Massachusetts Immigration Lawyer Blog

Boston deportation defense lawyer

In a recent immigration consultation, I faced the following situation:

A young man entered the United States on a visitor visa and then fell out of status after overstaying. His brother gained U.S. citizenship and then filed an immigrant visa petition, Form I-130, on his behalf. The young man suffered from serious health issues, which were covered by MassHealth. So, with these facts, the family asked me whether there was some way to expedite the process of getting a green card for the young man.

In my view, this young man will face at least three major issues when seeking a green card.

First, according to the Department of State's most recent Visa Bulletin, an immigration petition filed on behalf a brother or sister is not likely to become current for a long time--10 years or more! And in the meantime, this young man, as the beneficiary of this petition, couldn't obtain a work permit or social security card. Since he is out of status, he could be put in deportation proceedings. An Immigration Judge could order him to be deported and his pending visa petition wouldn't protect him from being deported. And, regardless of this person's medical condition or other compelling equities, I'm not aware of any way to expedite this sort of case. The time frame is what it is. You are bound by the cruel reality of the visa bulletin. In immigration law, as in many other areas of life, no short cuts exist.

Second, since this person is out of status, he has accrued unlawful presence. Therefore, even if he were properly admitted and inspected into the U.S., he would be inadmissible and, thus, wouldn't be able to obtain a green card within the U.S. One exception to this ground of inadmissibility would be for what is called 245(i) cases. But 245(i) requires that the visa petition be filed on or before April 30, 2001.

Third, once the priority date for this visa petition becomes current, since this person can't obtain a green card through adjustment of status, he would have to consular process, i.e, seek an immigrant visa at a U.S. consulate abroad. But if he were to leave the U.S., his unlawful presence would render him inadmissible and, therefore, result in the denial of his immigrant visa application. To cure the inadmissibility, he would need an immigration waiver, Form I-601. To qualify, he would have to have a U.S. citizen anchor relative and show that his U.S. citizen immediate relative would suffer "extreme hardship" if he weren't allowed to return back to the U.S.  Of course, successful waivers are challenging to prepare.

For more information about how to get a green card through a family member or if you need advice or guidance on other immigration issues, call me and set up a time to meet.

Boston Deportation Defense Lawyer

The big news today is that my Boston immigration lawyer video is now up and live on Youtube and can be found here.  This video couldn't have happened without the help of lots of talented people. But I owe an especially deep debt of gratitude to my former immigration clients--Hakim, Nerlande, Ade, Paxton and Silvia and Nurahmed.  Your kind words humble me and remind me why I love being an immigration attorney.

Please let me know what you think of my video.  And if you want to gain U.S. citizenship, need help with an immigration waiver, representation in deportation hearings in Immigration Court or advice on your immigration options, call me at 617-722-0005.

Boston Green Card Lawyer

You just got married--congratulations. Now, based on your marriage to a U.S. citizen, you want to apply for a green card through the adjustment of status process by filing an I-485 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But there's one tiny problem: a few years back, you knowingly used someone else's U.S. birth certificate (from Puerto Rico, for instance) to get a Massachusetts driver's license.

As an immigration attorney in Boston, I come across this problem frequently. The question is: will fraudulently obtaining a Massachusetts driver's license by using someone's valid U.S. birth certificate prevent you from getting a green card? The answer is yes. And if you ask me know how to get a green card after getting a state driver's license in this fraudulent manner, I would simply tell you that it can't be done.

Let me explain why. The Immigration and Nationality Act contains a ground of inadmissibility, at Section 212(a)(6)(C)(ii), for anyone who falsely represents himself or herself to being a citizen of the U.S. for any purpose or benefit, or any other federal or state law. Note that the misrepresentation must be "falsely" made--it's possible that you might honestly but incorrectly believe that you are a U.S. citizen. Also, keep in mind how broad this ground of inadmissibility is. Under this standard, you would be inadmissible if you falsely claim to be a U.S. citizen in connection with obtaining ANY benefit under federal or state law including, for example, misrepresentation on Form I-9 or voting.

Does the false claim to U.S. citizenship ground of inadmissibility applies to your particular case? The answer depends on the facts of your case. It's a question best answered by a good immigration attorney because there is absolutely no waiver for false claim to U.S. citizenship.

If you are wondering whether false claim to U.S. citizenship might apply to your case, please contact my Boston immigration law office at 617-722-0005. Make an appointment to meet with me. I'd be happy to help you.

When I go to Immigration Court in Boston, my goal is to protect my clients from deportation. I work hard to explore all options, to come up with a winning strategy and to prepare my cases in a way that ensures success. Of course, I want my clients to come away with a green card.

But the sad reality is that for some people who must appear in Immigration Court, the facts of their particular cases render them ineligible for any relief from deportation. For such cases, there is simply no way under the current immigration laws to prevent deportation. And, when faced with limited options, many lawyers routinely ask the Immigration Judge for an order of voluntary departure.

Voluntary departure permits a person to leave the United States voluntary and it removes a bar to inadmissibility that would otherwise result from being deported, i.e., receiving an order of removal. The consequences of being deported are indeed severe. If you receive an order of removal, you would be inadmissible for 10 years. And this 10 year bar runs from the date that you are physically removed from the United States, not the date that the Immigration Judge ordered your removal.

