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Visa Q & As

Please reach us at e.roa@att.net if you cannot find an answer to your question.

Mr. Roa wrote a regular column, "Visa Q & As", that appeared in the print and online editions of the Mindanao Current - a local paper that was published in the city of Cagayan de Oro, Philippines. Following are reprints of some of the articles - updated as needed. 

    

In all likelihood, the immigration officer at the port of entry probably thought that your true purpose for going to the U.S. was to marry your boyfriend. Since what you had was a tourist visa, which is used only for the sole purpose of visiting the U.S. for pleasure, you did not have the correct visa.. Section212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended, provides for the inadmissibility of any immigrant who at the time of application for admission is not in possession of a valid unexpired immigrant visa or other valid entry document required by law. Hence, you were found to be inadmissible for not having the right visa.

Now it would be different if you were instead found inadmissible under Section 212 (a)(6)© of the INA. This is a separate provision that deems inadmissible any alien who by fraud or wilful misrepresentation seeks to procure a visa, other documentation or admission into the US or other benefit under immigration law. These two grounds of inadmissibility are distinct from each other. One involves fraud or misrepresentation, and being found inadmissible as a result would lead to a permanent bar. You would never be allowed to enter the U.S. again - unless you qualify for - and granted - a waiver. The other is that the applicant simply needs to obtain the correct visa.

What are your options? I have heard of instances where the immigration officer at the port of entry, even as entry was being refused, gives advice as to what to do if one wants to go to the U.S. to marry a boyfriend or girlfriend. I don’t know if this happened to you. But if marriage is the goal, you can apply for a K1 or fiancé/e visa. This is the visa for those going to the U.S. to get married to an American citizen. A nonimmigrant petition will have to be filed by the US citizen, and you must have met in person at least 2 years before the petition is filed. In certain instances, this requirement can be waived. Once the petition is approved, it is forwarded to the U.S. embassy in Manila, and you will then be called for a visa interview. If all goes well, you will be issued a K1 or fiancé/e visa, and you can use that visa to apply for entry to the U.S. You must get married within 90 days of your arrival. Understand, though, a person who enters the U.S. as a K1 must marry the K1 petitioner to get the green card. If for some reason you part ways, you have to leave the U.S. Even if you marry another U.S. citizen, you will not be able to get a green card. Or your boyfriend can come to the Philippines, and you can get married here. When your now husband gets back to the U.S., he can then file an immigrant petition (I130) for you as the wife of a U.S. citizen. Once he has a receipt for the I130, he can also file a nonimmigrant petition for you as a K3. Upon approval, you will be interviewed at the U.S. embassy in Manila for a K3 visa. It takes a while for the I130 to be approved, and the function of a K3 visa is for the visa holder to be allowed to enter the US while an immediate relative petition remains pending so that the US citizen and the alien spouse can be together while waiting for the approval of the I130. Once approved, the alien spouse can file the adjustment application to get her green card in the US. The spouses are spared from suffering further separation thru consular processing. Should the I130 be approved first, you will be getting an immigrant visa instead.

(Mr. Roa grew up in Cagayan de Oro City, where he obtained his legal education and training. He practices exclusively immigration law in the United States and is based in Arlington VA. (See www.roalaw.com for more details.) The content of this column is for general information only, does not create a lawyer-client relationship and is not meant to constitute a formal legal opinion. It may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, sold, transferred or disposed of in any manner without the express written permission of Emeterio G. Roa III, who owns and retains all intellectual property rights over said contents.)



Your question is an interesting one. It touches on an area of immigration law that is rather complicated. Perhaps the better question is - did your American mother give, or “transmit”, American citizenship to you? And if she did, were you able to retain it? If the answer to both questions are “yes” , then you are a U.S. citizen, too, and you have no need for a “green card”. If the answer is no to at least 1 of them, and assuming she is still alive, then she should be able to file an immigrant petition for you so you can get a “green” card. I will need more information.

Let me try to explain. A person born in the U.S. is a U.S. citizen (except in a few rare situations). That’s simple enough. That is still the law, and unless the U.S. constitution is changed or amended, will continue to be the law. You might have heard or read about current efforts proposing a change in this law. But that’s all they are - proposals to change the law.

It’s when a person is born outside the U.S. where it becomes complicated. A variety of factors come into play. Were both parents US citizens? If not, who was the US citizen: the father or mother? Was the child legitimate? Did the parent or parents live in the US? When was the child born? The answer to this last question is really the most important because it tells us what version of the citizenship laws apply. Citizenship laws constantly changed over the years.

