Visa Lawyer Blog
As some of you may know, immigrants who entered the country illegally without a visa or without inspection may not seek Green Cards (Permanent residency) from inside the United States. Even if they have a U.S. citizen spouse or parent to petition for them, it will be difficult unless the pending petition was filed before April 30,2001 (when the Section 245i law was still active). Instead, they must leave the United States to obtain an immigrant visa at a consulate abroad. But once they leave the country, they generally trigger a three-year or 10-year bar to re-entering the country.
This was the topic of my most recent radio interview, where I discussed the above referenced issue with two of my clients present in the studio with me. The wife, who was brought illegally to the the US at the age of 5, hoped to obtain permanent residence based on her marriage to a U.S. citizen, but has to return to her home country to apply for an immigrant visa because of her unlawful entry into the United States. We prepared the I-601 waiver application for her and established, among other factors, that her husband will suffer extreme hardship if his wife is not allowed to return. Her I-601 application will be reviewed in April and we will keep our readers and radio listeners posted.
Listen to the show here