Although voluntary departure may help you avoid deportation, the consequences of failing to comply with a voluntary departure order may be worse than deportation itself.  Consider that a person who is granted voluntary departure after 1996 but fails to voluntarily leave the United States may face:

• civil penalties including fines of $3,000; and
  
• a 10-year bar from important immigration options such as cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, and change of status;
  

Also, it is harder to file a motion to reopen or reconsider a voluntary departure order, although this issue has been the subject of extensive litigation and new regulations.

These stiff penalties for those who violate an order of voluntary departure do not apply to people who are given orders of removal or deportation.  And what's worse, once a person fails to voluntarily leave the U.S., the voluntary departure order then becomes an order of removal or deportation.  If such a person decides to leave the U.S. after failing to depart voluntarily as required, this later departure is considered "self-removal," which is the equivalent of deportation.

Sure, voluntary departure may sound better than deportation.  But if an Immigration Judge gives you an order of voluntary departure and you fail to depart, you may end up in a worse position than someone who simply receives an order of removal or deportation.  You should not consider voluntary departure unless you are truly prepared to leave the United States, preferably in consultation with an immigration lawyer and as part of a strategy to return to the US.  The decision becomes complicated because many people who are in deportation proceedings face additional grounds of inadmissibility for being unlawfully present in the U.S.

In short, voluntary departure is relief from deportation.  Yet given the harsh consequences, for most people, I consider voluntary departure to be a cure that is worse than the disease.

Need advice about voluntary departure in Boston Immigration Court or other immigration law issues?  Call me at (617) 722-0005 and set up an immigration consultation in my Boston law office.

With my experience as a Boston immigration lawyer, I know that many people in Boston and throughout Massachusetts mistakenly believe that marriage to someone with U.S. citizenship is a relatively easy and fast way of obtaining permanent residency or green card status and other immigration benefits.  Stop by City Hall in Boston, pick up your marriage certificate and you are automatically entitled to a green card.  And it is believed that once you get married, a work permit will arrive soon after you put your immigration petition in the mail.

Despite this persistent fantasy, a green card through marriage often proves to be difficult path.  For starters, it can be extraordinarily hard to convince U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at the Boston District Office that your marriage is truly based on a real and bona fide relationship.  The immigration authorities will be expecting you to produce extensive documentary evidence that you and your spouse have a shared life that involves love and companionship and that your relationship is not just a sham to obtain permanent residency.  At a bare minimum, you can be sure that USCIS will scrutinize all Massachusetts public records to confirm that you and your spouse truly live together in marital union.

Once you get to an immigration interview at USCIS Boston District Office, you may encounter what is called a Stokes interview.  If this occurs, an immigration officer will interrogate you and your spouse separately with an identical set of probing, personal questions.  In this game, there are no wrong answers.  But if the answers that you and your spouse provide don't match, your immigration case will be denied.

Every so often, I'll have an initial immigration consultation in my office in Boston where the potential clients tell me, quite frankly, that their marriage is bogus and then try to enlist my help as an immigration lawyer with the marriage-based green card process.  This would be a kin to a criminal lawyer advising someone how to rob a bank!  Furthermore, aside from the obvious ethical considerations, an immigration petition based on a fake marriage is very unlikely to be approved by USCIS.  The reality is that I have enough difficulty getting USCIS to approve petitions based on marriages that are truly genuine.

Anyone thinking of trying to get a green card based on a fake marriage would do well to remember a line from Mickey Rourke's character in the film Body Heat, which I once heard paraphrased by a Boston Immigration Judge:  "when you commit a major crime, you got fifty ways you can screw up, and if you can think of 25 of them you're a genius, and, counselor, you ain't no genius."  No matter how smart you think you are, USCIS is smarter.  If you can come up with 15 ways to prove that your sham marriage is genuine, USCIS will probably be looking at dozens of other pieces of information, any one of which will blow your cover.

The likely result is that you'll get caught and your immigration application will be denied.  But a denial is not your only risk.  Marriage fraud is a specific ground for deportation.   It gets worse:  under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a fraudulent marriage finding may bar the approval of a subsequent immigrant visa petition.  To understand why this penalty is particularly harsh, let's imagine, for instance, that after the petition based on fraud is denied, the would-be immigrant gets divorced and remarried to another U.S. citizen.  This second marriage is a real marital relationship.  This couple continues to live together for 10 years in utter marital bliss and have 5 beautiful U.S. citizen children together.  In this scenario, the marriage fraud penalty would generally stop this person from ever obtaining a green card.  Immigration waivers for marriage fraud are extremely limited.

And it could be worse!  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents investigate marriage fraud and prosecute U.S. citizens and foreign nationals for criminal violations.  Severe penalties for marriage fraud include sentences of up to 5 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

In short, when it comes to marriage fraud and a green card, the risk of getting caught is high and the punishment severe.  It's blatantly illegal.  And it's unethical.   For these and other reasons, my best advice as an immigration attorney is to steer clear of marriage fraud.