Breaking the Terms of Your Green Card

Fraud and Willful Misrepresentation

You can commit fraud if you lie to get some sort of immigration benefit. However, any statement or depiction of the facts that is not entirely accurate can lead to serious issues with immigration and even the loss of your permanent resident status.

Immigrants could commit fraud when creating an application, providing supporting documentation, during interviews, or exchanging information with immigration officials. It might happen when there are other immigration incentives available besides permanent residency.

Examples of immigration benefits that USCIS assesses for possible fraud include parole, employment authorization, change of status, and extensions of nonimmigrant stay. Fraud involving marriage and visas are two of the more frequent ways people lose their permanent resident status.

Marriage Fraud

Immigrants know that marriage to a citizen of the United States is the fastest way to get a green card. Therefore, dishonest people use it as a means of deceitfully obtaining permanent residence. There are numerous types of marriage fraud as identified by the USCIS:

• Someone pays a citizen of the United States to marry a foreigner.
• A citizen of the United States marries a foreigner as a favor.
• A foreign national defrauds a citizen of the United States who thinks their marriage is legal.
• Mail-order unions in which either the U.S. citizen or the foreign partner is aware that the union is fake.
• Visa lottery fraudulent marriages.

Nonimmigrant Visa Fraud

Most foreign nationals seeking a nonimmigrant visa for the United States must show that they have a return trip in mind once their intended programme or activity is complete.

This requirement, known as nonimmigrant intent, calls for the person to have a domicile overseas that they have no plans to leave.

A 90-day rule is used by the U.S. Department of State to assess situations when a nonimmigrant seeks to change status or amend status to permanent resident. The 90-day rule is a kind of guideline that states that if someone breaches their nonimmigrant status or acts in a way that is inconsistent with that status within 90 days of entrance, there is a presumption of fraud.

For instance, it would be against the rules of the visa to enter the country on a B-2 visa with the intention of getting married and then filing Form I-485 to change status.

Criminal Convictions

Not all criminal convictions result in the loss of a person’s status as a lawful permanent resident. There are several criminal offenses that are more likely to result in removal proceedings for a permanent resident (usually violent crimes).

There is no definitive list of crimes that will lead to expulsion. Only a skilled immigration lawyer can evaluate a particular circumstance and offer advice. In general, authorities have the right to deport someone from the U.S. if a person is:

• Found guilty of a crime of moral turpitude and committed within five years after the U.S. admission date or ten years if the person got a green card as a criminal informant and can be punished by a sentence of at least a year.
• Convicted of two or more crimes involving moral turpitude after entering the United States, as long as the crimes weren’t the result of a single misconduct.
• Found guilty of an aggravated felony after entering into the United States.

It should be noted that this is not an exhaustive list of criminal acts that could cause your deportation from the U.S. For certain people, renewing a green card after an arrest can be challenging. Speak with our immigration lawyers about your particular situation by calling us on +1 844 290 6312 or contact us online for immediate assistance.

Living Outside the U.S.

Generally speaking, you will lose your status as a permanent resident when you spend more than 12 months outside the country. In fact, even brief absences have the power to lead to abandonment. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have the authority to initiate removal proceedings against you if they discover upon your return that you intended to reside outside of the country. Removal may also result from failure to submit income taxes to the IRS while residing outside the United States.

Yearly people unintentionally forfeit their green card status when they go back to their country of origin. This is because they may need to attend school, tend their medical needs or even care for a sick family member. Therefore, this leads to the most common way they lose their permanent resident status if they don’t plan or prepare for it rightly.

Failing to Remove Conditions on Residence

On the expiry of their two-year green cards, conditional residents who do not remove the conditions on their residency are typically removable. A two-year conditional green card may have been granted to certain foreign investors or married spouses who came to the United States from abroad.

So, the conditional permanent residents must submit a petition to lift the conditions in order to keep their status as permanent residents. They must file the petition in the 90 days prior to the card expiration. The conditional card is nonrenewable.

