PhilandJoy

I am confused and would really appreciate some guidance. Here goes: My husband and I have been approved for the I-130. We have another interview next week for the I-485. The problem is that my husband has a criminal conviction from 1997 in New Zealand. We believe that it should be classified as a petty offence but at the moment it is 212(a)(2)(A)(i)(I). After our interview for the I-130, the immigration officer sent us an I-601 to file but after speaking to an immigration attorney, she said to file a Motion to Reconsider. Also because we don't have many hardships and our I-601 letter would probably not get approved. Since we are going to an interview next week I'd like to bring both the I-601 and also a motion to reconsider to cover all my bases. I don't know anything about the motion to reconsider and I think I may need from I-290A but all I can find is I-290B. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Frank

Well

- 212(a)(2)(A)(i)(I) means inadmissible because of conviction of a crime of
moral turpitude. You don't say the offence so I'm going to assume its theft.
Regardless of how small the offence this clause applies.

- However it's a "petty offence" and meets 212(a)(2)(A)(ii)(II) if a number
of conditions are satisfied. 2 important conditions are (there was only 1
crime and the maximum sentence that could have been imposed was 12 months
jail).

- My understanding is that if you got a record which causes
212(a)(2)(A)(i)(I) to apply then its your responsibility to have suffient
police and court records to satisfy the con. officer that the petty offence
exception applies.

- So I guess your lawyer is telling you that petty offence exception
applies. So in addition to whatever motion the lawyer mentioned you'd also
need all those police/court stuff, along with some clear interpretation of
the offence in the context of the penalties would could have been imposed.
My opinion is its necessary to have a lawyer do that.

- I've also heard that I-601's are decided with respect to context, i.e.
factors such as severity and age of the crime have an impact.

- Perhaps as soon as the drama strike is over some of the lawyers who hang
here might offer tidbits of interesting facts (read: not advice).

Good luck - pls. give an update. I'm slowly working on a similar situation,
and I've decided to have a lawyer take care of it.

-F


--


"PhilandJoy" <member47544@british_expats.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected] m...
    > I am confused and would really appreciate some guidance. Here goes: My
    > husband and I have been approved for the I-130. We have another
    > interview next week for the I-485. The problem is that my husband has a
    > criminal conviction from 1997 in New Zealand. We believe that it should
    > be classified as a petty offence but at the moment it is
    > 212(a)(2)(A)(i)(I). After our interview for the I-130, the immigration
    > officer sent us an I-601 to file but after speaking to an immigration
    > attorney, she said to file a Motion to Reconsider. Also because we
    > don't have many hardships and our I-601 letter would probably not get
    > approved. Since we are going to an interview next week I'd like to
    > bring both the I-601 and also a motion to reconsider to cover all my
    > bases. I don't know anything about the motion to reconsider and I think
    > I may need from I-290A but all I can find is I-290B. Any help would be
    > greatly appreciated. Thank you!
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

souls canuck

well, petty crime is a good thing. if you have been convicted you have to file this waiver. I would take it very seriously. do some research and gather as much as you can. I can not comment on the motion to reconsider but I would think that's not going to happen. each case is different though so who knows.

sometimes you dont think something is a hardship but it is.
the amount of hardship needed depends on the seriousness of the crime. Even though I knew going in that the crime I committed was excusable I still had a lot of points and hardships.

hope this helps.

Frank

    > well, petty crime is a good thing. if you have been convicted you have
    > to file this waiver. I would take it very seriously. do some research

Wrong.

Depending on the offence and its possible penalties a waiver may not be
necessary just because you have a conviction

On the other hand you may be inadmissible and require I-601 even with a
clean record (where clean=no convictions), if you made an admission of guilt
for certain crimes with certain penalties.

This is not an area for quick and fast rules of thumb such as
"conviction=>need waiver".

-F