For example, the residency requirements for a U.S. citizen to be able to transmit citizenship to his or her child born abroad differ for different periods. These required that the US citizen must have lived in the U.S. for a certain number of years at certain ages. Thus, a US citizen parent must have previously lived in the US for 10 years, 5 of which after 16 years of age, to be able to transmit citizenship to a legitimate child born outside the U.S. between January 13,1941 and December 24,1952. If these conditions are met, such a child is born a U.S. citizen. But the citizenship laws in place for that period also required that for the child to retain U.S. citizenship, he or she must have two years physical presence in the U.S. between the ages of 14 and 28. Otherwise, the child loses U.S. citizenship. If both parents were US citizens and one had prior residence in the US, then there was no retention requirement.

For illegitimate children born outside the U.S. in the same period of time, the transmission and retention requirements are also different.

Another example is that for legitimate children born abroad after December 24,1952 but before November 14,1986, the citizen parent must also have lived in the U.S. for 10 years prior to the birth, but this time 5 of which can be after age 14. The age was lowered from 16. Again, if both parents were US citizens and one had prior residence in the U.S. - no retention requirement.

On October 10, 1978, the laws on retention requirements were repealed. So after that date, everyone who was born a U.S. citizen keeps U.S. citizenship whether or not he or she has ever lived in the U.S. And in 1994, a law was passed to help those who had already lost U.S. citizenship for failure to comply with the applicable retention requirements by providing that they can re-acquire U.S. citizenship by taking an oath of allegiance.

Of particular importance to those born in the Philippines, however, is the determination that prior residence or physical presence in the Philippines while it was still U.S. territory - from April 11, 1899 to July 4, 1946 - is sufficient to meet the residence or physical presence requirement prescribed by law for a U.S. citizen parent to transmit U.S. citizenship to a child born outside the U.S. This is so even though birth in the Philippines during that period was not considered to have been birth in the U.S.!

It is quite possible, therefore, that your American mother may have transmitted her citizenship to you even though she’s never been to the U.S. If she did, the next question is whether or not you retained U.S. citizenship as required. If not, you may still be able to re-acquire U.S. citizenship.


Practically all Filipinos who are now “TNTs” arrived in the US with a nonimmigrant visa. Usually, it is a B2 or tourist visa. If they are admitted into the US, the most time they are given is 6 months. If they decide to stay in the US after that, they become overstays. Once they overstay, they start to accumulate “unlawful presence” in the US. If they overstay for more than 180 days and leave the US, they will be barred from getting any kind of visa for 3 years. If they overstay their visas for more than 1 year and leave, they will be barred for 10 years!

The practical effect of these unlawful presence bars is devastating. If, for example, the visa overstay finds an employer willing to sponsor him or her for a green card, he or she will not be able to get the green card in the U.S. because of being out of status or unlawfully present. The visa overstay will have to get the visa in the US embassy in Manila. Once he or she leaves the US, though, it triggers the unlawful presence bar of 3 or 10 years.

Originally, these bars could be waived if the visa applicant can show extreme hardship to a spouse or parent who is a US citizen. The problem was that the waiver application could not be filed until you went to your home country for the visa interview. No one knew how long the wait for a decision on the waiver application was going to be. Even worse, if the waiver application was denied, then the visa overstay was stuck abroad for at least 3 and up to 10 years. Thus, the uncertainty of the process made it very challenging.

However, the unlawful presence bars do not affect Filipinos who either have US citizen spouses, or are minor unmarried children of US citizen parents. This is because they entered the US with a visa, and so as immediate relatives of US citizens, they could get their green cards in the US - without having to go home. In such cases, it did not matter how long they overstayed.

But for those who entered without inspection, or simply crossed the border illegally, the waiver is a game changer.

So US CIS really made things better in 2013 by allowing the waiver application to be filed in the US. Applicants can now wait in the US for the waiver application to be approved before leaving for their home countries to get their immigrant visas. There would be no long separation of families. And if the waiver application is denied, at least they would be here in the US and not be stuck outside the US away from their families for 3 or 10 years.

On August 29, 2016, though, the US CIS rule on waiver applications was expanded even more generously. Under this new rule, it is not only immediate relatives of US citizens who can file for a waiver application in the US. If the applicant can show extreme hardship to a spouse or parent who is either a US citizen or green-card holder, it will not matter if the basis for the underlying visa is an employment-based or family-based petition, special immigrant classification, or diversity lottery.

