Immigration Corner | Should my friend return to Jamaica?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I am writing to you on behalf of my friend who is presently in the USA, and has been for the past four years. Her daughter has been filing documents on her behalf to legalise her continued stay in the USA.

There appears to have been several errors made in filing the documents by her daughter.

She filed a change of status which was refused. She is now telling her mother to return to Jamaica and visit the US Embassy to collect her papers. Shouldn’t there be an official notification of this requirement?

Is there any further information that you would need to assist her in this matter?

Please let me know, so that we can get your advice and assistance in the matter.

RC

Dear RC,

Without knowing what errors have been made with your friend’s petition, I strongly encourage your friend and her daughter to seek the services of a US immigration attorney immediately, and most definitely before the mother picks up and leaves the United States.

If someone enters the United States legally – with their own visa, 99 per cent of those persons can apply to adjust their status if they are being filed for by a US citizen immediate relative. Those immediate relatives are spouses, parents and minor children of US citizens. This application for adjustment of status for the above-listed persons is possible even if the intending immigrant has overstayed their allotted temporary time in America.

Any person who has overstayed their temporary period of stay in America and leaves the country is subjected to a mandatory bar – three years if you overstayed for six months or more, and 10 years if you overstayed for more than a year. To overcome that mandatory bar, the intending immigrant would need to be approved for a waiver of that bar.

The distinction and decision on whether to leave the United States after being out of status is incredibly important, because it can effectively lead to the intending immigrant being unable to return. Care should also be given even if there is notification that the immigrant should return home for an interview, because if they leave without first securing a waiver, they will still be subject to the bar although an interview notice was given. It is not the responsibility of the US government to advise that you need a waiver before leaving.

The mother and daughter need to get that immigration lawyer immediately before making any life altering decisions.

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