Immigration Corner | Why was I refused a visa?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I was told at my visa interview that I had overcome my inadmissibility, but was refused a visa under Section 214(b).

1. I overstayed in the US in 2001; I stayed 14 months.

2. I was charged for shoplifting in 2004.

Is there any chance of getting back a B1/B2 visa?

– MR

Dear MR,

The 14 months’ overstay in the United States in 2001 made you inadmissible to the United States. That inadmissibility was triggered when you left the United States and amounted to a mandatory 10-year bar to returning to the United States. As you reapplied for a US visa 10 years after your overstay, the inadmissibility was no longer an issue.

However, the fact that you did spend 14 months in the United States and were out of status in America does lead the US consular officer to conclude that you have an intention to migrate – that you would do so again. As per INA Section 214(b), all applicants for a non-immigrant visa to the United States are presumed to have an intention to migrate, that is, to travel to the United States on the non-immigrant status and not return. To overcome that intention to migrate, applicants must convince the consular officer that they have significant ties to their home country and also of their stellar US visa history – if they have one.

You did not indicate your ties to Jamaica. Unfortunately, you also do not have a stellar US visa history. You previously abused your visa privileges by overstaying and accruing unlawful presence in America, and this would lead a consular officer to presume that you once again would not depart the United States after your allotted time to stay in the country.

Additionally, you incurred a criminal charge while in America on either a temporary or unlawful status. This, in and of itself, can also be grounds for the non-issuance of a US visa.

These issues can be overcome if you have a very plausible, objective and sound explanation for why you remained in America beyond the time permitted, and why you incurred the shoplifting charge. Not an easy endeavour by any stretch of the imagination; and also, one must remember that a non-immigrant US visa is a privilege and not a right. Therefore, the consular officer in his/her discretion does not have to issue a visa or renew one.

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