If I Had an Order of Deportation, Can I Get a Legal Status?
Andres Mejer, immigration attorney, answers a question from a previous live. The question was: If I have an order of deportation, and I’m married to a US Citizen, can I achieve a legal status? The answer is YES, you can. However, there are conditions you must meet.
Transcript (Transcripción):
Andres Mejer: Now in the prior program we had a couple of questions. One of them was if I have an order of deportation already but I’m married to a U.S. citizen can I achieve legal status? The answer is yes you can. The problem with that is let’s say I have an order of deportation from 20 years ago I came, crossing the border with Mexico. I was released I was told to appear in court and I didn’t. 20 years go by. I meet my wife. She’s married to me and I say listen I know I didn’t tell you before but I’m here illegally and I have an order deportation already. So my wife can follow me. The first part is gonna be document that relationship. Now here’s the problem. In this climate, they’re going to call me for an interview before that first stage. At the interview. Ice is gonna be there and they’re going to try to deport me. So I need to be prepared with a stay of removal. I need to be prepared with a file a motion to reopen that prior order of removal. I need to have all the documentation have my attorney reviewed it to figure out what the best strategy is or I’m going to file for a waiver and I tell the officer, Officer,.here’s the waiver that I have ready as soon as you approve my dad to show them the marriages is real. We have two kids and we’ve lived together for 13 years. I have that information now. You need to approve this so I can go to the next stage and the officer will approve it but I might get detained by ICE they might put up a bracelet on me. They may give me time to prove my case. Or they may not. You know if I served 20 years in jail for murder and now my wife’s a U.S. citizen applying for me. I’m screwed. It’s just that simple. I will be disqualified for any form of relief because of my past. So you need to evaluate what your options are and you gotta know that you can’t just show up without an attorney when you have an order of a rule because you will be picked up. It has happened to clients of ours. Well, when I say clients of ours I mean they start the process with a former attorney and then went to the interview without their attorney. When it was not told by their attorney that ICE would be there and then ICE detained him and then they come to us. Now it’s a whole lot harder to fix it in that scenario. I don’t have the proofs that are in the documentation. You know it becomes harder. I can’t do any of the preliminary work that they otherwise would do. But document the relationship. Either motion to reopen or an I-212 waiver. Once the waiver is approved. Then I go for an I-601 waiver for unlawful presence then he leaves the U.S. does the consular process route. So when you’re prepared ice typically will not pick you up unless there’s some significant you know criminality that’s involved. If you have any questions put him down below. Subscribe to our channel. If there’s a subject you want us to talk about in the future. Put it in the comments we’ll review it and maybe we’ll talk about it in the weeks to come.
