Immigration waivers. This was something that I wanted to share with all of you to give you more
information about what is an immigration waiver, when do you have to file one, what is the
process, and what you have to show. There's many different kinds of immigration waivers and by
waiver, there are things that you might have to ask forgiveness for from immigration.
Immigration has a book of all of their laws called the Immigration and Nationality Act
and in that long book of laws, there is a list of problems that a person might have
in their immigration history or in their past that could impact their immigration application.
We know a lot of people on our YouTube channel and our Facebook group are concerned with
whether or not they would need a waiver or whether or not they're eligible or whether or not they
have a problem in their immigration past or in their history that could impact their case.
What we do as immigration attorneys when we meet with couples
we go through all of the things in their past that could possibly impact their application
and we look at that long list of problems that a person could have from the Immigration and
Nationality Act and decide first, are you eligible or do you have something in your immigration past
or in your history that would need a waiver. There are some things in that long list of immigration
that can be forgiven and then there's other things that aren't able to be
forgiven. When I'm talking about immigration waivers, I'm talking about the parts of
immigration, the issues that a person could have that they can ask forgiveness from immigration
by asking for a waiver. There's so many things on that list but I'd like to highlight
just a few of the common ones. A lot of people ask about, "If I had a tourist visa denied in
the past, will I need a waiver? Is that a problem?" A waiver is needed if there was
fraud or misrepresentation in your past and that is basically a fancy way of saying if any time in
the past, you've ever lied to immigration or misrepresented something to immigration,
then you would have to ask for a waiver for that. Staying in the country
without documents is something else that sometimes needs a waiver. It's very fact-specific but some
people need something called a provisional waiver to ask for forgiveness for that time in
the US without documents. Like I said, it's very fact-specific but in general
that is what an immigration waiver is. Asking forgiveness for something
that happened in your past and when you need one is when you have one of those issues
in your immigration history that you need to ask forgiveness for. To determine whether or
not you'd need one, you would definitely want to talk to an immigration attorney
so they can go through your past and help you understand whether or not you're eligible
if you are and you have one of those issues whether or not you need a waiver. The other
thing I wanted to discuss with you is how you can apply for a waiver. That's really going
to depend on the type of waiver you need. There are different types of forms, there are different
types of waivers. It will really depend on whether or not you had if it was fraud or
misrepresentation or if you need a waiver for time in the US without documents. How do you apply?
It will really just depend on what type of violation you have. A lot of people
ask, "What do I have to show to be forgiven? Do I just have to show that I'm a good person or what
would immigration be looking for in a waiver?" Again, I know I keep saying it really depends
but it does. In general, one of the things that we have to prove a lot with our couples
if there's a person who has an immigration violation in their past, one of the main
things that we have to prove to immigration is not only that the person deserves it, that they
are a person who made a mistake in the past but they don't have any other criminal history and
they regret that mistake. We also have to show that their US citizen
spouse or lawful permanent resident spouse would suffer if the person isn't able to receive their
green card to be able to live together in the United States. That's just a very quick
overview of waivers. It's a very complex area of immigration law but most importantly, I just wanted
all of you to know that if you're worried, if you think you have something in your immigration past
that could cause a problem, definitely just talk with an immigration attorney. One of
the things we do, we would go over in detail your past and we'd help you to understand
whether or not you have an option to ask forgiveness from immigration.