Summer Work and Travel Scandal at US Embassy in Moscow

Posted on April 28, 2013

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/us-embassy-slams-door-on-student-workers/478125.html

Tags:214(b)Consular Officers Department of State Summer Work and Travel US Embassy Moscow

Case Studies

O’s problem is becoming more and more common: not just consular officers in the Department of State make determinations of inadmissibility, but officials at the Department of Homeland Security do as well: USCIS, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. What makes the DHS-source decisions troublesome is 1) individuals often are not aware of the findings until they are outside the US and apply for a visa and 2) DHS does not have an official appeals procedure. In O’s case, he was not aware that he was inadmissible under Section 212(a)(2)(A)(i) until he applied for an immigrant, family-based visa to join his US citizen brother in the US. A year after the consul made the denial decision, his US citizen brother contacted us. Only after we inquired to the consulate did it advise that DHS, not the consular officer, made the inadmissibility decision. We then challenged the DHS determination that O’s previous conviction was for a crime of moral turpitude (a driver’s registration violation), and DHS removed the inadmissibility finding. But O was not home-free at that point: the consul withheld the issuance of the visa, calling into question whether the brothers were actually brothers. O then gathered and we provided photographs dating back to the 1970s of the two brothers, as well as other official documents in which the brothers were listed. Shortly after that, the consul finally issued the immigrant visa.

Case of O.E.

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Summer Work and Travel Scandal at US Embassy in Moscow

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