose you might have just mentioned, that includes as well an affidavit of support, which is showing that someone here in the United States can financially support them. If the person is sponsoring them, we can't financially support them. You can also have a joint sponsor. If there's someone else, another relative or family friend who wants to do that, they would be committing to financially supporting. Another way is to apply at Customs and Border Protection. So if someone were to be at the border of the United States somehow, whether through Plain or otherwise, they could request it there with Customs and Border Protection. But the most common way would be to apply through USCIS here in the United States. So I also shared a link in the chat here. I've shared it earlier. This is a great kind of scenario to bring to the Parsley Quality Center who is trying to match people with pro bono attorneys to assist them with these kind of applications because that is a very compelling story and the kind of case that I would see, like hopefully in Shela moving through the process. Thank you for answering that question. Before we get into the next question that's being asked by Rita Asmai, I did want to flag something that Care California CEO mentioned earlier. And that is, if you're from the Afghan community or any community in particular in general, you may be getting visitations from the FBI, especially from the Afghan community. If you have the FBI visit you at your home or at work, please do not speak to them. Do not speak to them and make sure to let them know that you're being represented by Care and refer them to your local Care chapter. So if you're in the Bay Area, refer them to Care SFBA. If you're in the LA Orange County Inland Empire area, refer them to Care Greater Los Angeles. If you're in San Diego, refer them to Care San Diego and if you're in the Sacramento Central Valley area, refer them to Care Sacramento. So again, if you're getting visited by the FBI at your work or at home, do not speak to them. Make sure you refer them to your local Care chapter, inshallah. The other thing I wanted to flag before going to the next question is there are efforts on the advocacy side. We have a targeted action and action alert. I know Sister Brittany and many individuals that Care have been sharing on the various Facebook lives. So please fill out the action alert. That way we emphasize the importance of what expediting the evacuation process, increasing the refugee cap by another 100,000. So that way we could safely bring those that are asking for refuge in Afghanistan, inshallah. So again, fill out the targeted action. It's been shared several times in the various Facebook live comment sections and it's been shared several times in the webinar chat. So now we're going to go back to Facebook. We have two questions from Rita as my and they're related to one question. Salam for the State Department evacuation request form. If the applicant has an Afghan passport and pending case with USCIS, but not a US passport, is it accepted. And the following follow up question was also if a family sponsor case was denied by USCIS, what are the options and next steps, are they eligible for any current visas. So again, for the Department of the State Department evacuation request form, if the applicant has an Afghan passport and pending US passport, is it accepted for them to fill out the form. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not sure what they mean by pending US passport. I would assume that means that someone who is a US citizen that has not obtained their passport. So I'm assuming that this person is not a US citizen, but has an Afghan passport but does not have a US passport. So they're not US citizen. You can have dual citizenship. Yeah. But I mean before you get it so before you can get a US passport you have to be a green card holder. So the question is confusing. I mean, if they file if they have an Afghan passport and stuff family member filed for them, and that petition God denied for whatever reason legally they're not permitted but with all this chaos going on if they're able to somehow get through the airport they may come in but in a traditional world, you have to have a petition filed by someone so that you can do it correctly and then be able to migrate to the US you're not going to get in without having some sort of an immigrant visa filed on your behalf. Yes, bear with me. I'm trying to read through the text I'm trying to go through like grammatical issues also so the next question is also if a if a family sponsor case was denied by USC is what are the options and next steps are the eligible for any current visas. I think the thing to look at if someone has their case denied by USC is is the reason so USC has to provide an explanation when they deny an application. So we need to look at that. Generally when there's a denial I would advise you as well to speak to an immigration attorney who could help you figure out if that is something that can be overcome. Sometimes it's that you didn't provide enough evidence. Or sometimes the person's not eligible for some reason and so it would it really varies circumstance to circumstance. And then you want to look at that reason for the denial and and I'd recommend bringing it to immigration attorney and having them assess whether it's something that you could overcome, or something that is, you know, some of that person is not able maybe they weren't qualified. But you can, you know, in some cases you may be able to reapply. And there are appeal periods. Shortly after when a decision is made you may be able to appeal with USCIS in some cases. And they may be eligible for a different kind of visa but that is something you would need to do a individual consultation with an immigration attorney to find out. So that's the next question from Zakiah Raufi and then we're going to go to the webinar questions also I know there's two questions pending there. So please be patient with us. The question is what can I do to take my sister out of Afghanistan. Her life is in danger. She isn't. She is a single mom with disabled son and teenage daughter. I'm so disappointed and helpless. I applied for the I 130 for her in 2019, but it takes 15 years. Any suggestions, please. I