Immigration Corner | When can I return to the US?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

How do I go about getting a shoplifting case off my record? I was told that I would have to wait for three years before I could travel again; and next year will make it three years since I was convicted. What procedures should I follow?

SB

Dear SB,

Your email does not have all the facts, but if you are asking about travelling back to the United States after you lost your visa due a shoplifting case in America, let me answer that.

A non-immigrant visa is a privilege not a right, meaning that the US government can refuse to issue or renew a non-immigrant visa, or they can revoke a visa, once issued. If you are fortunate enough to be granted a non-immigrant visa and travel to America and commit a crime, you have then given the US government reason to not want you in the country. Your visa can be revoked, or you can be denied entry when trying to return to America.

If you were stopped at a port of entry trying to enter the US on a non-immigrant visa, after committing a crime, and returned to your home country, you must wait five years before applying for permission to return to America. If you wish to apply for a visa to return before those five years, you will need special permission by way of a waiver for that five-year bar.

You would also need a non-immigrant waiver for the inadmissibility due to your conviction for shoplifting. I know that some people downplay shoplifting as a misdemeanour, but it is still a ground of inadmissibility that would require a non-immigrant waiver. Some consular officers are understanding if the circumstances permit, and will allow a person to receive another visa after a shoplifting charge, but others are not.

Removing the case from your record – expunging the conviction – does not remove it from immigration.

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