What’s the skinny on the U visa?

[Amhara 460]

Hello everyone,

 

 I heard a story of a person in the US on a student visa applied for a green card by claiming to be a victim of a crime in the US.  Seriously?  I found the U visa, which seems to have very loose standards and takes about two years.

 

Does anyone want to share their insights, opinions or experience on this visa?  Seems like an easy way to stay in the US.  Just make up a crime, let law enforcement waste resources and it’s all good.  For those that are actually assisting a crime, that’s good!  But smells ripe for abuse.  If a crime actually occurred, we shouldn’t hold the witness responsible for the results of a case, but one could easily make their own way.

[bakphx1 789]

That's pretty risky.  Filing a false report is harder than it sounds.  It's also a crime in itself.   If someone took the risk , they could also be permanently barred from re-entry if it didn't go as planned.  And it's not hard for something to mess up that plan.  Once there's a sign of abuse of something like that, it would mean it's a privilege taken way due to abuse.  I wouldn't advise anyone to try it. 

[Hypnos 6,576]

A local, state, or federal law enforcement agency is required to certify your assistance to obtain a U visa. They don't just do that for anyone who walks in off the street claiming knowledge of who's been stealing candy from babies. It must be a serious criminal offense, such as kidnapping, rape, or murder. 

 

So, to answer your question, no, U visas don't have "loose standards", but are there to ensure that undocumented victims of serious crime do not feel as if they have no recourse under the law. 

 

U visas are numerically limited to 10,000 per year, and you need to wait three years before you can apply for AoS based upon it. 

 

You make it sound as if people apply for it and then drop by to receive their green cards a couple of weeks later, when nothing could be further from the truth. 

Edited December 2, 2017 by Hypnos

[Amhara 460]

I didn’t mean the application is a fast one, but while they wait, the applicant has a legal status; nearly as good as a GC as they wait for their case to get processed.  Then, even if they are denied, deportation procedures can take years.

 

But you make a good point about it being a serious crime with those examples.  The story I was told was the person claiming to be robbed and assaulted.  I didn’t see anything on the USCIS site saying what sort of crime it must be. I would like to believe that the law enforcement officials would need to verify that the applicant is a crucial part in bringing the case to justice.  While a robbery and assault is bad, I just don’t see how it would warrant a U visa.  Extreme cases always exist, but it just seems weird.

 

 I also cannot put it past that some unethical “preparer” is selling “immigration cases”.

[Amhara 460]

Well, felonious assault is a qualifying crime:

https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/victims-human-trafficking-other-crimes/victims-criminal-activity-u-nonimmigrant-status/victims-criminal-activity-u-nonimmigrant-status#Qualifying Criminal Activities

[Boiler 45,418]

Seems to be a lot of dodgy cases and the way it is set up is ripe for fraud.

 

Similar to VAWA.

Edited December 2, 2017 by Boiler