mean, this is a heartbreaking situation, but I will leave it to the attorneys to answer. So you can certainly so two things you can certainly fill out the. There's not much guidance on that p three category the family reunification so again it's not very clear on what the family reunification is getting title and they haven't even, you know, released any guidance on how we're supposed to do that that's one of the questions Ayla has asked. You know certainly you know there's a form that's filled out and if you guys have the resources on the P program, the form that gets filled out. I haven't done it yet because the logistics were not clear in it so I apologize but I would say if you can do the p three the application to fill it out or maybe we'll get some more information in the coming weeks because that is one of the questions that has been asked. And maybe care can put it on their site. You know you can try the p three family reunification. Now these options that we're talking about are due to the crisis that's going on. But one question I want to answer is in and I'm going back to the question we asked before is, I'm a US citizen, and I want to bring my mother and my father, and my two three siblings one sibling whatever. They are what I said, your parents are your immediate relatives, your siblings, even if they are under age 21. They are your preference category which means, and this heartbreaking I've seen this happen many many times where people father themselves or they followed someone who didn't know what they were doing. They have the expectation that I'm a citizen I filed for my mom dad my two younger brothers and sisters. They will never come together under the real world of immigration I'm not talking about what's happening now there are certain uncertainties but prior to the process what happens is is mom and dad and I've had many clients, dozens of clients I don't know Brittany if you have but I filed for mom and dad I get the mom and dad here, and then either mom or dad go back home every six months. When dad is here and they get the green card that child is their immediate relative, so they can file for the child to come in. And that could take two to three years to bring in that child but unfortunately in the world of immigration, there is no where there's no area to bypass that. Right now if you wanted to file. I think P three is the only option on this briefly you have any other thoughts. If they get to another country and maybe they can do humanitarian parole or asylum or something else that might come in the future but that's all I can think of. Yeah, that's right I think the other options would be pursue. Yeah, refugee status or asylum status or humanitarian parole in some cases. Okay folks we're going to take the next three. These are going to be the last three questions before we close out the program. For specific cases, I would highly recommend you all to call your local care chapter. We do have the resource link we've posted several times at the bottom of the resource link that we have posted is a number and email to each one of the care chapters throughout California, So the next question is going to be the next two questions are going to be from our webinar. And this question is from Sophia salams thank you for holding the session how can I help expedite my uncle's siv application. We had applied prior to the current situation. I have his case number and all documents. Is there a way I can obtain his status or any information. So a recommendation to anyone seeking assistance with the siv process is to reach out to international refugee assistance project again iraq. They really specialize in this area and provide free assistance where they can and I'm sure will hopefully be getting additional resources but I know they were they're also probably inundated but they also them. I'll link their website again but they do have a list of resources that you can review for some self help but then also seek their assistance. And then the next question is from mz. My brother has a pending siv case but he is still waiting. How can I help him as a US citizen so the process is expedited. I think this basically was sort of answered last time but I'll give it back to us as your spokesman. You just said are you talking about siv cases. This is a siv case how can we expedite the process and how can we support as a US citizen. So I mean there's one organization called no one I'm putting in the chat no one left behind and they have funding I just spoke with an attorney before I got the panel they're actually they're not sharing that information obviously because one of the reasons it's called no one left behind the founder is a guy named john and shanwari who who I know they're working frantically to get people out. I think that's a better way to go than than to try to expedite it because that process is a little bit chaotic chaotic right now. The sources that I'm listing for everyone, they have been verified, they are legitimate, and but I don't want to someone hold me to the information I'm going to share this in right here in the chat box, because I don't think it's on the care I got this from a reliable source within within a law. It's an evacuation. You can try. It's not guaranteed. It's a document you fill out to try to get, and I haven't done it I have I've looked at it just briefly. You can click on it is to get people evacuated. The other person you want to reach out for. So again we're talking about getting people out not through the process of expediting the process because it's backlog and it's impossible but other means of getting people out that are Tom Cotton's senator, he's a senator if you want to Google sorry I don't have his number. He has put in planes and stuff in place to evacuate translators and other people. So reach out to Tom Cotton senator that link that I just sent you you can try that. The other one was brother Fiat the one that you put about the repatriation form. You can do that. And then also, if you're in local, you can reach out to off to Congressman Eric. Sorry, I can't talk and type at the same time. Eric smaller. I just I just included a link to find your Do you have any other sources people can look at. Yeah I was just going to say, if you're a US citizen, I