Musings on Immigration

Having your country be part of the ESTA, or Visa Waiver program to come the United States is a wonderful thing!  But like many good things, there is a downside. The downside to ESTA is in not disclosing all prior visa refusals (which may make you permanently ineligible to use ESTA), even if you do not know you were refused a visa!  Huh?  Is it possible that I was refused a visa at an U.S. Consulate and do not know it?  Oh, yes it is.  In an advisory sent out today by the American Immigration Lawyers Association , there are at least TWO instances in which a person could have had a visa refused, and not know or understand what has happened. Customs and Border Protection ("CBP") may deem the failure to disclose visa refusals for administrative processing or incorrect visa category on the Form DS-160 as a misrepresentation when completing the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form, which could make the applicant inadmissible under INA § 212(a)(...

Just few days ago, on March 30, 2012, USCIS posted the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) changing the process for certain inadmissibility waivers in the Federal Register . If you’re interested in reading the entire rule and all the other attachments …here’s the link , enjoy the 60 + pages… So in a nutshell who qualifies and what does the proposed rule say? First of all, the rule applies to certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens who are eligible for a provisional waiver of the unlawful presence grounds of inadmissibility while they are still residing in the US. The immediate relative must show that being separated from their U.S. citizen spouse or parent would cause that U.S. citizen relative extreme hardship. This proposed rule doesn’t mean that USCIS has lowered or modified their standard of “extreme hardship”? The “extreme hardship” standard remains the same. Ideally, the proposed rule would have created a “one-step” process. Whereby, the I-130, I-601 waiver, I-212 et...

In an interview on David Letterman , actor Robert Downey, Jr., talked about a problem he had last year in Japan, when upon entering Japan he was detained and questioned about his past criminal record. Downey said: I probably should have seen there was a sign that said ‘No Felons Allowed’ in English and Japanese and I haven’t had that expunged yet,” he said. “You can actually get things expunged but I’ve been pretty busy. So I was detained, I was interrogated. It was a blast. Haven’t you settled up? Haven’t you paid your debts? Letterman asked. Clearly I haven’t paid my debts to Japan, said Downey. While I certainly feel somewhat bad for Mr. Downey, this short exchange gave the impression that nothing similar would ever happen in America! Hah! U.S. Immigration Law contains restrictions that bar entry to people forever, for virtually any youthful indiscretion they have ever had, e.g. simple possession of a marijuana 20 years ago, without regard to whether or not you were actually convi...