Going back to the Filipino visa overstay who will be sponsored by an employer, he or she can now file a waiver for the unlawful presence bars if there is a USC or green-card spouse or parent who will suffer extreme hardship. With the much longer wait for visas in the family-based category, an employment-based immigrant petition is preferable to most. And even if the visa overstay in the US has a final order of removal, he or she could still qualify for the expanded waiver. This new rule can be of great help to many Filipinos.

(Mr. Roa grew up in Cagayan de Oro City, where he obtained his legal education and training. He practices exclusively immigration law in the United States and is based in Arlington VA. (See www.roalaw.com for more details.) The content of this column is for general information

only, does not create a lawyer-client relationship and is not meant to constitute a formal legal

opinion. It may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, sold, transferred or disposed

of in any manner without the express written permission of Emeterio G. Roa III, who owns and

retains all intellectual property rights over said contents.)


A couple of months ago, I wrote about the unprecedented forward movement of immigrant visa

availability for family-based petitions. In other words, priority dates were getting to be current at

an unheard of pace.

First, let’s see if we understand what “priority dates” are. When an immigrant petition is filed in

a category subject to quota, the date the petition is received by the government determines the

place of the prospective immigrant in the line of visa applicants. This is the priority date. Thus, if

you filed on December 2, 2010, you would be behind those who filed December 1, 2010 and

earlier. There are so many immigrant petitions filed that the line stretches back to many, many

years. For example, brothers and sisters of US citizens from the Philippines have a 22-year wait!

When visas are projected to be current in an immigrant category, the National Visa Center

(NVC) of the US Department of State will issue fee bills for the Affidavit of Support and/or visa

application for each prospective immigrant. (Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, is required in all

family-based immigrant petitions, and some employment-based petitions as well.)

In many instances, though, visas may retrogress after the fee bills have been paid. Retrogression

happens when priority dates move backward. For example, for December 2010, the priority date

was current for petitions filed on or before August 1, 2010 by lawful permanent residents (LPRs)

for their spouses (the family 2A immigrant classification). This means that visas were available

for such spouses all of December 2010.

Come January 2011, the priority date for 2A will move backward to January 1, 2008. This means

that visas will no longer be available for petitions filed after January 1, 2008. So, if you are the

spouse of an LPR and the petition was filed, say, on February 15, 2009, visas are available for

you all throughout this month because it was filed before the cut-off date of August 2010.

By this January, however, visas will no longer be available for you because your petition was

filed AFTER the cut-off date of January 1, 2008. You will have to wait until the priority date

moves forward again so that the date your petition was filed will be before the cut-off date again.

The practical effect of this is that you must finish the immigration process before the

retrogression. If you do not, then you will have to wait until your priority date becomes current

again before you can get your immigrant visa.

Unfortunately, my experience is that the process involved can take up to 6 months. When a

priority date is current, NVC will ask the petitioner to pay the fees. This can take from 2-4

weeks, depending on how quick you are able to make the payments. Once payment is made,

NVC will then require the submission of visa application forms and supporting documents. This

can take from 30 - 60 days, again depending on how fast you complete the forms and gather the

documents. Any deficiencies in the forms or documents delay the process even more as it takes

at least a couple of weeks for corrections to be made. When everything is complete, the NVC

will then schedule your appointment for an immigrant visa interview with the US embassy in

Manila - usually within 90 days. If everything is in order, your immigrant visa will be issued at

the interview. That is to say, application for an immigrant visa will be approved, and the visa and

your passport will be delivered to you in a matter of days.

Thus, the immigration process may take at least 6 months. It would not be so problematic if there

would be no movements on visa availability throughout the process. But visas retrogress, and if

they do while all these are happening, then a visa might no longer be available. NVC will usually


not schedule immigrant interviews if there is retrogression. If they do, and your priority date is

no longer current, you will not get an immigrant visa - even if the fees have already been paid!

(Mr. Roa grew up in Cagayan de Oro City, where he obtained his legal education and training.

He practices exclusively immigration law in the United States and is based in Arlington VA.

(See www.roalaw.com for more details.) The content of this column is for general information

only, does not create a lawyer-client relationship and is not meant to constitute a formal legal

opinion. It may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, sold, transferred or disposed

of in any manner without the express written permission of Emeterio G. Roa III, who owns and

retains all intellectual property rights over said contents.)


