GET TO KNOW HOW A CRIMINAL CONVICTION AFFECT YOUR IMMIGRATION CASE

Introduction

If you or a loved one gets busted for a crime in the United States, it could mess with your life for a very long period. In other words, if you or a loved one gets into any trouble with the law, is charged, or is convicted, that could mess with your immigration status in a big way. For instance, you could lose your job visa and/or your green card.

You could even, as a US citizen, lose your citizenship, go to jail, or worse, get a criminal record.

If you do get caught and you are already in the US, you may be deported and denied admittance back for many years. Therefore, you should always look out for your rights. If you or someone you know has been facing a criminal charge, an excellent idea is to find a lawyer immediately.

A criminal conviction has a severe immigration impact. It carries a bunch of really complicated legal issues, all of which a lawyer can help you out with. An immigration lawyer can advise you about the best way to keep yourself out of trouble.

If you have ever faced a criminal conviction, it may seriously impact your possibility of staying in the US due to its immigration impact. Immigration laws are really confusing, and what happens to an immigrant upon conviction of a crime depends on a combination of factors that include their immigration status, the date the crime occurred, and the nature of the crime.

It is crucial to learn how the criminal and immigration systems interact; a possible immigration impact of a criminal conviction may be your removal from the US forever.

This post provides details of some of the immigrationimpacts of a criminal conviction so you can avoid messing up your immigration status.

What is a criminal conviction?

A criminal conviction can have a serious immigration impact. In addition to the possibility of paying a fine or going to jail, you might also risk being sent back to your home country if you are not a US citizen and could lose your immigration perks.

Usually, if you are accused of a crime, you can either say you are not guilty or agree to the charges without contesting them. However, if you are not a US citizen and you admit to certain crimes by pleading guilty, you could end up facing deportation.

The INSA explains that being convicted means a court, judge, or jury has officially decided you are guilty. If a non-citizen is found guilty or has admitted enough to be considered guilty, the judge decides on a punishment, fine, or any other restrictions on their freedom.

If you are worried about whether you have any criminal convictions and their immigrationimpact, an immigration lawyer can help you figure that out.

Key immigration impacts of a criminal conviction

If you have a criminal conviction, there are two key immigrationimpacts on your status. First, you might not be allowed to enter the US, and second, you might be deported.

What does it mean not to be allowed in?

If you are not admissible, entry into the US will be denied. In other words, you will not get the chance to adjustment your status to get a green card here and changing of status is not possible.

Even if you are leaving the US with a green card and you want to return, you will be considered not admissible. This basically means that an individual coming from any other country and trying to get any form of immigration status in the US should not be allowed in due to a criminal conviction

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services also have the power to exclude someone from the United States if they are not allowed to enter the country. Of course, this would include all foreign nationals, including non-US citizens who have been convicted of certain crimes, as may be determined by the said agency.

What are the crimes that can get you on the inadmissibility list?

Anything that has to do with a criminal conviction could have a negative immigration impact. It can mess up with your immigration status. Drugs, human trafficking, prostitution, and money laundering are examples of crimes that could put you into the not-allowed category. It can also be a crime if it involves working for a foreign government, attempting to enter the US for an unlawful purpose, or selling illegal goods, technology, or sensitive information.

Criminal conviction and removal from the US

Another way that a criminal record can mess up with your immigration status is that it might render you removable from the US. For all intents and purposes, this means being kicked out. This is for those who are here on a visa and are not seeking to renew it when it expires or move somewhere else.

Being removable refers to those individuals who are in the US on a valid visa but get expelled or kicked out due to some criminal record. It also refers to the people who enter the US with a valid visa but later lose a valid visa.

What crimes can get you kicked out of the US?

Some criminal convictions carry the immigration impact of automatic removal. These criminal convictions are for crimes involving moral turpitude or of a felony, including an aggravated felony. An aggravated felony will automatically make you removable as soon as a criminal conviction is reached, regardless of whether or not you have served any jail time.

• Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude (CIMT)

A CIMT is actually a type of crime that is committed intentionally or with recklessness. Crimes that fall under CIMT include: assault upon a child or police officer, murder, rape, arson, animal torture, car theft, and the list goes on.

Perjury is among the first and second-degree CIMT. If you are guilty of any of them, you must be probably not good. But if you can prove to the court that it was not your fault by means of evidence, like police reports and another witness, you would probably get away with it.

• Serious crimes.

If accused of serious crimes your matter will be taken to the court house and you could be sent to prison. This can be in addition to the withdrawal of your green card and prohibition from coming back ever into the US.

One thing is important here, the type of crime, your record, and punishment given to you are kept in consideration, generally imprisonment of more than a year is a grave danger, though you might have already served some time in it.

This contrasts with what the law says, as well as past court decisions, on matters relating to serious crimes. If one is found guilty of a serious crime, this implies an inability to get any immigration help; it does not mean that one is out of luck.

You can also try to apply for help if you are able to demonstrate that, if sent back to your country, there exists at least a 51% chance that you will be tortured. To do this, you would wish to go over your background and then ascertain whether you are likely to succeed using this. An immigration lawyer can help you with this.

Other immigration impacts of a criminal conviction

If you get busted for a crime in the US, you may have some major immigration problems: You may not be admissible to the US, and you could be deported. Depending on your criminal conviction, there are many other immigration impacts on your immigration status.

One might have to spend time in jail, be barred from returning, lose the chance to become a US citizen, lose the right to request a judge to review their case for removal, be subject to an expedited process, and even harsher penalties if caught re-entering.

If you think that you have a criminal conviction, do not lose hope. You can get through it with the help of an immigration lawyer.

Fighting your criminal conviction

If you are not certain whether you have been convicted and the immigration impactthat follows, it can make a great deal of sense to reach out to an immigration lawyer. You are entitled to appeal your conviction of the case or request immigration relief.

If you fall under the threat of deportation, there is a way out to be sought, such as asylum or suspension of deportation. Depending on the severity of the criminal conviction, the situation may seem tough; however, it is not hopeless. In this respect, an immigration lawyer can consider what type of relief you are eligible for and also prepare and present your case to immigration officers.

Get help!

Getting into the immigration process can be tough, but if you have a criminal conviction, it just makes things even more complicated. It is really important that you get someone who knows what to do to handle these tricky immigration issues.

To keep your plans moving forward without waiting around for a long time, reach out to an experienced immigration lawyer at Gehi and Associates for a quick chat.

We will learn all about your situation, offer you some good advice on how to move forward, and guide you through every step of your case. Schedule a free first meeting with us today!