How To Get A Visa For An Illegal Immigrant

Some people come to the United States for work, some for school, and some just because they wanted a change. Whether the reason is good or bad doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have an illegal immigrant in front of you and you need help getting them a visa.

The main question that illegal immigrants have is how do they get a visa when they are already inside the United States? An illegal immigrant can apply for a visa while they currently live in the United States.

There are a lot of people who want to come to the US, outside the process. A lot illegal immigrants live in fear of being deported from the US, or do not want to leave their families behind. They try to enter the country illegally such as crossing the borders over land or sea.

Illegal immigration is a hot topic in the United States. Whether it is through human smuggling, family unification, or by way of visa overstays, there are many reasons for illegal immigrants to be living in the U.S. While some hold these individuals’ presence as a burden to society, others see them as hard-working people who make important contributions to the country by working menial labor jobs that most Americans are not willing to do at minimum wage levels.

A visa is a document issued by a government agency that establishes the rights of someone to enter, leave, or reside in a foreign country. This includes authorization to work, study and immigrate. They are based on specific types of relationships that a person has with others.

How To Get A Visa For An Illegal Immigrant

Entering the United States without approval from U.S. immigration authorities is illegal. So is staying in the U.S. without permission after a visitor visa, work or other visa, or other authorized stay has expired. Even violating the terms of a legal entry to the United States can make a non-citizen’s stay illegal.

U.S. immigration law offers few options to go from being an illegal or undocumented immigrant to a U.S. permanent resident (with a green card). We briefly describe the most likely possibilities below, but you should see an attorney for further help.

Undocumented Immigrants Might Qualify for Green Card by Marrying U.S. Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident

Entering into a valid, bona fide (real, not sham) marriage with a U.S. citizen (of the same or opposite sex) makes you an “immediate relative” under the U.S. immigration laws. An immediate relative is theoretically eligible for a U.S. green card just as soon as the person can get through the immigration application process. However, your current illegal status in the U.S. could create problems.

If you are in the United States illegally because you stayed past the expiration date on a valid visa, rather than having entered illegally (without inspection), consider yourself lucky: Your legal entry qualifies you for an exception, under which you should be able to apply for your marriage-based green card without leaving the United States, using a procedure called “adjustment of status.”

If, however, your most recent entry into the United States was illegal; for example, you crossed the U.S. border in secret, without stopping at an inspection point; you have little chance of adjusting your status to permanent resident based on your marriage. That’s the law’s way of punishing people for unlawful entry. The exception is if you are covered by some very old laws, such as what’s called “Section 245(i)” (get a lawyer to analyze this).

If you aren’t eligible to use the adjustment of status procedure, you will have to attend the interview for your green card (which is the last step in the application process) at an overseas U.S. consulate in your home country (called “consular processing“). However, at that point the consulate could penalize you for your illegal U.S. stay, with a time bar on returning to the United States. The penalty is either to spend three years outside the United States if you stayed in the U.S. illegally for six months (180 days) or more; or to spend ten years outside the United States if you stayed in the U.S. illegally for one year or more.

If you haven’t yet been in the United States illegally for six months or more, you might want to leave right away in order to make use of the consular processing possibility.

If you have already spent more than six months in the United States illegally, talk to an immigration lawyer. You might qualify for a “waiver,” (legal forgiveness, ideally on Form I-601A if no other grounds of inadmissibility are a hurdle in your case). A waiver would allow you to reenter the United States right away after your consular processing interview, but this waiver is hard to get. You would need to prove that your being denied the immigrant visa (green card) would cause extreme hardship to one or more of your U.S. citizen family members.

Undocumented Immigrants Unlikely to Qualify for Green Card by Marrying U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident

Getting married to a lawful permanent U.S. resident (a green card holder rather than a citizen) will also technically make you eligible for a U.S. green card, but because you could are not an “immediate relative,” you cannot use the adjustment of status procedure. That means you’d have to go through “consular processing” as described above, with all the risks that entails.

Undocumented Immigrants Might Qualify for Green Card or Citizenship by Serving in the U.S. Military

If you serve honorably and on active duty with the U.S. Armed Forces during one of the wars or conflicts named below, the law allows you to apply for U.S. citizenship. You don’t have to go through the usual step of applying for a green card first. You must, however, enlist (sign up) while on U.S. territory, such as the Canal Zone, American Samoa, Swains Island, or a noncommercial U.S. ship.

The conflicts that qualify you for immediate U.S. citizenship include:

• World War I (April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918)
• World War II (September 1, 1939 to December 31, 1946)
• the Korean hostilities (June 25, 1950 to July 1, 1955)
• the Vietnam hostilities (February 28, 1961 to October 15, 1978)
• the Persian Gulf War (August 2, 1990 to April 11, 1991)
• “Operation Enduring Freedom” (otherwise known as the “War on Terrorism” or “Iraq Hostilities”), which began September 11, 2001 and will end by order of the U.S. President.

Undocumented Immigrants Might Qualify for Green Card by Requesting Cancellation of Removal in Immigration Court

If you are arrested by U.S. immigration authorities, you might be able to avoid removal, and receive a U.S. green card, if you can prove all of the below:

• You have already been physically present in the United States for at least ten years.
• You have been a person of good moral character during those ten years.
• Your removal from the U.S. would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to your spouse, parent, or child who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
• You aren’t disqualified from cancellation for one of a variety of reasons, such as that you have committed one of various types of crimes or immigration violations, have persecuted others, have been a member of a totalitarian or communist party, and so on.

Don’t attempt to apply for cancellation of removal on your own. It is available only if you are already in immigration court (removal) proceedings and facing deportation. You’ll definitely need a lawyer’s help in this situation.