Voluntary Abandonment of Green Card

You have voluntarily abandoned your status as a lawful permanent resident of the United States if you have ever submitted Form I-407. Form I-407 (Record of Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status), is submitted by several thousand people each year.

The primary motivation for submitting Form I-407 is to avoid having to pay the U.S. taxes. To learn more about the long-term effects of their conduct, anyone who chooses to do this should speak with an immigration lawyer and a tax expert. Other former United States immigrants simply decide they want to depart from the U.S. permanently.

• Fail to register as sex offender.
• Committed marriage fraud.
• Violated the terms of your visa or were inadmissible at the time of U.S. entry or of adjustment of status.
• Intentionally helped to smuggle a foreigner trying to enter the U.S. within five years of the period of any U.S. entry or before or during that time.
• Had permanent resident status that is conditional. This was applied to certain sons, daughters and spouses of the U.S. citizens, including investors or entrepreneurs with their children and spouses. However, this status has been terminated.
• Have been found guilty of an aggravated felony in the U.S. at any time after admission.
• Got married less than two years before being granted a U.S. green card because of that, then had the marriage terminated or nullified within the following two years.
• Have ever been found guilty of two or more crimes of moral turpitude after entering the United States, as long as the crimes weren’t the result of a single act of misconduct.
• Got convicted of a moral turpitude-related crime that was committed within five years of the date of your admission to the United States. Or ten years if you were given a green card for serving as a criminal informant, and have a minimum one-year prison sentence for offenses.
• Have been convicted for evading an immigration checkpoint at high-speed.
• After entering the United States, found guilty of a drug crime (or a conspiracy to conduct one, or an attempt to do so), whether in the United States or another nation.
• Have imported foreign nationals for immoral reasons or violated certain travel and documentation restrictions.
• Found guilty of illegally buying, selling, possessing or engaging in transactions concerning, destructive devices, weapons or firearms at any time after being admitted into the U.S.
• Have been a drug addict after being admitted to the United States. To be subject to deportation under this law, no actual judicial conviction is required. Evidence on a medical report or the individual’s own admission of drug use may suffice.
• Have violated the Trading With the Enemy Act or the Military Selective Service Act.

• Have a criminal record that includes convictions for at least five years in prison for espionage, sabotage, treason, or sedition, or for conspiring to commit one of those crimes.
• At any time in the U.S. convicted of domestic violence, child abuse, child abandonment or child neglecting and stalking after the U.S. admission.
• Cannot provide written notice of a change of address to U.S. immigration officials within ten days of the transfer, unless you can demonstrate that the delay was excused or not intentional.
• Have violated the provisions of a protective order intended to stop repeated harassment, bodily injury or credible threats of violence.
• Are found guilty of crimes involving fraud and the abuse of visas, permits, and other entry documents, as well as of supplying false information in connection with an obligation to register with U.S. immigration officials.
• Are engaged in, or have conspired to engage in, severe forms of human trafficking within or outside the United States; or you are the trafficker’s spouse, son, or daughter and have, within the past five years, knowingly received financial or additional benefits from the illegal activity.
• Got a final order of deportation for document fraud, forgery, counterfeiting or related violations.
• Your presence in the U.S. could have extremely negative effects on foreign policy.
• Falsely claims to be a citizen of the United States in order to receive an immigration benefit or another type of benefit.
• Have engaged in, or appears to be planning to engage in, terrorist conduct. Or you have incited terrorist activity or are a representative of a terrorist organization or group that encourages or espouses terrorist activity.
• At any time just after admission into the U.S. engage in sabotage, espionage or violations of the law that prohibits export of technology, goods, or sensitive information or other criminal activities that are dangerous to national security or public safety. Or tries to overthrow or control the United States government forcefully, violently of other illegal means.
• Took part in Nazi persecution, genocide, torture, or extrajudicial killings, gravely violated the right to practice one’s religion, or recruited or used child soldier.
• Have voted in defiance of any state, local or federal law. voted against any municipal, state, or federal laws. People who reasonably thought themselves to be U.S. citizens based on parentage are exempt from this rule.
• After five years of entering the U.S. have developed a public charge (reliant on government help based on need) for issues that did not start until after your admission into the U.S.

