Immigration Corner | Can my wife get another visa?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I always read your articles and found them very informative. My wife travelled to the US on her non-immigrant visa in 2022. When she landed in New York, she was pulled aside and questioned. The officer told her that they were going to cancel her visa and send her back. She told them that she did not want to go back home. They put her in a detention centre for about three weeks and told her that she will see an immigration judge who will determine if she should remain in the US.

After her temporary stay at the detention centre, she was released to family members in New York and a tracking device was placed on her. She called her detention officer and told them that she would like to voluntarily leave the US on her return ticket, without any expense to the US government.

She is now safely back in Jamaica and her visa has been cancelled. How long after can she re-apply for another visa and re-enter the US? Or, can she apply for a waiver? Thanks for taking the time to read my email. I’m looking forward to your reply.

BW

Dear BW

Thank you for being a regular reader of this column.

Your wife needs to have a consultation with an immigration attorney because there are many questions to be asked about what happened while she was in America. Why was she denied entry into the United States? What reason did she give Customs and Border Protection why she was sent to a detention facility? How was she processed out of the United States?

Did your wife claim that she feared returning to Jamaica and then withdrew that claim in order to request to return home? Did she have an initial Credible Fear Interview and was released with an ankle monitor? The answers she would supply would inform the attorney’s advice.

Regardless of the answers to the above questions and others that the attorney might pose, your wife was obviously found inadmissible to the United States at the time of entry – the cancellation of her visa. This means that she would not be able to simply apply for a non-immigrant visa and be granted without a concurrent filing of a non-immigrant waiver and approval of same. Applying for a non-immigrant waiver has the same subjective process as a non-immigrant visa itself. Keep in mind that no one is entitled to a non-immigrant visa or to a non-immigrant waiver. The reasons for the waiver would have to be compelling, and, even then, the US Embassy in Kingston may not grant same.

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