Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. An initial consultation lasts approximately 15 minutes. During the consultation, one of our attorneys will begin by asking you about 15-20 questions to understand your particular situation. At the end of the consultation, the attorney will explain your legal options, if any. For example, if you are eligible to apply for an immigration benefit such as legal permanent residence, the attorney will explain to you how to proceed and will prepare a checklist of items for you to gather to apply whenever you are ready. If you do not have any legal options at the moment, the attorney will explain the reasons that make you ineligible. You can ask the attorney any questions during the consultation. Initial consultations are conducted by telephone. The cost of a consultation is $50. You can schedule a consultation online by clicking here or you can call our office to select a date and time that is most convenient for you.

The short answer is yes. A U.S. citizen child that is 21 years old can petition for his or her parent. However, if a parent has lived inside the United States for over a year unlawfully, then the parent has a 10-year penalty. There are waivers available to waive the 10-year penalty. But a waiver is only available if the parent has a spouse or parent that is a U.S. citizen or Legal Permanent Resident. A person is only eligible to request a waiver if he or she has a spouse or parent that is a U.S. citizen or Legal Permanent Resident. So, it is true that a U.S. citizen child can submit a petition for a parent. But the parent may have a 10-year penalty for having lived inside the United States unlawfully, and if the parent does not have a spouse or parent who is a U.S. citizen or Legal Permanent Resident, the 10-year penalty cannot be waived, and the parent would need to spend 10 years outside of the United States before they could return to the United States through the petition of a U.S. citizen child.

In our office, a common scenario we encounter involves a U.S. citizen spouse marrying an undocumented spouse. There are three main steps that follow. First, the U.S. citizen spouse files Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, which takes about 12-15 months to get approved. Second, the undocumented spouse files Form I-601A, Application for a Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver, which takes another 36 months to get approved. Third, the undocumented spouse waits for a visa interview to be scheduled at a US Consulate abroad in Ciudad Juarez, which takes about another 12 months for the interview to be scheduled. The undocumented spouse spends about 1-2 weeks abroad attending the visa interview and waiting for a visa to be issued that is stamped in the undocumented spouse's passport. At that time, the undocumented spouse can return to the United States as a Legal Permanent Resident.

The most common penalty results from something called unlawful presence. By and large, someone who has been inside the United States for over a year without papers (unlawfully present) faces a 10-year penalty. This penalty applies to almost all undocumented people in the United States. This penalty applies to a person that crossed the border unlawfully, a person that has overstayed a tourist visa, and almost everyone that is inside the United States without any legal status or authorization. This penalty can be waived, however, if the applicant has a spouse or parent that is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. Understanding the 10-year penalty is central to almost all of the immigration cases we encounter.

There are two ways to proceed here. The first way involves applying inside the United States. But to apply inside the United States, you must (1) have entered legally, (2) have a petition that was submitted for you on or before April 30, 2001, or (3) have a parent, spouse, or child in the U.S. military. If any of the above apply to you, then your U.S. citizen child can help you fix your papers inside the United States.

The second way involves applying outside the United States, which means you will eventually need to leave the United States to apply. There are three steps to follow. First, your child must file Form I-130 for you. Second, you must file Form I-601A. This is the tricky part. You can only file Form I-601A if you have a spouse or parent that is a U.S. citizen (USC) or Legal Permanent Resident (LPR). You cannot file Form I-601A just because you have a U.S. citizen child. Your U.S. citizen child can help you with step 1 by filing Form I-130 for you. But you need a spouse or parent that is a USC or LPR to file Form I-601A. Finally, when both Form I-130 and I-601A have been approved, you must attend a visa interview at a US Consulate in your home country.

Here is a list of 10 common reasons that would make you ineligible for a green card or visa:

(1) 3-year penalty for having lived inside the United States for over 180 days without authorization. This penalty can be waived.

(2) 10-year penalty for having lived inside the United States for over 1 year without authorization. This penalty can be waived.

(3) 10-year permanent penalty for having lived inside the United States for over 1 year without authorization, then departing, and returning without being inspected or admitted. This penalty cannot be waived.

