APAJ & ASSOCIATES, IMMIGRATION CONSULTANTS (RET) PODCAST
We are a startup of retired immigration officials, currently awaiting 501(c)(3) status. Our aim is to connect with current and former USCIS immigration officials to discuss their careers, the factors that influenced their decisions to stay or retire, and any other topics they wish to share. Additionally, we strive to shed light on the often overlooked and forgotten aspects of legal immigration and the journeys of those who navigate it.
APAJ & ASSOCIATES, IMMIGRATION CONSULTANTS (RET) PODCAST
Insider's Guide: Immigration Coaching from Former Officials
Hey, how you doing. This is APAJ, better known as APAJ, at the APAJ and Associates, and former immigration retirees yes, Hey, listen, I just want to say that the attorney that I had promised she is tied up this time of not so much a year but the atmosphere out there, so I told her I'd get her in. Between, I do have plans on two of the newcomers with the APAJ and Associates former, you know, immigration officials. I will interview one male, one female and then let's try to see if we can get the attorney in thereafter. So, with that stated, I must say there's a lot of technical difficulties dealing with, you know, trying to get up and started as a startup 501 C3, and I never thought it would. You know, trying to get up and started as a startup 501C3. And I never thought it would be any, you know, any easier. Right? So it is what it is, and so I like to go back to episode three, and we were, I was, I was talking about kind of the coaching aspect of it and the consulting element. And, again, as a disclaimer, apha and Associates do not entertain legal, you know, questionings. And we could either say to you hey, go see your lawyer if you need one, We'll help you do that as a referral. Certainly we don't want you to walk away and don't come back because this, if you look at the APAJ and the socialcom website and the app is basically telling you you know what's the difference between the two animals, so to speak. All right, so we are formal immigration officials and we have decades of I mean a lot of time of inside experience, you know, relative to what our days were, some INS and USCIS, or better known, cis, and their operations and procedures, uscis, or better known, cis, and their operations and procedures. And we all have that strategic coaching approach, you know, because we utilize human performance improvement methodology and I will get into that to optimize our client success. So that's that's's very important strategically, having that years of inner side knowledge and get this legacy INS, cis, because those are two different monsters, you know. And so you know I'm dating myself, people like myself who've been there in that system for a while. Yeah, so it leads us to process simplification, you know, which deals with complicity. You know, matters of immigration processes and things that have been broken down, processes and things that have been broken down, and we try to build it up into some manageable and actionable steps.
Speaker 1:Let me give you an example. You have, you, being a client, you have much knowledge, but you don't know how to arrange that knowledge. You know, that's kind of what I saw in my career, where people had their thing, you know. Let me just interrupt myself here, because a lot of and I should tell those junior persons coming in and say to them, hey, guess what these, these, these applicants, customers or clients, whatever you want to call them, they're very savvy, you know to what they need. They just need help in doing so. And that's why I came in the door with this mindset of creating this 501-4 of this.
Speaker 1:You know, and it's all about the comprehensive preparations approach. You know that's what documents, organization, the interview prep type thing, and any obstacles, the navigation that may, you know, need some coaching with our clients. And so, with that stated, with the strategic immigration approach, in coaching we just don't ask questions, you know only. You know that's good, that's you know in its own place. But that is not entirely the process that, in methodology, we use, because we use, like the human performance improvement techniques, and that's a technique, as I just alluded to, in getting all of your, your eyes and and your teeth together, getting around any potential obstacles, how you navigate.
Speaker 1:You know cases or situations like family based immigration, naturalization, interviews, employment based documents, review and organization and strategic case planning. So said a lot, right, but believe me, some lawyers will entertain that Some lawyers and, of course, with a healthy fee, right, they will entertain that. And some of them are other practitioners and they take on immigration. Let's be honest, it's a lucrative business out there and so people will take that on and that's the way it is. So I can only tell you that it is a challenge in itself. Right, it is. It is a challenge in itself, right, it is.
