Immigration Corner | What should I do with my application?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

A Jamaican-born father is married and lives in the USA with his wife who is a US citizen. However, the father’s adult children who currently live in Jamaica, do not know their father’s immigration status. The only information they know is that an application was made for him to obtain a green card. However, to date, the father does not have a green card and has been in the USA for over five years.

The adult children are scared to make a non-immigrant visa application for a business trip (job related) because they don’t want to expose their father to any possible ICE raid, in declaring they don’t know their father’s status on the visa application form.

Would you be so kind to share your advice to the children in navigating this concern?

Best regards,

– K.

Dear K.,

It does not usually take five years for a person to adjust their status from an overstay visitor to a green card holder – unless there are complications with the filing.

You did not clearly say how your father arrived in the United States – did he actually arrive on a visa and overstayed, or did he enter without inspection. This difference will materially alter if and how a person can regularise their status in the United States. If he arrived with a visa and overstayed, he could adjust his status with an immediate relative petition – e.g., a US citizen spouse. If he arrived without inspection, he would require a provisional waiver approval before returning home for his immigrant visa interview, and this process takes a significantly longer time.

Behind your questions is the presumption that you have not communicated with your stepmother, who as the US citizen petitioner would have all the answers. It is not uncommon for stepparents and stepchildren to have a strained relationship – at any age. However, the information you seek is critical to your employment and should be shared with you, but you cannot compel this information from your stepmother. Also, why does your father not know his immigration status? Or is it that he does not wish to convey the information to you either?

The immigration status of your father is important because as you have expressed, if his status is unknown and relayed to the US in your visa application, it could present an issue for him – if he is undocumented. This could also present an issue for you if the consular officer believes that you are lying or that you will take the same path as your father and not return at the end of your stay. I strongly suggest a conversation with your father and stepmother, or have other family members intervene.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq. is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com