(4) 5-year penalty for having been deported at the border. This penalty cannot be waived.

(5) Fraud or misrepresentation for having lied about something important relating to your immigration application or for having used fake documents to try to enter the United States. This penalty can be waived.

(6) Alien smuggling for having helped anyone at any time in anyway enter the United States unlawfully. This penalty can be waived.

(7) Criminal convictions for multiple crimes involving moral turpitude (theft, for example). This penalty can be waived.

(8) Drug offenses for any violation of a controlled substance law. This penalty can be waived only for simple possession of cannabis of less than 30 grams.

(9) Mental or health disorders for abusing alcohol or drugs. Simply admitting you have done drugs could trigger this penalty. This penalty can be waived.

(10) Public charge for being likely to become dependent on government public aid. This penalty can be overcome.

Most of these penalties can be waived. But you must meet certain criteria for each waiver.

No. According to USCIS, Medicaid benefits received by a woman during pregnancy will not be considered for public charge purposes.

No. According to USCIS, Medicaid benefits received by a person under the age of 21 will not be used to determine a public charge.

No. According to USCIS, Medicaid benefits received by a person for a medical emergency visit will not be considered for purposes of determining a public charge.

There are two different penalties that will affect you if you leave and come back. The first penalty is a 10-year penalty for having lived in the United States for over a year without any papers. This penalty can be waived in the future. The second penalty is a separate 10-year penalty for (1) having lived in the United States for over 1 year, (2) having departed the United States, and then (3) having returned to the United States unlawfully. This second penalty cannot be waived. You must spend 10 years outside the United States to complete it. You would be required to show evidence that you spent 10 years outside the country to complete this penalty. So if you are inside the United States at the moment, and you are considering leaving the country to visit family abroad, and later returning the United States, these two penalties will affect you in the future: the first penalty is triggered upon your departure; the second, and more serious, penalty is triggered upon your return. The first penalty can be waived, but the second penalty cannot be waived.

Yes. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers have broad legal authority to search your phone. They do not need any warrant, probable cause, or suspicion. Generally speaking, an officer will search only the information that is contained on the phone itself (emails, photos, messages, documents, call history, calendar appointments, etc.). Officers will not access information that is solely stored remotely that is not contained on the device itself. They will conduct a search of the items that exist on the phone or are accessible through the phone’s operating system. If you have a passcode on your device or if it is encrypted, CBP officers can ask you for the passcode. If you refuse to give them the password or passcode, they can take your phone and seek technical assistance to gain access into the phone even if you do not agree. In short, CBP officers at the airport have broad legal authority to conduct searches of your phone when you are either entering or departing the United States. If you would like to read more about their internal policy, you can do so here.

The most common way that ICE detains an individual is through a local police department. For example, if an individual is arrested for driving without a license, he or she will be transported to a local jail and fingerprinted. The fingerprints are uploaded electronically to a system that is shared with ICE. An ICE officer will become aware of the person's name, location, and arrest history. The ICE officer will then place a hold on the release of that person if the person has no legal status or authorization to remain in the United States. ICE will then come pick up the person from the local jail and begin a deportation proceeding against that person.

You can locate your family member by clicking here. After being detained by ICE, a person is usually sent to a detention facility. In Illinois or Wisconsin, the three most common places where people are detained are:

(1) Dodge Detention Facility, 141 N. Main St, Juneau, WI 53039. The phone number is 920-386-3743;

(2) McHenry County Adult Correctional Facility 2200 N. Seminary Ave. Woodstock, IL, 60098. The phone number is 815-338-9396;

(3) Kenosha County Detention Center 4777 88th Avenue Kenosha, WI, 53144. The phone number is 262-605-5800.

Detainees cannot receive incoming calls, but you can get in touch with your family member to leave them a message by calling the above phone numbers. You'll need his or her full name and alien registration number. If you cannot find your family member at one of these locations, you can call the Chicago ICE Field Office at 312-347-2400 between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. to find out where your relative is being held.

