Immigration Corner | How can I get my visa back?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I was in the United States on a B2 visiting visa, and I got deported in 2004. I used to stay up to six months, but immigration took away my visa. I tried to reapply five times and the embassy turned me down. Can you help me get back my visa, please? Please let me know how to obtain my visa back. Thank you.

MH

Dear MH,

I have to constantly remind anyone who wants to visit the United States that a US visa is a privilege. It is not a right. The US visa belongs to the US government, and they can issue, revoke, cancel, and deny at their discretion. This means that as an applicant for a non-immigrant visitor’s visa, the consular officer has wide discretion on what decision he/she makes regarding an application – either first-time applicants or renewals.

The consular officer makes a subjective decision on whether an applicant has enough ties to their home country that if they issue the visiting visa, the applicant will visit the United States and return as indicated. There are times where even if an applicant can demonstrate that they have significant ties to their home, the consular officer still denies the application. It can be very frustrating for applicants when they are denied US visas and most often are not told why the application was denied.

As attorneys, we can assist applicants to prepare evidence of their ties to their home countries, but because the process is so subjective, guarantees cannot be given to applicants.

In your situation, you indicated that you were deported, but you also said your visa was taken. You also indicate that you would remain in the US on your visitor’s visa for up to six months. When a person travels to America on a visitor’s visa and is granted six months at the airport to remain in the country, that is for convenience. For example, if you were given three weeks and something came up and you had to remain six weeks, you would have overstayed your permit. Giving a visitor the convenience of being able to remain up to six months for a legitimate reason does not mean that you should.

There are people who use those six months to work without authorisation in America and return to their home country. There is a presumption that that is what happens when someone spends months in America and those persons often either have their visas revoked or they are denied the visa renewal. If a months-long period of stay was necessary, it is recommended that you travel with that evidence on any subsequent visits to the US and/or at the time of your visa renewal.

An attorney can assist with a non-immigrant visa waiver if there is a ground for which an applicant is inadmissible and the attorney can address that ground in a waiver. However, there are times when a person must come to terms with the fact that they may never receive a visa or a visa renewal.

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