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One of the biggest misconceptions about immigration law is that a green card is the same as citizenship -only without a passport or the ability to vote. But what many permanent residents do not realize is that they can be deported. The reasons are many: not only for a conviction of a serious or drug-related crime, but also for abandoning their residency in the United States or becoming a “public charge”. The question of deportability can come up when applying for naturalization, or after an absence of more than 180 days from the United States. Imagine a situation where a green card holder who uses public benefits in the US leaves to visit his home country. During his visit, his father gets sick and he needs to stay to help take care of his father. After a 7 month absence from the US, he returns. Upon his arrival at the…

Visa refusals continue to skyrocket under the Trump Administration — and it doesn’t seem to matter whether the applicants are from countries considered “friends” or “foes” of the United States. While the refusal rates for some countries, such as Vietnam, Philippines and Pakistan, have remained relatively stable, other countries have seen a significant jump. Brazil, Nigeria, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and China have each seen increases of more than 25% over the past two years, with India and Mexico not far behind. Below are the visa refusal statistics for B visas for fiscal years 2017–2019. Country % of B Visa Applicants Refused in FY-2017% of B Visa Applicants Refused in FY-2018% of B Visa Applicants Refused in FY-2019% Increase from FY-2017 to FY-2019 Brazil 12.34 12.73 18.48 49.75 China 14.57 17 18.22 25.05 India 23.29 26.07 27.75 19.14 Mexico 22.5 24.93 26.66 18.48 Nigeria 44.95 57.47 67.20 49.49…

With the dramatic upsurge in consular decisions to permanently bar visa applicants from the United States, the question of applying for an immigrant or nonimmigrant waiver has become more and more acute. Many immigration lawyers will advise to just accept the decision, admit that you were wrong, say you are sorry, and apply for the waiver. They say that your chances of receiving the waiver will be increased if you admit your guilt and express remorse, even if you did not do anything wrong. But what if you are not “guilty”? What if you did not commit a material misrepresentation (Section 212(a)(6)(C)(i))? Or engage in alien smuggling (Section 212(a)(6)(E))? Or commit a crime of moral turpitude (Section 212(a)(2)(A)(i)(I))? Should you admit you were wrong? Of course not. There are legal mechanisms to challenge such lifechanging decisions, such as a Request for Reconsideration. Sometimes, the supervisor of the consular officer or…

You have been denied under Section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and despaired because the consular officer demanded a document that is unavailable or unobtainable. Although rare, this does happen — perhaps a birth certificate was lost and the archives in a city burned down in a fire, or the birth certificate lists the wrong information. This is what happened to a recent client — whose son was stranded outside the United States for more than two years while he attempted to resolve consular demands to have a local court amend the birth certificate of his son to reflect him as the father. There is hope in such situations. US immigration law anticipates such problems. If a visa applicant can show that there is “actual hardship” in trying to procure the document, not just “normal delay and inconvenience”, then the consular officer is empowered to waive the document…

Interpol conjures up images of a worldwide police tracking down “bad guys” on the run from home country authorities. But Interpol is not a law enforcement agency: it does not issue warrants and does not have the authority to make arrests. While the overwhelming majority of Interpol’s information-sharing capacity is dedicated to tracking down true “bad guys”, many home country governments abuse it. They manipulate Interpol into doing their dirty work, making bogus allegations to locate dissidents, political activists, and whistleblowers. As a result, Interpol issues Red Notices based on bare allegations made by a government — for example, fraud — not evidence, with a view to extraditing that person back to that country. Yet consular, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials erroneously use the Red Notice as shorthand to deny visas, detain individuals at the border, and arrest them inside the United States. It is…