Purpose of Travel Outside the United States

Your reason for leaving the country will be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not you abandoned your LPR status. An LPR should typically “have a definite reason for proceeding abroad temporarily.” For instance, you might have taken a little vacation or visited a sick relative while traveling.

Length of Absences from the United States

Although an extended departure from the United States alone does not prove that LPR status has been abandoned, the duration of an extended absence is an essential factor. It becomes increasingly challenging for an LPR to show an intent to return to the United States and live permanently in the country the longer the LPR stays outside the United States.

The LPR’s visit outside the U.S. should terminate within a relatively short period. If unanticipated events result in an unavoidable delay in getting back, the trip keeps its temporary form, so long as the LPR continues to intend to return as soon as the main goal of the visit was achieved. For those residing abroad (outside the U.S.), yearly visit to the United States, does not preserve LPR status.

Intent to Return to the U.S. as an LPR

Your intention to live permanently in the U.S. is the main consideration in deciding whether you abandoned your LPR status. Instead of the duration of time spent abroad, the emphasis is on the intent (as shown by your conduct and objective conditions).

You must have planned on moving back to the U.S. either as your permanent residence, a place of employment, or a location of your business. You must not only have the intention to return to the United States at the time of departure, but also must continue to have this intention during the time of your visit abroad.

Continued Ties to the United States

You should have several ties to the country that shows a desire to live in the U.S. permanently, such as:

• Submitting federal and state income tax returns as an American resident.
• Maintaining a residence and business connections in the US.
• Keeping a driver’s licence with a registered U.S. address.
• Residing U.S. family members (U.S. citizens), LPRs, or who are applying for citizenship or LPR status.

Additionally, USCIS examines if you have any links outside of the United States, such as:

• Family members living in another country that are close to you.
• Property and connections to businesses abroad.
• Voting in elections held abroad.
• Campaigning for office in a foreign nation.
• Occupation with a foreign company or government.
• Frequent and lengthy travel outside of the U.S.

You may raise a rebuttable presumption that you have abandoned your LPR status if you voluntarily claim “nonresident alien” status to be eligible for special exemptions from income tax liability or do not file either state or federal income tax returns because you consider yourself to be a “nonresident alien.”

You may refute that assumption by providing sufficient proof that you didn’t give up your LPR status.

Prove the following to show a persistent intent to maintain your permanent residence status:

• Having family links, such as spouses, school-going children, or other relatives who legally live in the U.S.
• Owning of rentals, real or personal property in the U.S.
• Having a job, education, or training in the U.S. currently or recently.

Overview

If you (a non citizen) at the time of your initial entry and admission, or subsequent reentry and admission, were lawfully admitted for permanent residence under the applicable laws (but today wouldn’t be eligible for LPR status due to a change in law) are still regarded as having been lawfully admitted for permanent residence for the purposes of INA 318. However, this will not apply if the relevant law clearly states otherwise.

Case Law

Between the time you are lawfully admitted for permanent residence and the time USCIS decides on your naturalization application, new case law may alter how the law is implemented.

There may be differences in how new case law is interpreted and applied. In some situations, new case law may cause your admission to be lawful even if it would have been unlawful at the time of the decision (prior to the new case law).

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act

The amending or addition of grounds for inadmissibility came into effect on September 30, 1996 through the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA).

Prior to the effective date of a certain Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) provision, you are exempted from the new or modified inadmissibility grounds in that provision if you were accepted as an LPR or changed your status to that of an LPR.

Generally speaking, even if the application had been judged to be inadmissible under IIRIRA, if you had been an LPR before September 30, 1996, you would still be regarded as legitimately admitted for permanent residence.

