Utah Immigration Legal Questions

Your question requires an attorney consultation. It is not a simple question that can be answered on this type of forum. There are many factors that would need to be considered and evaluated I strongly suggest that you boyfriend contact an experienced immigration attorney for a face-to-face consultation and give him/her all of the facts surrounding his situation. (S)he would then be in a better position to analyze his case and advise you of your options.... Read More

His conviction would probably not prevent him from leaving the country. The State Department can deny a U.S. passport to citizens who have certain convictions, but unlawful use of a motor vehicle is not a conviction that would require an automatic denial. As for whether Australia would accept him, you would need to consult with an Australian lawyer.... Read More

In my opinion, it is always better to maintain a legal nonimmigrant status even if one has already applied for an adjustment of status for the green card. In the event that something goes wrong with the I-485 filing, a person's status in the States may still be seen as lawful if he or she is still maintaining legal nonimmigrant status.Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee, Esq.'s (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.     ... Read More

The visa controls the periods of time under which you and your wife can enter the country; it does not control legal status once you are here. That control is exerted by U.S.C.I.S. As long as you are maintaining F-1 status, you and your wife are both legal and your wife is eligible to change her visa status from F-2 to F1. She would make the request of U.S.C.I.S. on form I-539 with payment of fees of $200 for the SEVIS form and $290 for the application.Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee, Esq.'s (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.  ... Read More

From the dates in your question, it seems your B2 visa expired on 0/18/2008. You had filed an I-129 but it was later denied. That means you were out of status as of the expiration of your B2 visa in 2008. Even though you filed the H3 petition, once it's denied, the denial is effective as of the date of filing. You left the US in May of 2009, so you accrued more than one year of illegal presence. Therefore, you now have a 10-year bar to reentry into the U.S. Since your F2B priority date is current, you can apply for an immigrant visa now, but you will have file an application for waiver of the 10-year bar. To file the waiver application you must show that a "qualifying relative" (U.S. citizen or Resident Spouse or Parent) would suffer extreme and unusual hardship if you are not granted a waiver.... Read More

When your I-129 was denied, you were rendered out of status from the date your original admission (I-94) expired, i.e., from 1/22/2008. You accrued unlawful presence through 5/2009, for over a year, and are under the statutory 10-year bar. This is the law; now lawyer can change it; and the only competition possible in this case is in creative distortion of the truth by individuals hungry for your money. Since you already have an interview notice, you have little to lose by going to the embassy. You have a (very small) chance that the interviewer will be tired or incompetent and will overlook your inadmissibility. You also have an argument that you were waiting for adjudication of your I-129 and should not be penalized for it. The argument is a losing one because you stayed in the U.S. almost six months after your I-129 was denied. But, again, the consular officer might be inattentive or incompetent, so you might get lucky. Considering the high stakes and the negligible costs, the interview should not be neglected, but you need to be fully prepared for a denial.... Read More

Immigration can provide you a copy of your entire file through the Freedom of Information Act, and that file may contain a copy of your birth certificate, but immigration cannot certify the birth certificate--only the agency that issued the certificate in the first place can certify it.  So if Utah needs a certified birth certificate, you'll have to get a copy from Mexico (which you can do through the Mexican consulate here in the US).... Read More

If your mother is a green card holder, her petition for you is under F2A "unmarried adult son/daughter of an LPR" that means you must remain unmarried and if you do, the petition is automatically void since a necessary condition for getting a green card in that category is that you must remain unmarried... Read More

You have the burden of proof in immigration cases, which means that you have to prove that the person you are petitioning for is related to you. In this case, you have to show that the person is your son. If a child is born in marriage, then all you have to prove is that. However, for a child born out of wedlock, then as a father, you have to prove that it's your child, through a DNA test. So if your son was born out of wedlock, and the DNA test doesn't match, then yes, they can deny the visa.... Read More

There are many passes to get to the information you need. One of those is through affidavits from people who knew you, worked with you, spent some time with you, and still living in the US. You would have to conduct first investigative services, collect documentation. I believe, you won't be able to do it without a help of a private investigator and then an attorney who will put it all together for you.... Read More

You will have to try knocking on every door: your parents and you must have left a paper trail of your presence in the U.S.; and tax returns are not nearly the last hope. Your strong hopes are Social Security Administration records and the records of the Border Patrol (which was supposed to keep track of your parents' and yours exits from the U.S. and re-entries). Use Freedom of Information Act to request these records.There might be still available residence leases, insurance records, Registry of Motor Vehicles and voter registration records, newspaper subscriptions, utilities' accounts, public library membership records, etc. Also, do not neglect asking your parents' employers and your own employers to search their personnel records. If you can recall which medical office and/or hospital and which dentist were taking care of your and your parents' health, the medical records can establish your presence in the U.S. just as conclusively as tax returns. Finally, if everything else fails, you can try submitting sworn statements of the people who knew you during your years in the U.S. and can testify to your presence here.... Read More

To show your physical presence in the United States, you can use any documentation that you may have. For example, you should be able to get social security administration report on your earnings in the U.S. You an also, use things such as your rental receipts (if you rented an apartment, etc.), or if you don't have those, you can maybe get letters from the landlords. If you had a bank account, you can get records of that. If you worked, you should be able to get letters from the employers about your work in NY. If you went to school, the schools would have records of your schooling, etc. You could also provide affidavits from people who could testify that you were in the U.S. during those years.... Read More

To prove residence from 1965 - 1968, you can submit your old passport to show that you left the US in 1968, which implies that you were living in the US prior to that. You can also submit your mother's records, such as tax returns, social security statements, banks accounts, leases, etc. to so that she and you were in living in the US at the time. To prove residence from 1985 - 1987, you can submit your social security statement instead of your tax returns, because social security keeps track of your reported income for future benefits. In addition, you can also submit copies of your bank records, leases, affidavits, driver license record, property titles, etc.... Read More

She can obtain the marriage certificate from the county recorder's office of the county where they were married in California.   However, if he was never legally divorced, the marriage was void ab initio, which means it had no effect, no marriage.   Is it a deportable offense?  She may want to report it to the authorities.  Whether it is a deportable offense or not, I would need to research it.  I know that it is not indicative of good moral character and could bar him from U.S. citizenship if it happened within the five years prior to his naturalization application; it may also be taken into consideration even beyond the five years.      ... Read More

No, not immediately unless you are married and a visa is available 'at the time' that the paperwork is approved at USCIS, the National Visa Center and the U. S. Consulate/Embassy. In August, the numbers will be current for such applicants who have completed 'all 3 steps!' It can take a year or more. Many have yet to complete the first step. You may want to consider all options with a competent immigration attorney.... Read More