Speaker 1:Immigration is a very complex monster in itself. You know, first, the coach and that document, organization, interview, preparation for that and anything with the timeline, management and again, obstacles and navigation, and I'll keep reiterating that, obstacles, because sometimes that impediment, if you will be you the person, remember I said that you can be savvy and you got it together, right, but do you really have it together so that we look at as a medium type thing and where we may look at an employment-based immigration situation needing strategic coaching and based on the work-based petitions and all of that, the PERM process of coaching, i-140, petition support and the H-1Bs and LO1s and so on and so on. On those nomenclatures, we have exposure and processing Again, some of us working collateral at the airport and you know INS days of duty, so it's 360, if you will, but been there, done that. So, and to include adjustment of status, and I can remember some days where dealing with the adjustment of status is in itself a thing. No, but not not to leave citizenship behind, right, the N-400 process and taking the 312 civic test and exempt into able, as I mentioned in the other episode, to articulate yourself. Now I'm going to get into some of the behaviorist things that I do believe you should be aware of.
Speaker 1:Why am I saying this to you now? And you can get that insight. And then, oh, I heard this former immigration official and he was saying this and that, yes, but that's not it. It's a methodology to that. Trust me, it really is, folks. And just like you say, you listen to half of what is told you in an instructional preview and then you just jump and say, well, I get it, and then you don't know, when you don't make it, why the hell did I listen Right? So you read between lines why you didn't listen Right. So, again, the human performance improvement, and I threw the technology in. But that in itself is what we, our associates, work with that methodology. So, after all, you know, I have a degree advanced degree in it, with distinction, by the way.
Speaker 1:So I want you to understand your documents. There's some gap. I want you to understand the your documents. There's some gap. We do that analysis of your documents and in the evidence, strength assessment and following strategy, optimization and quality control, review and submission timelines planning, review and submission timelines planning.
Speaker 1:Now, I said all that for a reason because, again, you listen, but you wasn't listening. All right, and that is something that gets a lot of clients, customers, applicants, get them in trouble. They listen to third parties or remember, I think, the second I was talking about the back alley, lawyers or whatever. You listen to people who, as I just alluded to, again saying that, oh yeah, you should go do this because I did this or I know somebody. Folks don't listen to that. You know, I'm going to tell you if you are and I will jump in and deal with some clients, but that's what I have people to do that for, so I can stay on the other end of this organization that we're building here.
Speaker 1:So my thing is folks pay attention to your behavior and anything and everything you do. In anything and everything you do, I cannot emphasize strongly enough to say to you that you have to really, really, really keep focus on your behavior the time you encounter, I would say, immigration, going to the biometrics, aka application support centers, because you will see what I mean once you get there. All right, it is not much of a high volume now due to the conditions and, however, should that ever dissipate, you will be right back with, you know, a lot of people bumping into each other and so on, so on, so on. So what that means some people bring different attitudes with them, some people develop attitudes while they're in the immigration facilities or those contracted facilities.
Speaker 1:So I also want to put emphasis on moving forward interview preparations and coaching. Yay, coaching right, finally got to it, got into the coaching part. So mock interview sessions, a little question preparation there and body language coaching, right, stress management techniques and follow up strategies. So, and the planning aspect of that is a case assessment, analysis and your strength, weakness, opportunities and threats, ok. So again with the strategic timeline, development, risk mitigation, planning Hmm, interesting. And performance gap analysis, not to mention the been successful optimization.
Speaker 1:So all of that said is that you need to understand. We just don't have you talk to you and just throw you to the wolves. We want you to be so prepared, because I thought we've been there, done that. The same, the same thing you want to go to is what we've been through. We was on the side of a minister in these things, all right. So you hear from you, hearing this from the horse's mouth. All right, you're hearing this from the horse's mouth. All right. Now we just lay back a little bit, not connected with immigration, and since we've been there for decades and decades and decades, it's like second, third, fourth nature to us, right. So I'm saying to you, I came up in my mind and use some of what I was educated with and say, well, hey, what if we apply these concepts of human performance improvement? You know? So again, I strongly encourage you to go look that up what that entail. You know it's a systematic approach. Just to give you a hint, hint, two things is so you want to be able to say I remember saying I got this and you can do this. You're going to hear that from us a lot.
