Immigration Corner | Can a person travel while they’re being filed for?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I saw your column in The Gleaner, and I must commend you for highlighting many of the immigration questions we are faced with. Please, can you advise my friend on this situation?

He is being filed for and he wants to travel overseas for the summer. Is it safe for him to travel? He said he is awaiting a date for an interview at the American embassy. The National Visa Center is in contact with the local visa centre. That is the information he received in regards to the filing, and this was approximately three months ago. Can you advise him accordingly? Thanks in advance.

– Concerned Friend

Dear Concerned Friend,

If your friend has a valid United States visa, he is free to travel. All persons with a visa are authorised to legally travel to a US border and request permission of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer to be admitted to the United States. The CBP If your friend does decide to travel, he should check the availability of a visa to get an idea if or when a visa/green card is available. He should also ensure that he can return to Jamaica in time to have his immigrant visa medical exam conducted and attend the interview at the US embassy. As you may be aware, there is a backlog of visa interviews due to the pandemic and that an interview is a precious commodity that should not be missed.officer can deny that request for entry for a variety of reasons, and among them is if the officer believes that the non-immigrant will enter the United States and not leave at the end of their period of stay or otherwise abuse their non-immigrant visa.

MIGRATION INTENT

When someone has a pending immigrant visa petition, they are considered as having an intent to migrate. That intent can be incompatible with a non-immigrant intent to visit the United States and leave. However, if the non-immigrant can provide evidence to the CBP officer (if asked), they can be permitted entry into the United States. Some persons believe that once they are being filed for, for US residency, they cannot renew their non-immigrant visa or travel to the United States temporarily with a visa. They can, but it is up to the discretion of a consular officer to renew their visa or the CBP officer to admit them into the United States.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a diversity and inclusion consultant, mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com