Immigration Corner | My visitor’s visa was cancelled, can my daughter file for me?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

My US visitor’s visa was revoked in February 2020 due to unauthorised employment in America and I got a five-year ban. However, my daughter is now a US citizen and wants to file for me to live with her in America. What are my chances of obtaining permanent residency in America?

CC

Dear CC,

Sadly, you are paying a dear price for what a lot of people take for granted, that is, travelling to America as a visitor and working without authorisation. Oftentimes, people are discovered because of their travel pattern – they go to America and spend months. They think consistently spending months at a time in America is OK because they do not stay beyond the six months they are given in their passport as the maximum time they can remain in America. Actually, if you are spending a significant part of a year in America, the presumption is that you are working in America unless you can prove that you are independently wealthy and are capable of supporting yourself without working.

In your case, you are barred for five years. If your daughter files a petition for you to migrate to America within the five years, you might need a wavier of the five -year ban/permission to reapply before the five-year ban expires. I say might because a lawyer needs to see the stamp in your passport and/or any documents you were given when you were returned to Jamaica to see the specific section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that you were accused of violating. You also have the option to wait out the five-year ban in Jamaica before your daughter files the petition for you to migrate.

Persons should also be aware that unauthorised employment can be a permanent bar to US residency even after the specific period ban expires.

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