recommend you reach out to your direct, your Congress member so I was representing you in the house or the Senate. And I put a link where you can put your zip code in and find out who that is if you don't already know who it is. And if you live in Fremont it's likely Congressman Eric Swalwell, but they most offices we've heard from their immigration staff is focused on supporting people from Afghanistan and they have a lot of tools in power to move things. And so really recommend that you reach out to them. In any scenario if you're concerned about a relative. There's another legitimate source again legitimate meaning that it's real if there's a lot of fake stuff going on. And again this came within a list my sources. If you're trying to evacuate any family member or even, you know, SIV, it says email, Carter dot, whatever that saw there. You can contact their office so these sources that I'm giving you the two that I gave you. The sources in the repatriation, you know, Tom Cotton, Senator, he's been big on the news trying to get people. Do you know and then the South Bay. Anybody focusing on the I know Congressman Eric Swalwell here at the East Bay is, you know, taking his contingency, do you know of any other people that, I mean, brother phase, Yeah, and fine signs office. Hello, she's office. Yeah, yeah. So today I met with Dianne Feinstein's office and they do have resources now they have a hotline a number that folks can call. I could definitely share that shalla and an email. But one thing that they wanted to emphasize was it all goes to the same Google form or it have you. So whether it's a US Senator or a House member it all goes to the same pool and sent to the State Department just to let you all know. So it's not like the Senator is going to have like some special sway in this process. The other thing that they mentioned the reason why I would prefer to go with the US Senator is not because they're going to have some special sway again they don't is because it's going to make it easier for us as community members to just email a US Senator because no no matter where you live in California, they represent you so you don't have to find your representative in your specific house district. So that's something that's very helpful we'll definitely share those resources for the community. We have one more question on Facebook that's going to be the last question. Again I emphasize I've posted several times in the different chat groups on the live Facebook lives, and in the webinar chat, the resource page and that care that California is providing. Thank you sister Brittany and others that helped create that resource page in the bottom of the resource page has a number and email of your local care chapter please email and call those numbers to get help on your specific cases So this last question inshallah from Facebook is coming from sister Maryam Ali, and she asked my family is a refugee refugees in India for nine years. They are registered with UNHCR, but their case is not moving. What are their options and which countries are accepting refugees from India. There was a list. If I can find it shortly Brittany if you want to talk I can quickly find it there. There's a list on a lot I'm going to look if you want to do you have any thoughts on that. This is one of the, the big issues like all of these processes take many, many, many years and resettlement agencies on the ground and third countries are are working with thousands and thousands of refugees and so it is something that can take decades in some cases for for someone to be resettled. But yeah, let's. We, another thing as well. So, one recommendation is to get in touch with if there's a depending on where you're located there are likely refugee resettlement agencies in your area and maybe you can get in touch with them and let them know that you're interested in sponsoring this person. Because there there's always a refugee resettlement partner who would be helping settle that that person in the United States and so those agencies include Catholic Charities, Jewish Family Services, International Rescue Committee. And so you can reach out to them to see if there's any way that you can can provide support that they could could provide support for your relative and most of these agencies are national and have local offices all around the country. So I'm trying to find the AILA advisory that was listing some of the potential countries and I wish I had done this earlier. Oh, I think there was a list of countries that people could potentially go to but the question right now is is that nobody nobody's able to get out of anywhere I'm sure we'll be able to have the list. There's like, you know, there were like Ghana, Senegal, India, you know, there were a few countries that people could possibly go to. But right now, because there are no evacuations, there are no flights going out anywhere it'll be difficult for anybody to to utilize that so the question was where can people go at this point there's no place people can go. I don't believe it's just evacuate our allies. Well, the question the person had was there are they are already in India. Oh, they're already in India. They're not they're not they're not evacuating there. They already got to India, and they've been there for nine years. They are registered with UNHCR, but the case is not moving. What are their options and which countries are accepting refugees from India. Okay, so at this point I mean you have to work I am not from too familiar with UNHCR which country they designate I mean it take years for people to get through that system. Do you have more. So sorry, I was trying to find the countries people can possibly migrate to. Yeah, I mean that's an important thing to find out also. I'm not sure they were listed but will that probably get expanded and I'll share it. People want to follow my my Facebook or follow up care resources. Law office my page I'm going to try to put as much as I can that I get but Brittany do you have more information on that I'm not familiar too much with that. Well I think I think the one thing to add is. It's important to advocacy pieces that brother fire mentioned that the refugee cap. So part of the reason so few refugees come to the United States is because