Immigration Corner | I committed immigration fraud

Dear Mrs Huntington:

I am a Jamaican living in Portmore, St Catherine. In 1996, I was travelling to the United States with a fraudulent lost passport, stating that I was a green card holder living in the US. I was detained at the JFK airport and sent back home the following day.

My 27-year-old daughter has a green card, and she is now applying for her citizenship. Would she be able to file for me, and if so, what sort of help would she need?

S.S.

Dear S.S.:

Currently, only citizens of the United States who are over the age of 21 can petition for their parents for US permanent resident status.

Unfortunately, even when your daughter becomes a US citizen, she will not be able to successfully file a petition for permanent residency on your behalf. Your actions back in 1996 of using fraudulent documents to obtain US immigration benefits bars you permanently from the United States. You committed immigration fraud under INA Section 212 (a)(6)(C)(i). That fraud charge is permanent. it never goes away. time does not cure the fraud, and you are permanently inadmissible to the United States.

Any application for permanent residency in America on your behalf will be denied. However, under certain limited circumstances, you may be eligible to apply for a waiver of the inadmissibility. The petitioner would need to be a qualifying relative in order for the waiver process to proceed. A qualifying relative in the fraud determination would be a spouse or parent. In your case the petitioner/qualifying relative would be your daughter, and she would not qualify to proceed with the waiver.

In situations where there is a qualifying relative, that person would have to show extreme hardship in the United States that would only go away if you - the intending immigrant - can migrate to the United States and why the relative cannot relocate to your country to live with you. It is a high bar to overcome to document and factually and legally explain to the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services that you should be granted the waiver.

It is a harsh and potentially life-changing denial but a reminder that immigration fraud has severe consequences.

- Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq. is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States and family, criminal, International, & personal injury law in Florida. She is a mediator, arbitrator, and special magistrate in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com.