Speaker 1:All right, so I'm concerned about you having came on your journey all the way to this point and you're still not sure of yourself. I'm concerned about that because there's a percentage, if you will, and significantly enough, that people kind of cancel themselves out of the process. Now you just spent a lot of money. Now, you just spent a lot of money and you have spent a lot of time. So that's your treasure. Now you, it's your time to shine. But you waited so long for your name or number to be called. Now it's time for you to. You know, showtime, as they say, and you're a little bit, little bit off target right now. Little bit off target right now. So, apaj and Associates, in our consultation with you, in our coaching process, we are confident.
Speaker 1:When you go in front of one of our colleagues there in one of those immigration facilities, wherever you go, and you say I went through this coaching and you know counseling, consulting process with these retired immigration officials, you may have somebody just came there two or three years. You know how it is and they want to make a name for themselves. The nomenclature is, the product is still the same, whether how they call it. They give new names and stuff. But there is something that is always going to remain and that is how you react with an immigration official, and that's at any capacity, you know. So you just don't say you deal with a clerical or an officer supervisor manager, you deal with a clerical or an officer supervisor manager.
Speaker 1:You know, you have to understand there is a, there is an atmosphere of of you know of everything and I just don't want to pinpoint, but it's a lot of things all rolled up into one and folks be prepared for that. You know there's people who say, oh, there's officers at the front office and you think about it. So you mean you're talking about the security officers or guards. Oh, okay, and those are contractors. But that's the perception. Right, because everybody to them, to you, is part of immigration. Right, because everybody to them, to you, is part of immigration regardless, regardless.
Speaker 1:So first impression is the last one, and I mention that because that's the strategy that you should have and the inside knowledge that is carried that from us to you you should be able to walk in there with a lot of confidence. And again, as a disclaimer, for legal representation, we recommend consulting with a qualified immigration attorney. All right, that's just like a little commercial note to you. So we want you to stay on target with that, because that's very important, not to get this screwed up. It's very important not to get this screwed up, and if you do that, you are not going to have a good day. Ok, so about our story. I also own that, the app we have. I'm, at this time, building that up. We have a slew of, and countless of hours in training. I mean one thing they train you, they train you, they train you, they train you, they train you, they train you. And this, folks, is all the time, all year round. So, yes, all right.
Speaker 1:Jay again alluded to the fact that the premise of our using this methodology of human performance improvement is a systematic approach to certain performances, analysis and solution designs, and that's to say, there are a multitude of things that you, the client, bring to us and we are able to analyze it. You may have an associate say to you OK, you book an hour, and they say you know what? It's a lot here. I can help you cramp this in, but you may, as a continuum, you may want to, you know, make another session or two, may want to, you know, make another session or two. So it's because the bottom line, the more you know prepared you are and you fortify your fears, strengthening your fears if you will, and make yourself ready, available for anybody.
Speaker 1:I mean, when you get through with us, we, you know you can be able to go in there with so much confidence and not being cocky or overbearing because that could have an adverse effect. Right, you just want to be able to say hey, look, much respect, as I said before, is given as it is received. You may want to say sir, officer, whatever that person in front of you, they greet you and say you know their title. Maybe you want to say it back. So that's the first thing. You know, some people are so egotistical If you don't say officer, they get just beside themselves. Right, I don't get it, but that's the ego thing.
Speaker 1:I come from the military, so as a noncommissioned officer, so I can honestly tell you that's just not isolated to immigration and it is kind of I'm chuckling on it because it is so many people get so tied up in these credentials and all of that stuff. So if that's the case, I should be putting down that I'm pursuing my doctoral degree in human services, but I have not yet got that degree. So why do that? Right? So that's another thing. Ok, so we are again. Our credentials are former INS and USCIS. I had someone ask me what's the difference? Well, that's that. That's a good topic to do down the line, because there is folks. There is a difference. Trust me, you know our core values is integrity, expertise, results and empowerment. All right, that's what that's all about.
Speaker 1:Right, that HPI is identifying gaps between what current situations that you may have, or old Right, help designing and customizing approaches to bridge and identify those gaps, if you will, issues you have, and through the coaching of guiding you through that systematic preparation, a preparatory sense. And we used to say in the military there's a preparatory and a what is it? Execution? Right, and if, for example, I say a change, that's a preparatory to let you know something's going to happen, showing you. And then execution. Well, same thing here. The preparatory is you have your papers. The execution, you're going to submit them. And if you're not listening to the command, for which, no matter where it's coming from, for which you need to be abreast to like, hey, get your papers in at a certain time. There's a timeline on everything. So we have something.