If you have been inside the United States for less than two years or if you have been deported before, ICE can deport you within a month through an expedited removal process. If you have been inside the United States for more than 2 years and have not been deported before, then you will have a chance to fight your case in deportation proceedings front of an immigration judge. Deportation proceedings typically last around 5 years. During that time, you can remain inside the United States while awaiting your court date. In the meantime, you will usually have plenty of time to consult with attorneys and hire one that can best help you.

There are two steps to filing an application for a green card inside the United States. First, you will need a spouse, parent, child, or sibling to file a petition (Form I-130) for you. Second, you will need to file your application for a green card (Form I-485). In order to file Form I-485, however, the law requires that you enter the United States legally. There are several exceptions to this rule. For example, if someone filed a petition on your behalf on or before April 30, 2001, then you do not need to show that you entered legally. Separately, if you have a relative in the United States Armed forces--namely, a parent, spouse or child in the military--then you do not need to show that you entered the country legally.

Yes, you can apply for your green card if you arrived on a tourist visa and married a U.S. citizen. Even if you had a preconceived intent to marry a U.S. citizen before your arrival in the United States, you can still submit an application for a green card. It is true that immigration officials will assume you had a preconceived intent to marry before your arrival, and that you never intended to visit the United States temporarily. But the law waives your preconceived intent if you marry a U.S. citizen. So as a general rule: even if you arrive in the United States with a tourist visa and marry a U.S. citizen shortly afterwards, you can still apply for a green card inside the United States.

Yes. you may submit a first time DACA application to USCIS. However, USCIS cannot approve the application. A federal judge in Texas has issued an injunction, which is an order that restrains U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from granting DACA to first time applicants at this time. So you may submit an application at this time and USCIS will accept the application, but they will not grant or deny DACA status to first time applicants until the federal court case is resolved.

Yes, you can still renew DACA. USCIS is currently accepting and approving DACA renewal applications. You can submit your renewal application 5 months before the expiration date that appears on your work permit. USCIS charges a total of $495.00 to renew DACA. Although DACA is currently the subject of federal litigation, a federal judge has allowed USCIS to continue accepting and approving DACA renewal applications. So you may submit a renewal application at this time while the case is being litigated in federal court.

The DACA rule that took effect on October 31, 2022 is a more formal set of rules that govern DACA applications. In the past, President Obama initiated DACA with an executive memo. However, an executive memo can be rescinded by a subsequent presidential administration. As a result, President Biden went one step further and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to establish a "rule." Making a "rule" requires more time and it is a more formal process than issuing an executive memo. For example, a "rule" involves a public notice period and a public comment period to make the rule. A rule is also more difficult to rescind. It would likewise involve another round of public notices, public comments to propose rescinding the rule. In short, DACA has been governed by an executive memo for the past ten years. Now it is governed by a formal "rule" issued by the Department of Homeland Security.

Yes, and this would make you eligible to adjust status inside the United States through a U.S. citizen child or U.S. citizen spouse. If you were previously issued Form I-688A (a work permit given to certain applicants for temporary permanent residence), then that work permit could be used to both work in the United States and to travel outside of the United States. These work permits were issued to special agricultural workers. The work permit served as both employment authorization and travel authorization. The applicant could work and travel abroad while his application for temporary permanent residence was pending or after it had been approved. The work permit should have an annotation on it that states it was issued under section "210" for special agricultural workers. For a more detailed reading, see 8 CFR 210.4(b)(2)-(3).

If you received a green card for only 2 years, then you must file Form I-751. You must file within 90 days of the date of expiration that appears on your green card. If you are divorced, however, you can file Form I-751 on your own at any time whether or not your green card has already expired.

If you received your green card for 10 years, then you must file Form I-90.

Yes, you can both work and travel as long as you have a receipt for Form I-751, which extends your green card and explicitly gives you authorization to work and travel even though your permanent resident card itself may be expired. In other words, the I-751 receipt states that you can carry an expired green card and the I-751 receipt together as evidence of your current status to allow you to continue working and traveling. If your employer requests evidence of your status, you can present the expired green card and your I-751 receipt as sufficient evidence of your authorization to continue working. If you are traveling, you can present your valid passport, expired green card, and the I-751 receipt as sufficient evidence of your authorization to return to the United States from a trip abroad.

