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The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) created a special category of visas for professionals from Canada and Mexico to work in the United States. The role of the consular officer is to ensure that the applying professional has the qualifications for the offered job and that the job is bona fide, as well as to facilitate the prompt entry into the United States of these professionals. But apparently some consular officers in Mexico are infused with a “culture of no” mentality, denying and victimizing many well-qualified Mexican applicants. To be clear, there has been some fraud in Mexico in TN applications. This is not about those cases, in which the consul is justified in imposing a bar under Section 212(a)(6)(C)(i). The consuls in Mexico are under daunting time pressures: they issue nearly 50,000 TN and TD (for dependents) visas a year, with only a few minutes to make a decision at the…

Consular zealotry knows no bounds. That is the impression that I am getting after conducting a flurry of consultations on visa denials related to EB-3 cases. After an EB-3 immigrant visa is denied at the Embassy, the I-140 approved petition is referred back to USCIS for review, often with an accusation against the applicant about a supposed willful, material misrepresentation. Compounding the problem, sometimes the petitioner-employer in the US decides not to continue the process or the applicant changes his or her mind and decides to pursue other immigration options (e.g., if has a US citizen adult child). But like that evil jack-in-the-box or Jason in Friday the 13th, the “bad guy” — the misrepresentation allegation in the form of a Section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) finding — pops up out of nowhere when you least expect it, years later when applying for a new, different visa. This then complicates the ability to…

After waiting years, your I-601A Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver was approved. Congratulations. And now it’s time to travel outside the US, apply for and receive an immigrant visa, and return to the US with a clean slate, right? Well, not necessarily… Not if ill-intentioned or overzealous consular officers have anything to do with it. There is a popular misconception that if you have an approved I-601A, USCIS has reviewed the entirety of your immigration history and forgiven any violations. That is wrong. USCIS has only considered your unlawful presence violation and found extreme hardship to your qualifying relative. But do you remember that visa that you applied for 25 years ago? And that you later used that visa to enter and remain in the US? The consular officer has not forgotten. Now, in such situations, these officers are increasingly entering permanent bars for a Section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) willful, material…

Fair is fair, right? Consular officers can and do impose permanent bars for an alleged misrepresentation in a visa application form or entry to the United States from 5, 10, 20, 25 years ago. For example, we have seen some crazy decisions at visa interviews based on a supposed misrepresentation made to an airport inspector decades ago about their true intent — triggered by application of the so-called 90-day rule. But on the flip side, did you know that there are no time limitations on when you may challenge a consular visa decision to permanently bar you from the United States? If the visa decision made to permanently bar you for a misrepresentation, alien smuggling, or conviction of a crime of moral turpitude was made last week, last year, last decade, or even 35 years ago and it was wrong then, it is wrong — and continues to wreak havoc…

The beauty of obtaining a nonimmigrant waiver? That once you receive one, going forward, you will almost automatically receive the second one, and the third one, and the fourth one…. But the trick is — obtaining that first one… The nonimmigrant waiver process is rather straightforward. For most applicants of the nonimmigrant waiver (also known as a Section 212(d)(3)(A) or Hranka waiver), there is no application form and there is no filing fee; you simply request the waiver at the visa interview. If the consular officer recommends the waiver, then Customs and Border Protection will usually agree with the recommendation and grant the waiver. The consul will then issue a visa with a waiver annotation. So how to obtain that elusive consular recommendation? Well, if the applicant is applying for a B visitor visa or a F student visa, he/she must overcome his/her 214(b) burden first before the consul will…