Elvatoloko

The information in this section is great. P

I would just like to address a few points:

1) CBP Officers (The uniformed officers who process you into the country upon arrival at all Air, land or sea ports of entry) are law enforcement officers empowered to enforce criminal and administrative sections of the US Code. Treat any questioning by them as speaking to the police.

2) Do not stress too much over what may get you sent to secondary inspection or not. Unless you have committed an actual violation of the law or are carrying contraband, you will be fine.

3) Attitude is everything. No matter what the attitude of the officer is, always keep a respectful and congenial tone. Keep in mind that their job is not that gratifying and not that easy. They are constantly placed under pressure to do things one way, then another and quickly too as they need to process hundreds of people in about 45 minutes. Also please understand that CBP is perhaps the federal agency with the LOWEST morale among all law enforcement officers. This is due to several reasons encompassing asinine management, mandatory overtime, short staffing and large workloads. If you think that you are being ill-treated, keep your composure and ask to see a supervisor. Supervisory CBP officers can be easily identified as their badge bears the legend ‘supervisor’ and their epaulets sport a golden or silver oak leaf.

4) Do not lie, and do not misrepresent anything. They are trained in interviewing entrants, they know the law and they will ask you the questions they need to ask. If they don't, it's not your fault.

5) There is much talk about constitutional rights on this thread. Please understand the following concepts:
-As an entrant to the U.S. you do not have an absolute right to
come into the country. It is not the responsibility of any U.S.
Government agency to demonstrate that you are admissible in
any category whatsoever, the onus is on YOU to prove that you
can enter the country. Hence, if you refuse to ask questions, you should be turned
away as you are the one making the request to enter the country and you are the one
who has to demonstrate that you are eligible to enter the country under the particular
visa category pursuant to which you are applying to be admitted.

- U. S. Constitutional protections apply to all individuals present on
U.S. soil. Those protections are not fully available to non-U.S.
Citizens or permanent resident aliens while being processed
for entrance at an airport, land border or seaport.

The 5th Amendment right to remain silent as delineated in the landmark decision in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) applies to individuals questioned about a crime who are in custody of the police or questionned during criminal proceedings. Asking to speak to an attorney before answering any questions in Primary or Secondary inspection will lead you nowhere other than being excluded at the border as you are not granted that right at that particular point and you are impeding the officer's ability to make a determination on your admissibilty to the country.


- You DO NOT have a RIGHT to counsel when being processed
during primary and secondary inspection at a Port of Entry
(POE). Here is an excellent paper regarding this issue on the
American Immigration Lawyer’s Association (AILA) website.

See: http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=9161

The jest of the legal concept is that the officer processing you in primary or secondary does not have the authority to bar you from entering the country as this happens in subsequent administrative hearings, during which you do have the right to be represented by counsel at your own expense.

- Immigration proceedings are administrative in nature and not
criminal at this stage, this means that a lower level of
constitutional protection exist. You do not get an attorney
appointed for free to represent you and the exact time when the
right to counsel attaches sits in a grey area in contrast to criminal
proceedings where you can be represented as soon as charges are brought.

6) Representation by counsel at consulates. You do not have the right to be represented by counsel while being interviewed for a visa at a consular post. The legal theory behind that is that this is not a criminal proceeding and that you have no particular guaranteed right to a visa as explained below:

The sixth amendment right to counsel, from which flows the right to "effective" counsel, is limited to criminal prosecutions and thus has no application in these proceedings. Mantell v. INS, 798 F.2d 124, 127 (5th Cir. 1986). The right to counsel as delineated in section 292 of the Act, 8 U.S.C.
§ 1362, is also limited to aliens who are in removal proceedings before an immigration judge and appeal proceedings before the Attorney General from any such removal proceedings and not in the case of non-adversarial interviews at a consular post.

Chapter 9, section 40.4, note 12.4 of the Foreign Affairs Manual provides:

Each post has the discretion to establish its own policies regarding the extent to which attorneys and other representatives may have physical access to the Consulate or attend visa interviews, taking into consideration such factors as a particular consulate's physical layout and any space limitations or special security concerns. Whatever policies are set must be consistent and applied equally to all.

