Skip to main content

US entry waiver help

Just a reminder about this free and indispensable US entry waiver resource. Held each Wednesday at 12pm eastern, immigration legal expert Laurel Scott hosts a live chat. I took advantage of the most recent session and asked the following with regards to a question I had about my inadmissibility:

canadianwithwaiver: First, thanks in advance for your support. Canadian with 2 criminal convictions (both theft under $1K) who travels to the US with an I-194 waiver. I found the following on state.gov about how ARO accesses admissibility. Specifically: "if you have more than one conviction, CIMT or otherwise for which the aggregate sentence was more than 5 yrs, you are inadmissible.” The combined for my summary convictions is 1 year although as stated, I have 2 convictions. So my question is: is the determination of inadmissibility based on more than 1 CIMT or is it based on the aggregate of those sentences? I am trying to determine if I might be eligible for something called a September letter.

And her response to my question:

Laurel: There are several grounds of inadmissibility for criminal history.  Sometimes different grounds look very similar or seem to be covered under a different section, but the reason there may be more than one is that the waivers are different.  So there is a separate ground of inadmissibility for multiple convictions with an aggregate sentence of more than five years, but that doesn't apply to you.  What does apply to you is the single conviction ground of inadmissibility.  You see, if you only have one conviction for something that qualifies for the petty offense exception, you wouldn't be inadmissible at all.  But because there are two, you don't get to take advantage of the petty offense exception.  So you are inadmissible for having "at least one" conviction for a CIMT.

Scott Immigration's live chat can be found here. If you've missed the live chat, you can also view the transcript archives here.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do you have an I-194 waiver?

Thanks to those who participated in my recent poll "Do you have an I-194 waiver?". It turns out that of those who participated over half have applied or intend to for the I-194 waiver (Advance Permission to Enter as a Non-Immigrant). It is also interesting to note that the amount that have 1 year or 5 year waivers are very close (3 to 4). I had read somewhere that the waivers were granted as 1 year or 5 based on the degree or seriousness of the past offenses. If this is true, then wouldn't a person expect that if he/she were granted a 5 year waiver, he/she should always expect the 5 year waiver? I'd be happy to hear your comments and personal experiences on this. Update: See  I-192 Waiver Application Process
167 comments
Read more

Check Your Waiver Application Status

I've never tried, but apparently there is an email address to check your waiver application status. CHECKING THE STATUS OF YOUR WAIVER REQUEST: Please allow at least 120 days from the date of submission of your I-192 before making an inquiry about the status of your application. As stated earlier, a full review of your circumstances can take up to a year, and requests for status updates may add to that timeline. However, if for some reason you are concerned about the status of your request, and you filed at a CBP Preclearance location or at a land border port of entry after August 26, 2007 you may ask for an update by emailing inquiry.waiver.aro@dhs.gov . In the email, be sure to provide your full name, DOB and your A number. If you filed at a land border port of entry prior to August 26, 2007, please contact them directly. Phone numbers are on our Web site. Attorney inquiries: attorneyinquiry.waiver.aro@dhs.gov If you have submitted an application and you have had a chang...
74 comments
Read more

I-192 waiver application cost going up?

As mentioned by a contributor on the I-194 waiver forum , a recent article on CBC ( Have you ever smoked weed? ) has made claim that the cost of an I-192 waiver application is increasing from $585 to a whopping $930 US ($1,200 CDN) later this year. There seems to be some truth as found on a US Federal Register under a section labelled "TABLE 9—PROPOSED FEES BY IMMIGRATION BENEFIT" (see here: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-05-04/pdf/2016-10297.pdf ) If these changes move ahead Canadian's who have been previously denied entry to the US will see a 59% increase on their US waivers. There is some potential good news in that all waivers after the fee increase may be issued for a set 5 year (instead of the current 1, 3, 5 year) with limited exceptions for sexual assault convictions but that has yet to be confirmed. Waiver renewal application processing seemed to have gotten quicker over the summer with some applicants commenting on 3 month returns. So perhaps we can f...
10 comments
Read more