Speaker 1:When you come online, you book yourself, it'll basically tell you, I think, about six or seven questions in a preparatory sense. That's what I was getting to and I didn't make it there. And you need to pay close attention to that, right, because and in immigration, timing is of the essence OK, all right. So what we look at as far as the we being APHA, your case and situation in monitoring your progress and adjusting any strategic alignments we may need for you and optimal results. What is that saying? Getting you so prepared, so prepared, all right, folks, we are not attorneys and do not provide legal advice or legal representation. All right, we just retired immigration officials with decades and decades of experience and we have been exposed to a slew of services and we offer those in a coaching.
Speaker 1:I mentioned mock interviews. We can do that with you. We'll tell it. Everybody's not the same. You tell us what you want on that comment when you first contact us and we will get back what you are there to, because we had to analyze your situation, all that stuff I was reading to you, and so you need to be prepared, okay, so what to expect? Strategic case analysis by former immigration officials, document organization and preparations and coaching, getting you ready, interview preparations using proven techniques yeah, cause we've been there, done that right, we administered right. Who better knows? Personalizing timelines and action plan development. Hey, get you on track, don't deviate from your journey. And risk assessment and mitigation, now strategy.
Speaker 1:Now, that may run into the fact that you may have to have a lawyer, all right, and that's why I put that there, because I wanted you to know, after all, what we've done. If we get to that 45 minutes within an hour and you tell us something and we say wait a minute, because folks, we know, and you say something, I'm going to say OK, you know what we are going to have to stop right here, document the time because you are entitled to your hour. And, let's say, the associate says I think it's counterproductive to go for it when it is seemingly appears that you may have to talk to an attorney based on what you just disclosed to me. All right, so let's be smart about that, because we want to have ongoing support throughout this process. That's why I say you may have to make more than one session, you know, and that is designed, you know, if you the type of person with a minimum, you know situation that you don't need all of that coaching, fine. So if you need somewhere high, that is going to take a little bit more time and effort. Correct, and I just noticed I was moving around in a chair so I hope that didn't pick up. But nevertheless, I am happy that you are interested and I'm going to be coming up with more and more from our perspective. And you know I'm walking a gray line here because I do not want anyone to get misconstrued, have a misconception as to what legal advice and non-legal advice is, and I, more or less, will be putting that out more and more verbally and in writing as we go along.
Speaker 1:Folks, we've been on a journey as officials immigration right and we have seen a lot, been involved in a lot, heard a lot, and we know that it is not easy when you come to a country and you're not too abreast to its laws and everything. This is something in my dissertation I was, you know it was all about immigrants Somewhat may refer to as newcomers, but it was all about the legal aspect of immigration and I must emphasize, everything that I talk to you about is all about legal immigration that I feel a lot of people has been. That has, you know they say, stayed in line and did the right thing, have been pushed back. So we are. We entertain legal, you know, ramifications and aspects of immigration Certainly those things I read off to you. You had to have a legal status in order to, you know, acquire those type of benefits Right. So don't get this confused. There is attorneys out there and other people who would entertain you if you have some issues to the legality of your stay in the United States.
Speaker 1:So, with that stated, I hope you understand that we are here to listen to you, be open and honest and trustworthy, as we will to you. We reciprocate that because I believe you and I and my staff members all should be on the same level when you're talking to one another. It diffuses the hostile environments or hostility in the air and people just don't. I personally don't like to work that way. Now, I know how to deal with that, but I just feel that you can get a lot out of yourself and that person if you treat each other with kindness and respect, as always.
Speaker 1:I say I'll keep this to 30 minutes in duration. Guess what? I got more time to do a lot more. So I'm doing so many. I got so many hats on now trying to get the podcast or blog and get the business going. So hang in there and I can't wait till the day I can be laid back so you take care of yourself and you know when you do that, it is just that much better for you. We're waiting on you Again, apajandthesocialscom. Go ahead and book yourself a session with us and try the water. All right, I think you can do it, I know you can. And you got this, remember you got this. Take care y'all.