well i think the risks primarily are that for people who are not here in the country with immigration status or with valid immigration status there is a risk that this is going to be the way that immigration authorities are going to know that somebody is here perhaps that they have overstayed a visa so people do need to be careful who are thinking of applying for this process because there is a risk that this could lead to their being placed in the potential perce whether they should they should apply or not to identify the risks before they go for their issues and make sure that their if there are any risks or complexities about their case that they use an attorney for the entire process it's not necessarily to have an attorney help you with the entire process so people are able to do it on their own but it's number of issues that people are having in terms of i think the primary question that people have is whether they qualify for the first action so exactly that question whether they meet the criteria for this program so we're trying to help them out a lot of the questions that people have are regarding about whether if they've had any criminal convictions in the past whether that disqualifies them or if they've maybe left the country and come back that if the fact that they've been out of the country for a period of time may disqualify them so it's a range of issues and that's what we're trying to do through our workshops are legal clinics particularly for people who don't have the ability to hire a private immigration attorney for them to be able to have an opportunity to talk somebody who's experienced on the topic and get their answers get their questions brief innocent cashel absences will not count to interrupt the five year continue the rest is but they haven't said exactly the amount of time somebody who's been out for six or seven months is one of those cases where we'd want to look at that case individually where there could be some risk about immigration and find that as i said this qualifying situation but they've said that it depends on the circumstances of the reasons that somebody left and so somebody left because they had a family member who was very  project is to help people who can't afford to hire a private attorney and so one thing that people can do is contact us and we have interpreters all available to help people if they don't speak english well with their case and what we're doing for this particular process for the deferred action process is doing legal clinics that people can sign up for in advance and they can be scheduled and they can just call our office and find out when the next legal clinic is right now we're holding them weekly and the number to call is set to zero six five eight seven four zero zero nine and i'll repeat that again it's two six five eight seven four see her zero nine and they can get information then about when the clinics  also are holding larger workshops where where it's more open and those are just rotating every couple months or so right now and and they can find out through the number also when the next work may be happening especially if they live out of the area but if in the seattle area they can usually get help through our legal clinics which are hosted in this area waived so that's a good another one of those questions that has come up a lot and unfortunately there is a way that the fee can be exempted from paying but it's a very very narrow circumstances that the immigration authorities are saying you don't have to pay the fee it's not just that the person doesn't have enough money they have to meet some additional criteria like they're actually homeless or they have some very serious health concerns and so for most people unfortunately even if they have a limited income and can't pay the fee they're not going to be able to have a fee waiver however we still want people who are having that issue to contact those and see if they qualify because right now we're working with some entities that are considering creating scholarships to provide help to people who can't afford to pay the fee there those those situations are those systems are not quite in place yet but we are kind of keeping a list of people who may qualify for that once we know that they do qualify for the first action and once that system is in place we hope to connect them to resources so that they can still apply maybe just a few months from now and then without permission that's that's definitely one of the concerns that people have had and the reality is that you know there's there's it's always difficult to say with one hundred percent guarantee that there's never any risk for family members but the immigration authorities have told us and have said to the community that they're not trying to use this program to go after family members and so i think it's very unlikely that any harm would come or that they would be any action by immigration against a parent of somebody who applies and really the application process doesn't ask specifically about information about the parents but some of the documentation you may need to submit to prove that you qualify may include dead like school transcripts and so you know it's difficult to say that there's no risk at all but that's something that we encourage people to you know come and talk to an attorney figure out and understand what those risks may be once we see what their case looks like and then for the person to make a decision but you know for most people that i've talked to that's not really a reason not to apply because the immigration authorities have really made it clear that they're not really looking at the family members of the situation  protection it's really temporary and so they can't just because they have to they're not going to be authorized to travel there is a way that the immigration authorities have said people once they actually have been approved they can ask for a separate permission from immigration something called at best parole that they can apply for but that they're only going to grant those in kind of a case by case situation so only if there's really some important reason for th person to travel not just because they want to see a family member maybe because the family members are very ill and they may be given permission to travel in those circumstances so it is important for people who get this don't think that they can just travel without getting at vance permission options well i think that's one of the important things about this is that this is only you know an option for certain people who are here without status and who meet the qualifications for this program but there are a lot of other protections  law that people need to be conscious about and thinking about we certainly deal with a lot of cases of people who are applying for protections like asylum protections like this specific protections for victims of crime victims of domestic violence victims of trafficking and so there are a number of different protections available for four individuals who were not currently in valid immigration status  undocumented and or whose visas for example have expired and those are kind of questions that are really you know individual life situations and circumstances so that's where we emphasize that it's really important for people to get good legal advice from people who are qualified in immigration law to figure out what options they may have and decide how to how to proceed about visa status they some people were brought by their family members across the border and never actually had a visa but the program does also apply for people who came here with the say as long as their permission to be in the country expired before june fifteenth two thousand and twelve so if the person is in the country now and they're on a valid student visa or a valid tourist the said they're here so they're here with permission they're not going to be able to apply for the first action this is not going to stay here longer and so that's something that's important for people to understand however if the person came on a student visa you know maybe several years ago or came on a tourist visa and then they overstayed they didn't leave after the period that they were authorized to stay and and they didn't have any immigration status on june fifteenth two thousand and twelve and they meet all the other criteria than they would be you know possibly eligible for this program so again in those situations where there's a question as to when their status expired you know june sixteenth of two thousand and twelve unfortunately the rules that the immigration is set out are very strict about the dates and so they're going to have to show exactly when their status expired  and it's important that people remember that sometimes the dates that are on the passport don't always reflect what actually their actual status is for example many people get their passport that says you know valid for ten years  for example but when they came into the country they were only given permission to be here for six months and that's really to period that count so even if your passport says that you have valid visa to two thousand and fifteen it would really the stamp that the immigration officer gave you when you first came in and if that fisa said you're only eligible to be here until two thousand and eight for example well that person may still be eligible because their status expired even though their visa technically in the passport is still valid like the difference between them and then the actual contents right and that i ninety four to the little white card that people get when they come into the country when they're well i think most of the points most of the documentation that people need is to be able to show that they meet the criteria that the government big idolised of the government set out and so part of documentation is going to be to prove that you are who you say you  are so that's going to be things like copies of your passport copies of your identity documents there's also requirements about how long you lived in the country and so bad will depend a little bit on your specific situation for people who are in the younger side a lot of times were able to show that through simply the school transcripts maybe if that person has attended college we can show that as well to show that they've been here in the country for five years people get older we might have to rely on more work documents or  bills or other things to show that the person has been here but it really depends on the circumstances of every individual and then one of the other components of this is that a person needs to show that they've either been in school they're either in school currently they've graduated from high school or they completed a ged program and so in those situations you know we need to again either through school transcripts or a copy of the high school diploma there's other evidence that you need to submit in that and that's the kind of thing that it's important for people to get some advice from an very final messages really that it's very important for people to talk to somebody who's qualified whether by the first action or really any immigration matter because by talking to somebody who's qualified and who you can trust about the situation and then you can make a decision as to whether to apply for for the first action or for any other kind of immigration benefit but it's really important before people take any steps that they talk to an attorney or somebody who's in something called an accredited representative who can help and who is qualified through to help people in immigration matters and again for those people who can afford a private attorney we are available in our office and our number again is two of six five eight seven zero nine thank you