So often, we meet with clients who come to our law firm just before a scheduled consulate interview abroad. The clients have either done their application on their own, or maybe a friend or “document preparer” has helped them, and they believe their case is straightforward and simple. They are all set to go, their plane tickets have been purchased, and they are ready for their consulate interview! But… they are a little nervous about leaving the United States and they just want a lawyer to double check that everything is O.K. Often, everything is not O.K. We have the unfortunate responsibility to tell the clients that they have wasted their time and money on an application that is completely worthless. They cannot go to their consulate interview because we have found a problem that would make them unable to return if once they left the United States. Thank goodness they came to us before they left!

Had the clients ignored their instinct to come to an expert for a second opinion before leaving the United States, their lives could have been ruined! This is no exaggeration. If you leave the United States, even if you have a waiver that you think will guarantee your reentry, you may still be inadmissible for other reasons not covered under your waiver. You may have to get other waivers (for which you may or may not qualify), or you may not be eligible for any waiver at all. You might be permanently barred from reentering the United States.

Put simply, if you leave the United States without having sought the advice and assurance of a bar-certified immigration lawyer, you are placing your entire future at risk. Once you leave the United States, if something is wrong with your application, or if you don’t already have the appropriate waiver(s) needed to return, you may be stuck outside the United States for years, decades, or even for life. Problems with immigration status must be detected and resolved HERE, not abroad. Even if you have a 601A waiver, that will not save you if you have, for example, certain prior criminal convictions, or false claims on an old I-9, or one too many unlawful entries into the U.S. If an attorney finds the problem here, he or she can resolve it ahead of time. But if you leave, you may have reached a literal point of no return.

Why is it so hard to come back to the United States if you have left before a problem is identified? There are several reasons. First, the problem itself may be unfixable. For instance, if you have a false claim of United States citizenship in your background, and that fact comes up during your consulate interview, you can be barred for life from returning to the United States. There is no waiver for a false claim to citizenship. This leads to the next issue, which is that once a consulate officer makes a decision, it is next to impossible to overturn that decision. The reason for this is something called the “Doctrine of Nonreviewability.” The Doctrine of Nonreviewability simply means that no one can legally challenge a ruling made by the consulate. Finally, everything done through the consulate takes time. If you get to the consulate office and only at that point find that you need a waiver, then you have to submit your waiver there, directly to the consulate. You will have to wait there for the waiver to be adjudicated, which can take months, possibly years, to be approved. And that is, of course, assuming the waiver is approved. If it is not, then you could be stuck outside the United States for life.

Anyplace outside the United States is “no-mans-land” if you do not have lawful status in the United States. You should be extremely cautious before leaving the U.S. for any reason. This includes quick trips to Mexico or Canada. This includes an international cruise to the Bahamas. If you leave the United States without a United States passport, a green card or without explicit confirmation from a lawyer that you will return safely, you are taking a massive risk.

If you are considering leaving the United States for any reason and you do not have a guarantee from a certified immigration attorney, please make an appointment to speak to one. It may save your immigration status or the status of your loved one. Since many immigration firms, including Wilner & O’Reilly Immigration Law Firm, offer free consultations, there is literally nothing to lose by getting an expert opinion. If you are planning to travel, please book a free consultation today and let one of our certified immigration lawyers review your documents before you leave and reach a point of no return.