 

  • Beneficiaries of approved employment-based and family-based immigrant petitions are normally able to apply for their green cards once visas are available for them. This requires that their priority date (the date the immigrant petition was filed) is current. For example, at present visas are available for beneficiaries who are nationals of the Philippines of a petition filed before March 1, 2012 by a US citizen for an unmarried adult son or daughter. These beneficiaries can be scheduled for an immigrant visa interview at the US embassy if they are outside the US. If  they are in the US, and otherwise eligible, they can apply for adjustment of status stateside. In this connection, the US State dept. publishes a monthly Visa Bulletin indicating which priority dates are current for purposes of visa availability.  In October of 2015, and as a result of recommendations in the Obama administration report Modernizing and Streamlining Our Legal Immigration System for the 21st Century, US CIS and the State dept. revised the procedure for beneficiaries of approved immigrant petitions who are in the US filing adjustment of status applications. There are now 2 dates to consider: “Application Final Action Dates”, or when priority dates are current and immigrant visas can be issued; and “Dates for Filing Applications”, or the earliest date a beneficiary in the US can file adjustment applications. Under the latter date, beneficiaries in the US can apply for their green cards, if otherwise eligible, even if their priority date is not yet current.   For some preference categories, though, US CIS now follows the “dates for filing” chart and allow the filing of adjustment applications in the US based on such dates - that is, even when the priority date is not current and a visa was unavailable. In the case of the above example of a petition filed by a US citizen for an unmarried adult son or daughter where the “final action date” is March 1, 2012, the May 2024 visa bulletin states that the “date of filing” is April 22, 2015. This means that even if the priority date is March 1, 2012, the beneficiary in the US can already file for adjustment of status if the petition was filed before April 22, 2015 – some 3 years earlier! He or she must of course be otherwise eligible to file an application to adjust status. This is important because he or she can also file applications for a work permit and travel document together with the adjustment application. This would allow the beneficiary to legally work and even go home to see family and friends. Once the adjustment application is filed, any work permit and travel document that will be issued may be renewed for as long as the adjustment application remains pending – even if visas retrogress. Thus, it is crucial that beneficiaries in the US who are able to take advantage of the “dates for filing chart” do so right away while they still can.  (Mr. Roa grew up in Cagayan de Oro City, where he obtained his legal education and training. He practices exclusively immigration law in the United States and is based in Arlington VA.  (See www.roalaw.com for more details.) The content of this column is for general information only, does not create a lawyer-client relationship and is not meant to constitute a formal legal opinion. It may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, sold, transferred or disposed of in any manner without the express written permission of Emeterio G. Roa III, who owns and retains all intellectual property rights over said contents.)  


 

Filipino WW II veterans are a special class made eligible for U.S. citizenship by law in 1990 

after many years of litigation in the federal courts. Normally, a person must have been a lawful 

permanent resident in the U.S. for 5 years (3 if married to a US citizen) before he can apply for 

citizenship. These residency requirements were waived for eligible WW II Filipino veterans. If 

the veteran was born in the Philippines and resided there before service in the US military 

between September 1, 1939 and December 31, 1946, he or she would qualify - as long as 

otherwise eligible for naturalization. Applications should have been filed during the period 

authorized. It was not necessary for any eligible Filipino veteran to be in the U.S. to apply. 

Once naturalized as U.S. citizens, veterans could then file immigrant petitions for their spouse 

and children to join them in the U.S. The problem is children who are 21 years old or over. They 

are subject to immigration quotas and have many years to wait before their priority date become 

current and visas are available to them. At present, there is a 22-year wait for the married adult 

children,  and a 14-year wait for the unmarried adult children. The Filipino WW II veterans in 

the U.S. are in the twilight of their years - losing any hope that their children will ever get to 

follow them to the US. 

However, under the Filipino WWII Veterans Parole (FWVP) program, humanitarian parole is 

available to qualified family members of Filipino WW II veterans who became U.S. citizens and 

are now living in the U.S. 

Parole is a mechanism under U.S. immigration laws that allow individuals to come to the U.S. on 

a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons, or significant public benefit. It is especially 

helpful to people who cannot qualify for, or have been refused, visas. “Parole” does not grant 

any legal residence or status, and in fact, the parolee is treated only as an applicant for admission. 

But the parolee will not be regarded as being in the U.S. in violation of law. But this will allow 

certain family members of these Filipino WW II veterans to come to the U.S. to provide care and 

support to them. This means that if your father filed an immigrant petition for you and it will still 

take years before your priority date becomes current, you should be able to join your father in the 

U.S. under this parole program.  

