Immigration Corner | I bought a visa in 2004, now I can't travel to the US

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I was found inadmissible to enter the United States back in 2004 as I tried to travel on a document that was not in my name (bought bad visa). The documents I got when I was being returned stated that I would be inadmissible for a period of five years.

I have applied for a visa three times since then and I am still being denied. I recently applied in May of this year and the consular officer advised me that I could qualify for a waiver and gave me a pink sheet of paper. She kept my passport, advising that she would have to submit it for further administrative processing. On June 28, they responded that my visa was refused and they would be returning my passport.

At first I thought I was being denied because my husband was an LPR back then. He handed in his green card this year and applied for a visa for himself and our two kids and they were successful.

I know each case is different, but can you say why or what do I need to do to clear this hurdle. It's been 14 years and I have been gainfully employed since then with the same company as an operations manager. I am married, I have two kids and I own my own home. I have no previous criminal record. I did this one stupid thing back then when I wanted to visit my husband when he was living in the US.

The first time I had applied I was turned down, as they said I did not have sufficient ties to my country. (I was about 19 or 20 years old). I have since travelled to several countries, but not to the US because of this. Can you help me?

- DC

Dear DC:,The purchase of a visa is a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act and is deemed immigration fraud. This act of immigration fraud makes you inadmissible to the United States and never goes away. The passage of time will not cure the fraud, and any subsequent visa (immigrant or non-immigrant) would only be issued if the United States government grants you a waiver of your inadmissibility. This means that you would never be able to just walk into the US Embassy and be granted a visa - without a waiver.

As an applicant for a visitor's visa, in addition to your application for a B1/B2 visa, you would also have to apply with a Non-Immigrant Waiver (NIW). There is no specific form for an NIW, but it is a written factual and legal argument as to why the US should waive your prior actions and allow you to enter the United States in a temporary status. Among the factors that the Consular Office will consider in granting an NIW are, how recent and how serious are the actions that caused your inadmissibility, and whether your admission would be contrary to the national welfare of the United States.

NO ENTERTAINMENT

An NIW does not fit any specific regulations and like a non-immigrant visa itself, is left to the wide-open discretion of the consular officer. It is important to remember that no one is entitled to a non-immigrant visa and that even if you demonstrate that you have significant ties to your home country, you can still be denied the visa.

If you were to be the beneficiary of an immigrant visa application, you would be eligible for a waiver if the petitioner was your parent or your spouse and could demonstrate that they were experiencing extreme hardship. That the hardship would go away with your migration and that the qualifying relative couldn't relocate to Jamaica to live with you are the other components of the immigrant waiver.

The five-year inadmissibility period is a bar to applying for a visa. If you applied before the five-year period, you would be required to file an additional I-212 - Permission to Reapply for Admission into the United States After Deportation or Removal.

It is a harsh penalty to be exposed to a permanent bar (without the grant of a waiver), but one that needs to be known so that others do not go down the road of committing immigration fraud.

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