Have an I-601A Approval? Think Twice Before Leaving the United States.

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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…

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Top 15 Trends and Observations in 212(a)(6)(C)(i) Visa Decisions

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Unlawful presence (212(a)(9)(B)), misrepresentations (212(a)(6)(C)(i)), and alien smuggling (212(a)(6)(E)) continue to be the most frequently invoked inadmissibility bars to entry to the United States by consular officers.  And while unlawful presence based on overstays in the United States is a relatively straightforward legal decision, determinations of willful, material misrepresentations and alien smuggling are not.   How does one define “materiality”? Was the misrepresentation actually “willful”? What does it mean to “aid and abet the illegal entry” to the United States? This 3-part blog will focus on the latest trends in consular misrepresentation (“6Ci”) decisions; later, we will address recent trends in smuggling (“6E”) adjudications. Notwithstanding the pandemic and the limited operations of consular posts, the rendering of 6Ci determinations continues unabated.  In the pandemic years of FY2020 and FY2021, consuls entered more than 17,000 misrepresentation findings. During this time, we have observed the following: Politics is Overestimated. Many thought that with…

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Visa Revocation – Not Just Related to Criminal Activity

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Most people understand that if they are arrested, it is possible that their visas will be revoked.  DUIs, drug possession, domestic violence, shoplifting – these are just some of the situations in which individuals with valid visas have their visas revoked.  But what is less known – and understood – is that the Department of State has the ability to revoke visas for any reason in which eligibility is questioned.  In other words, the inquiry into whether an individual qualifies for a visa does not stop at the time of issuance; it is a process that can be – and often is – reactivated at any time after issuance.  In fact, we are seeing more revocations for non-criminal issues than criminal problems. So what leads to this re-examination of an individual’s eligibility? The trigger points for such a “verification reactivation” are numerous.  For example, consular officers conduct validation studies, checking…

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