If you entered before July 16, 2019, you can still apply for asylum despite the new asylum eligibility rule. If you entered the United States on or after July 16, 2019, you cannot apply for asylum if you passed through Mexico. There are some exceptions: (1) if you are a victim of severe trafficking, (2) or if your asylum application was denied in Mexico. If you do not fall into one of the exceptions, you cannot apply for asylum at this time. However, you can still submit an application for withholding of removal, which is a similar process.

In order to become a U.S. citizen, you must have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence. The courts have said that receiving a green card in error means that you were not lawfully admitted to permanent residence in the first place. As a result, because you cannot meet the naturalization requirement of having been lawfully admitted for permanent residence, you would be ineligible for citizenship. For a more detailed reading of the reasoning, take a look at these two cases: (1) Matter of Koloamantangi, 23 I. & N. Dec. 548, 550 (BIA 2003) and (2) Estrada-Ramos v. Holder, 611 F. 3d 318 (7th Cir 2010).

USCIS has 5 years to initiate rescission proceedings to rescind your green card. They must do so within five years of finding their error. Otherwise USCIS will waive the right to rescind your green card. USCIS has discretion whether or not to rescind depending the type of error. If they decide to rescind, USCIS will issue a Notice of Intent to Rescind. You can contest the rescission. In the worst case scenario, you can request a hearing before an Immigration Judge to apply for any relief from removal.

If you received a green card for 10 years, you can renew your green card on your own without your spouse. If you received a green card for 2 years, then you must file Form I-751 together with your spouse. If your spouse refuses to sign Form I-751, then you can file it on your own if (1) you get divorced, or (2) show that you were subjected to extreme cruelty by your spouse, or (3) show that you will suffer extreme hardship upon the termination of your residence. In practical terms, getting a divorce is probably the easiest way to proceed. You'll need to show that you entered into your marriage in good faith, meaning that you originally got married for love and not just for papers. Once you are divorced, you can file Form I-751 anytime even after the expiration of your 2 year conditional residence.

Yes, it is possible that you can abandon your legal permanent residence if you leave the country for more than one year without first obtaining a permit. If you have been outside the United States already for over one year, you may be questioned about your absence upon your return to the United States. If an officer determines that you abandoned your legal permanent residence, you may be denied entry into the United States.

There are three different stages to keep in mind with U visa cases. The first stage takes about 4 years. During this first stage, your case is pending and you cannot obtain a work permit. The second stage takes about an additional 2 years. During this second stage, your case has been provisionally approved while you await a visa to become available. In the meantime, you can apply for a work permit while you wait for the official approval once a visa becomes available. The third and final stage takes an additional 4 years. During this third and final stage, your case is officially approved and you are granted U nonimmigrant status and you will receive a 4-year work permit.

It depends on the type of U visa. There are five types of U visas: U-1 (the principal victim of a crime), U-2 (victim's spouse), U-3 (victim's child), U-4 (victim's parent), U-5 (victim's sibling). If you have U-1 status, you can get married. If you have U-2 status, you cannot divorce your spouse and remarry. Otherwise, your U-2 status will be revoked. If you have U-3 status, we recommend that you remain unmarried, but USCIS's Vermont Service Center has stated they will not revoke U-3 status upon marriage. If you have U-4 status, you can get married. If you have U-5 status, we recommend that you remain unmarried, but USCIS's Vermont Service Center will not revoke U-5 status upon marriage. Our recommendation for U-3 and U-5 status holders is to remain unmarried. Although USCIS will not revoke U-3 or U-5 status upon marriage, the law is not clear, which means that USCIS' interpretation can change. As a result, we recommend that U-3 and U-5 status holders err on the side of caution and remain unmarried until they are eligible to adjust status on their own.