there's, they only accept so many per year, which has been very limited, particularly in the past five years. I really encourage you to sign our action alert asking this administration to increase the cap of for refugees so that more refugees can come to this country and hopefully prevent people from being in refugee camps for nine plus years. Yeah, I think that's my big recommendation on that one. And just just to flag something for the community. During the last year of the Trump administration I met mentioned this in the beginning of the webinar. The refugee cap was only at 15,000 which was like the lowest ever. And just to let you know, it's not like they have the refugee cap at 15,000 they're going to accept 15,000 they never accept the full refugee cap number. They always accept maybe about 70% maybe 80% if you get real lucky. So, and they'll put the designation at 15,000 they might accept 12,000 maybe. But again this this cycle it's at 62,500. And that is why we're advocating for the community to fill out the action alert inshallah to Allah, to increase that refugee cap by another 100,000 so we get it to 160,000. 62,500 inshallah to Allah that way we could get more refugees, especially from the Afghanistan region to get refuge here in the US inshallah to Allah. What that being said, is there any closing remarks from the other panelists and then we will close inshallah. I just wanted to go to, you know, first of all, I know we pray for our for our fellow Muslims, fellow Afghans and the situation is dire and you know everybody's spantically trying to reach out to anybody they can. I would just say and I know again it's easier said and please respect what I'm saying in the sense that it's not that it's dire is just that the situation doesn't have the opportunities for people to get out. If they can just stay still at their homes and stay safe. But if they're able to get through some of the avenues that we've all talked about, do take those with the caveat that there are dangers involved. Second of all, you know, we know I say this with bitterness, we have what we have we have the Taliban that that's our government. I'm sure you are all your heart was aching when the flag of Afghanistan got replaced. Sorry to get any of the things that. Sorry, we have to look at the reality. Not everyone's going to get up please just if your family members are there and they're okay just tell them to stay safe and see what happens in the future. If the, you know, commercial errands go people can get visas to other countries, we're hoping that those other countries will have some sort of a humanitarian asylum program for people. You know the Taliban are saying one thing in the front but we're I'm personally seeing the actions many of your family members are probably sharing with you what they're seeing. So, just just be cautious and then again, there are not many options and someone told me well I'm just going to call the next lawyer and I said okay that's fine go ahead. There are no many options regardless of which lawyer you call this point and the last thing I would say is there are a lot of scammers and if I as john I'm sure you're going to test to this. Just be careful where your family are spending the money, because even if they're going to get from point A to point B in between our Taliban checkpoints and just look at it realistically. And I pray not only from from for all of us but Afghanistan in our country and and try to be hopefully optimistic and thank you for joining us and thank you for this opportunity. Thank you very much for me it's hard to follow that up but I think it just to be hopeful I want to encourage us all to reach out to our elected officials our Congress members, sign the action alerts show up at protests, whatever it is you can do it support organizations on the ground make donations for eight agencies to support people have a weekend, the US immigration system is slow and moves was very slowly but I know there's a lot of really passionate attorneys out there willing and wanting to help Afghan people. And when we will do what we can advocacy wise that we need everyone support so please please continue to take those advocacy steps that we outlined today. We can't hear you. Okay, so as sister Brittany was mentioning, please fill out the action alert. That's really really important this way our members of Congress, and the president vice president know that we are concerned about the people of Afghanistan. And we want to make sure that we get as many people safely here to the US, as possible, inshallah. And finally, again, as our CEO at care california brother Hasan al-Yush mentioned. If you have members of the FBI visit you at work, or at your home asking you questions please do not talk to them. Please make sure to refer them to your local care chapter inshallah you're not obligated to speak to them, and they will use anything you say against you and you want to make sure that you have representation inshallah so please again please please please contact your local care chapter and refer them to them say hey look. I you know I don't want to speak right now, please talk to my attorney at care San Francisco care San Diego care Sacramento care LA Hamdallah we have representation up and down the state and our wonderful chapter our wonderful satellite office at Central Valley Hamdallah. So again, thank you for all joining the web webinar we tried our best to answer as many questions as we could we almost answered questions for 45 minutes Hamdallah. Please refer to the earlier portion of the webinar this webinar is recorded. If you have family or friend that really need this information. Please share this webinar with them. That way they could see it through. If you have further questions, please contact your local care chapter. We shared the resource page several times at the bottom of the resource page. We have the emails and the numbers of each one of the care chapters and their immigration numbers inshallah so immigration line. So please contact your local care chapter. I know it's time for my coming up very soon. So I look forward to making will do and praying my mother inshallah. Bless you all may Allah keep your family and friends safe. May Allah forgive all of our sins and bless all of you.