to get a us immigration attorney

[Patricksgirls 0]

We are soon going to get married and file a CR1. My fiance has a former criminal history from 30 years ago and the US is aware of it for border waiver petitions. We wanted to do this all by ourselves but now I am wondering if we should not go through an attorney since he has a criminal history. It has been pardoned by the Canadian government but from what I understand the US does not recognize this pardon. His crime was for theft and he did serve some prison time. Basically it was him acting out as an emotionally distraught young man. He has since picked himself up and served and very lucrative life owning a business in Canada. If we did it ourselves would we immediately file the 601 with the cr1?

[ghanagal 2]

Call Marc Ellis if you are worried about it , he will hook you up. www.marcellislaw.com

[charity1214 3]

Unfortunately, I can not offer any advice or help, but I do wish you luck! It's a shame how our pasts can come back to haunt us... if only I could teach that to my children and save them from unknown hardships in their futures.

[Patricksgirls 0]

Thanks for the info on Marc Ellis. He actually highlighted another problem that we may have which is divorces that are recent although mine is more from a custody battle and his is more he was separated for five years and could not find her in Germany to file. I will definitely contact more attorneys to see that this goes as painless as possible.

[Krikit 1,165]

You'll probably get more help in the Waivers forum than in the Canada Regional forum so I'm moving your thread there. Welcome to VJ.

[Used to be broken 147]

We are soon going to get married and file a CR1. My fiance has a former criminal history from 30 years ago and the US is aware of it for border waiver petitions. We wanted to do this all by ourselves but now I am wondering if we should not go through an attorney since he has a criminal history. It has been pardoned by the Canadian government but from what I understand the US does not recognize this pardon. His crime was for theft and he did serve some prison time. Basically it was him acting out as an emotionally distraught young man. He has since picked himself up and served and very lucrative life owning a business in Canada. If we did it ourselves would we immediately file the 601 with the cr1?

Welcome, it seems you are in good company as several recent posters are dealing with the situation and also going through the Canada consulates. The "hang up" seems to be that the consulates are not sure how to deal with situations that fall into a "gray area" . It appears there is a 'petty theft exception" in US Immigration law that allows you to circumvent the waiver process which is NOT FUN and takes a long time. Not sure if its your hubby posting as well but one of the other cases involves a very old past criminal history for which the person has had non-immigrant waivers.

The first issue you are going to come up against is "if" you will qualify for the waiver based on the crime committed and the laws that allow exceptions to the rules. Not sure if the date of the crime is an issue or if it happened so many years ago that it somehow doesn't matter, or if the laws are more lenient for a non-immigrant waiver than an immigrant waiver, but I like you am very anxious to find out, so please come back and tell us what your lawyer has come up with.

I would try to find an attorney who deals with this often not just a regular Immigration attorney but someone who specializes in criminal issues because they will have the case law and you need someone who is really good on this specific issue.

good luck and like I said come back and tell us how it is developing. Here is what we have been batting around on the petty theft exception:

Section 212(a)(2)(A) of the Act sets forth, in pertinent part, the ground

of inadmissibility relating to crimes involving moral turpitude and the petty

offense exception as follows:

(i) In General

Except as provided in clause (ii), any alien convicted of . . . —

(I) a crime involving moral turpitude . . .

is inadmissible.

(ii) Exception

Clause (i)(I) shall not apply to an alien who committed only one crime if—

. . .

(II) the maximum penalty possible for the crime of which the alien was convicted

. . . did not exceed imprisonment for one year and . . . the alien was not sentenced

to a term of imprisonment in excess of 6 months (regardless of the extent to which the

sentence was ultimately executed).

[JAPrincess 27]

If we did it ourselves would we immediately file the 601 with the cr1?

You would not file the waiver until he was denied and found inadmissible at his CR1 interview.. if you can afford an attorney by all means get one!

Laurel Scott has a lot of experience with waivers, and they are doing $10 consultations the 1st 2 weeks of November. http://www.scottimmigration.net

Good luck on your journey