If you are a Legal Permanent Resident, there are two separate rules to keep in mind. The first rule states that you cannot be deported from inside the United States if you are convicted of possession of marijuana as long as it was under 30 grams. The second rule, however, states that if you travel abroad, you can be put into deportation proceedings upon your return to the United States. So if you avoid traveling outside of the United States, then you will not be put into deportation proceedings. But if you are traveling outside the United States, then you will be put into deportation proceedings upon your return to the United States. For example, if you currently have a green card, have been convicted of possession of marijuana, and take a trip to Mexico, an immigration officer will meet you at the airport upon your return, take your green card, and put you into deportation proceedings. You will be allowed to enter the United States, but you will be required to present yourself in front of an immigration judge.

No. To become a permanent resident, the law states that you cannot have worked without authorization. But there are exceptions that apply to almost all the cases we encounter. For example, if you are applying for a green card through a U.S. citizen spouse, your prior work without authorization would be waived. Likewise, if someone petitioned for you on or before April 30, 2001, having worked without papers would not affect you either. If you are in deportation proceedings, you can apply for something called Cancellation of Removal or Asylum or Withholding of Removal. Having worked without authorization would not affect your eligibility to submit those applications.

No. Using a fake green card for work is not considered fraud under immigration law because you were using the fake green card to obtain a job, not to obtain an immigration benefit. As a result, using a fake green card, taken alone, will not affect your ability to become a legal permanent resident in the future.

Yes. Claiming to be a U.S. citizen to obtain employment makes a person ineligible to become a legal permanent resident. Usually, the issue revolves around Form I-9. An employer is required to obtain a completed I-9 from you. Form I-9 asks whether you are a U.S. citizen, a Legal Permanent Resident, or are otherwise authorized to work in the United States. The problem arises if you claim to be a U.S. citizen on Form I-9. By checking the box claiming to be U.S. citizen, you are falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen, which is a violation of immigration law. As a practical matter, most employers keep Form I-9 internally. Some employers share their I-9 information with the government through a program called E-verify, which is a voluntary program used by some, but not most, employers.

Yes. (1) Voting or (2) registering to vote by claiming to be a U.S. citizen can lead to deportation. For example, a person in Illinois was deportable for having voted in a federal election by claiming to be a U.S. citizen. See Matter of Fitzpatrick, 26 I&N Dec. 559 (BIA 2015) (holding a person is removable regardless of whether the person knew he or she was unlawfully voting). Registering to vote can also lead to a deportation because falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen is a deportable offense. Here is a common scenario we encounter at our office: a person applies for driver's license and also completes a voter registration card at the same time claiming to be a U.S. citizen under penalty of perjury. This would make a person deportable.

If you are (1) elderly, (2) disabled, or a (3) minor, then someone can accompany you to your visa interview at the US consulate in Ciudad Juarez for your visa interview. Otherwise, only the applicant can enter into the consulate for the visa interview. Attorneys are also not allowed into the US consulate to attend a visa interview with a client.

No. Social security and Medicare may be taken directly out of your paycheck each period. But you must be a legal permanent resident or a U.S. citizen to collect social security benefits. Although you may have paid social security and medicare taxes for years, those payments will be kept by the Social Security Administration.

It depends. If you have a valid work permit at the time you apply for unemployment benefits and had a valid work permit during the time you were working, then you are eligible for unemployment benefits in Illinois as a general rule. For example, DACA recipients, TPS holders, Legal Permanent Residents, and anyone else with a valid work permit would be eligible to apply. For those who have a work permit based on an H-1B or L-1 visa, then you probably are not eligible to apply for unemployment benefits because you would not be available and able to work for any other employer aside from the company that sponsored you.

Yes. You can file Form I-130 for your spouse, child, sibling, or parent even if you are unemployed. There will come a time when you need to file Form I-864, Affidavit of Support. You can count any unemployment compensation as income on Form I-864. Keep in mind that you must show that you earn at least 125% of the federal poverty guidelines for your specific household size. You can see the poverty guidelines by clicking here.