The following are a few of the categories of inadmissible foreign nationals and grounds of inadmissibility that IIRIRA added or modified:

• Student visa abusers.
• non citizens present without admission or parole.
• Failure to attend removal proceeding.
• Certain aliens previously removed.
• Unlawfully present non citizens, including some who did so after prior immigration violations.
• Falsely claiming U.S. citizenship.

INA 245(i) Statutory Sum

For adjustment of status qualification under INA 245(a), you must prove that you have been inspected and paroled or admitted into the U.S. and under INA 245(c) you are not barred from adjustment of status.

If you either entered the U.S. in a particular manner, status or committed a certain act or immigration law violation, the adjustment bars in INA 245(c) may apply to you. However, if you entered the U.S. without admission, parole, inspection or barred from adjusting your status by INA 245(c), you may qualify for status adjustment under INA 245(i).

To qualify under INA 245(i):

• You must be the primary beneficiary (or a beneficiary by descent) of an approved immigrant petition or labor certification application that was filed on or before April 30, 2001.
• Unless you are exempted from paying the sum, you must pay a statutorily required sum.
• You (primary beneficiary) must have been present physically in the U.S. on December 21, 2000, if such labor certification or immigrant petition was filed after January 14, 1998.

The Immigrant Visa Availability at Time of Filing for Adjustment of Status

An immigrant visa must be available to you at the time of filing and final adjudication to be eligible for adjustment of status under INA 245(a).

An immigrant visa must be instantly accessible to the applicant at the time of filing and at the time of final adjudication in order for the applicant to be eligible for adjustment of status under INA 245(a).

Until the Departmenr of State (DOS) allocates the immigrant visa number, an officer may not approve an application for adjustment of status as a preference immigrant.

If a visa was accessible at the time of filing and decision and the officer approved the adjustment of status application, but at the time of adjustment an officer did not ask DOS for the visa number or DOS had not yet assigned a visa number, USCIS considers the applicant to have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence despite the error.

If the officer misidentified the class of admission code at the time of adjustment, but the applicant still had access to an immigrant visa right away, and there was no applicant misrepresentation, USCIS still regards the applicant as having been lawfully admitted for permanent residence. The officer in this situation needs to change the admission code’s class.

Overview

Except for specific applications for naturalization based on military service, USCIS may not consider the merits of any naturalization application for an applicant who is undergoing removal proceedings.

An applicant who is the subject of a deportation or removal order is also ineligible for naturalization, with the exception of those applications for naturalization based on military service.

Rescission

The LPR status of a candidate for naturalization who was not qualified for the adjustment of status to that of an LPR may be revoked, or the candidate may be subject to removal procedures.

The officer is obligated to reject the naturalization application in accordance with INA 318 and INA 316(a)(1) upon the rescission of the adjustment of status or if an administratively final order of removal is issued against the applicant.

Deportable non citizens

If an officer notices that a naturalization applicant is deportable, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issues a Notice to Appear (NTA) when issuance would be consistent with established guidelines. The officer should reject the naturalization application when the NTA is submitted to an immigration court on the grounds set forth in INA 318.

Pending Removal Proceedings

USCIS is not authorized to give naturalization to an applicant who is the subject of an ongoing removal proceeding brought about by an arrest warrant, except for applications regarding naturalization based on military service. Except in the 9th Circuit, an NTA serves as a warrant of arrest for the purposes of INA 318.

Final Order of Removal

If you have been subject to a final order of removal from an Immigration Justice (IJ), USCIS will deny you a naturalization application, except:

• You left the country and were later ordered to be deported after being legitimately admitted for permanent residence under a different visa than the one you were initially admitted under.
• The order has been vacated.
• You may qualify for naturalization under INA 329(a) for particular honorable service in the U.S. armed forces, or if you are currently serving, you may qualify under INA 328(a) for naturalization based on such honorable service.