To be able to file immigrant petitions for their children and bring them to the U.S. must have 

been a major reason why many Filipino WW II veterans naturalized as a U.S. citizen. It could 

not have been easy for these soldiers to take an oath renouncing loyalty to their beloved 

Philippines. But this oath is required to become a U.S. citizen.  

That is why it I find it hard to understand how Filipinos who turned their backs on the 

Philippines when they naturalized as U.S. citizens are still allowed to serve in the Philippine 

government.  (More on this on my website.) 

(Mr. Roa grew up in Cagayan de Oro City, where he obtained his legal education and training. 

He practices exclusively immigration law in the United States and is based in Arlington VA.  

(See www.roalaw.com for more details.) The content of this column is for general information 

only, does not create a lawyer-client relationship and is not meant to constitute a formal legal 

opinion. It may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, sold, transferred or disposed 

of in any manner without the express written permission of Emeterio G. Roa III, who owns and 

retains all intellectual property rights over said contents.) 


 A person in the U.S. who is in valid nonimmigrant status may apply for a change to another nonimmigrant classification. The key here is that at the time the application is filed, the person’s period of authorized stay must not yet have expired. The period of authorized stay is determined by the date to which a person had been admitted. This is generally found in the Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record, which is issued to all nonimmigrants when he or she is allowed to enter the U.S. after inspection by an customs or immigration official at the port-of-entry. It is a small, white card that is stapled to the passport. For example, a tourist is normally given an I-94 valid for 6 months from his arrival. If within that 6-month period, the tourist is offered a job as a temporary worker and he or she is qualified, an application to change status from tourist to temporary worker based on the job offer of the prospective employer may be filed. If everything else is in order, the requested change of status is approved. A new visa, however, will have to be obtained from a U.S. embassy abroad to re-enter the U.S. if he or she leaves after the change of status is approved  But if the application is filed after the period of authorized stay as indicated in the I-94 has expired, then the requested change will be denied because the applicant is no longer in status. The same is also true for applications to extend the period of authorized stay. Staying in the U.S. beyond the expiration of the authorized period of stay is not the only cause for a person to not be in valid status. Working without government permission for example, is also a violation of status. Any application for a change of status or extension of stay by a person who worked without employment authorization will also be denied because he or she is not in valid nonimmigrant status - even though the period of authorization has not yet expired! What happens when the application for change of status is denied? This is your question. From what you tell me, your prospective employer’s petition for you as a temporary worker was approved, but the application to change your status from a tourist was denied. A lot will then depend on how long you were out of status. Under U.S. immigration law, a person who has been out of status for more than 180 days is barred or disqualified from getting any kind of visa for 3 years. If one has been out of status for more than a year, the bar is 10 years. Also, any visa issued to such a person is automatically void whenever the person overstays even if for just for 1 day. This means that even a 10-year multiple entry visa is no longer any good in the case of any overstay. It must be emphasized that the voiding of the visa is automatic - by operation of law. Thus, there is no need for any mark on the visa itself that it has been cancelled. A person who still tries to use such a visa is committing immigration fraud or misrepresentation. That is a kiss of death under U.S. immigration law. Going back to your question, if the overstay is less than 180 days, you are still eligible to get a visa. So, if you are otherwise qualified, you will be given one. As a practical matter, the closer your overstay is to the 180 day mark, the harder it will be. A person with only a few days overstay is in a better position than one who overstayed a few months. Although neither will be disqualified if both overstays were for less than 180 days, the U.S. consular official who will interview the latter will probably need a lot more convincing. 


Note that temporary worker visas are subject to annual quotas, and these are usually used up 

within days, so you will probably have to wait for the next calendar year for available visas. 

Hope this helps. 

(Mr. Roa grew up in Cagayan de Oro City, where he obtained his legal education and training. 

He practices exclusively immigration law in the United States and is based in Arlington VA. 

(See www.roalaw.com for more details.) The content of this column is for general information 

only, does not create a lawyer-client relationship and is not meant to constitute a formal legal 

opinion. It may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, sold, transferred or disposed 

of in any manner without the express written permission of Emeterio G. Roa III, who owns and 

retains all intellectual property rights over said contents.) 


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Emeterio G. Roa, III, Esq. is based in Arlington, VA and serves clients in and around metro Washington DC, all over the US and abroad.

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