Silver Lining in Immigration News: Free Automated Program for Dreamer Kids by Immigration Attorneys and Technologists

    SAN FRANCISCO, CA, February 24, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- One group specifically exempted from the harsher new immigration procedures announced Tuesday are those who qualify for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) or "Dreamers," certain people who arrived in the US when they were less than 16 years old and will be under 36 on June 15, 2017.

To ensure that legal fees don't deter the million potential Dreamers from filing, top-rated immigration firm (Pearl Law Group) and Top 5 Bot tech company (Visabot) have just launched a free program on Facebook that lets DACA applicants prepare and file their own cases, using Pearl's templates and logic flows. Users go to the Visabot page on Facebook, where they answer questions that simulate a text conversation. A button at the end produces completed forms and other requisite documents, with instructions on how to file.

Pearl's team (Ayna Meredova, Ting Ni and Julie Pearl) spent weeks "robotizing ourselves," said Ni, "Replicating the process the firm undergoes with our pro bono DACA clients."

Within the first four years of DACA, only 728,000 of the 1.7 million eligible have obtained DACA status, according to the MPI report here. Some NGOs and legal advisors began warning people last fall to not file initial DACA case, for fear that ICE agents would know where to find them.

Did Trump just give the signal a million eligible Dreamers were waiting for?

The new procedures make it safer to file DACA than to try staying under the radar, Pearl opines. "No better alternative for legal status is likely in this administration, so DACA candidates should seriously consider their options and act quickly," said Ting Ni, a Supervising Attorney at Pearl Law Group.

Will federal agents come hunt down those who apply? "If this were the intention of the Trump Administration, we believe DACA would not have been exempted from the new deportation procedures announced this week," added Pearl.

About Pearl Law Group (www.immigrationlaw.com/)(www.pearllawgroup.com) Founded in 1995 by Julie Pearl and the former head of the US Immigration Service (INS), Pearl today is one of the nation's largest global immigration practices, winning international acclaim for innovation and results. Pearl also won a SuperLawyers national Pro Bono award, and set aside the prize money to pay the government filing fees of the firm's many pro bono clients.

About Visabot (www.visabot.co): Founded in 2016 by entrepreneurs Artem Goldman and Andrey Zinoviev who launched Legalspace, Visabot is a Facebook Messenger chatbot that helps people to apply easily 24/7 for immigration benefits. Visabot recently released a Visitor Visa extension program that won Product Hunt's Top 5 Bots of 2016. Visabot is a Member of 500 Startups and Boost.vc run by Adam Draper.

# # #