Waiver of Inadmissibility – Filing Form I-192 with US Customs
If you have been convicted of a criminal offense or have committed an immigration violation, you may be required to apply for advance permission to renter the US as a non-immigrant. This is often referred to as a “waiver” application and generally requires completion of Form I-192.
If you are a Citizen of Canada, you may submit your completed Form I-192 application with US Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”). CBP will accept the document support package, conduct fingerprinting of the applicant, and collect the filing fee for the application. Once the application has been collected by CBP, it will be forwarded to the Admissibility Review Office (“ARO”) which will determine whether the waiver application should be approved. The applicant will be notified in writing by the ARO as to whether their application has been approved or denied. If the application is approved, it can be granted for a maximum of 5 years, but may be limited to a shorter duration at the discretion of the ARO.
If you are not a Citizen of Canada, you may submit your waiver application in conjunction with a non-immigrant visa application at the US Consulate / Embassy in your home country.
Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude
Statutory definitions of crimes in the United States consist of various components, which must be met before a conviction can be supported. Some of these components have been determined in previous judicial or administrative decisions to involve moral turpitude. A conviction for a statutory offense will involve moral turpitude if one or more of the parts of that offense have been determined to involve moral turpitude. The most common offenses involving moral turpitude include: (1) Fraud; (2) Larceny; or (3) Intent to harm persons or things.
Crimes Involving Controlled Substance Violations
Foreign nationals are inadmissible to the US if they have a conviction for a violation of, or conspiracy to violate, any law of a state, the United States, or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance, as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802). Note that whether or not a controlled substance is legal under a state or foreign law is not relevant to its illegality under US federal law. For example, an individual convicted of possession of marijuana is currently inadmissible to US.
Prior Immigration Violations
An individual may be inadmissible to the US where they have committed a prior immigration violation. This could include a situation where the individual remained in the US unlawfully, engaged in unauthorized employment, or committed a material misrepresentation of fact to a US immigration officer. In such cases, the individual must apply for a waiver of inadmissibility in order to enter the US during the duration of their inadmissibility period.