For example, either all attorneys at a particular post must be permitted to attend consular interviews or all attorneys must be prohibited from attending interviews. Accordingly, there is no uniform practice or policy regarding the right to be represented by counsel during an interview for an immigrant visa; it is solely at the discretion of the post.

Elvatoloko

If you want to take the mystery out of procedures at consulates and ports of entry, you can consult the FAM (Foreign Affairs Manual), the FAH (Foreign Affairs Handbooks) and CBP Officer manual.

FAM:

http://www.state.gov/m/a/dir/regs/fam/

FAH:

http://www.state.gov/m/a/dir/regs/fah/index.htm

CBP Officer Field Manual

http://www.ilw.com/immigrationdaily/...8,0513-cbp.pdf

http://foia.cbp.gov/streamingWord.asp?i=910

http://foia.cbp.gov/streamingWord.asp?j=237

(This is not the complete manual as certain information is sensitive, for law enforcement only)



https://www.eff.org/sites/default/fi...ersearch01.pdf

Sharon_S

Lying will just jeopardize any future visa application. It is better to be truthful and explain and/or defend yourself as to why you had to do certain things. Lying is shortlived, it may get you to where you want on a temporary basis but the lies you have made may haunt you in the future especially so that there are documents to prove it.

3rdWaiver

I'm curious if anyone has experience here in challenging a fraud adjudication by the US Consulate and whether you have succeeded.

I asked this because I have been charged of misrepresentation when I entered the US on a tourist visa about 15 years ago then adjusted status when I found a job in the US. When I got out for an H1-B visa stamp, I was told that I am ineligible due to misrepresentation. Since then I have always taken the waiver path, but now I'm curious if I should have challenged that. Am I 15 years too late?

S Folinsky

Talk to a lawyer or two who has experience in this. By the way, your scenario is often a topic of hot debate in immigration legal circles.

glowie

Just a general question to this topic: Do the officers at primary inspection (the "regular" inspection on POE) record the questions they are asking and the answers they are given?
When I last entered (on a J-1, came back from a vacation) I was asked a bunch of questions about having a boyfriend over here and what would happen after my internship ends. Since I'm always nervous in these situations I said I had no boyfriend at the time (which was not true...) and that I'm not sure what happens after my internship (which was true) and that (at that time best to my knowledge) I would return home.
My question is aiming at: My boyfriend (which I denied to have in mid August) proposed to me last week and now I will be staying here and adjusting status.
Will the USCIS have any documentation of this "questioning" at my last POE?

ian-mstm

You must assume they do, whether they actually do or not.


Oh dear! It's never a good idea to lie to a US immigration officer. If you get caught in a lie, it will usually initiate a very unfortunate series of events.


Even if they do, so what? There's nothing to indicate that you didn't catch a boyfriend the day after you entered and that you've, perhaps, had a whirlwind romance.

First tidbit of advice: Don't ever lie to US immigration.
Second tidbit: Relax... this is probably a non-issue. USCIS is unlikely to check with CBP about questions asked when you entered the US. Why? Because, in a nutshell, it's not their job!

Ian

ian-mstm

Not true. Why? Because USCIS doesn't even look at your passport until such time as your visa has already been approved.

Why are you commenting on a thread that is well over 2 years old? At any rate, you're mostly wrong.

Ian

tom169

Don't know where this has come from. I have no other country BUT the USA in my passport.

Ricky81

Today I learn a lesson ! Thank you.

giri26

I agree. I lived in the US for 14 years and I never had any issues with immigration. I was never asked any questions at POE, never had issues with visa interviews, no problems either with my H1B extensions. When I went to US to do my masters in 2003, I had not travelled to any other country before. I never visited any other country till I got married. So it is strange when people say such things.

christmasoompa

If you look at the original post, you'll see it's been deleted as he was just a spammer, posting nonsense to get his post count up. Frankly it's better than some of the nonsense they post which doesn't even make sense or have any relevance to the thread in question.

But it's certainly not to be taken seriously.

HTH.

Rete

Then perhaps the sticky should be closed.