Criminal Consequences

A non–American citizen as well as an individual who has lawful permanent resident status (a green card holder) may be subject to a finding of inadmissibility and placed in removal proceedings upon return from overseas trip or seeking change of status, if they have a past criminal record.

In other words, a green card holder with a criminal conviction faces charges of inadmissibility upon return, just like a nonimmigrant visa holder or someone with no visa at all. This means that an LPR with a criminal record may significantly jeopardize his or her legal position by traveling outside the United States. Now, even a brief, casual, and innocent trip abroad exposes an LPR with a criminal record to removability and possible detention.

LPR with a criminal record may travel in and out of the United States several times, without being stopped by Inspections (U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). These frequent admissions without incident may give the client a false sense of security. Every arrival at a border, every application for admission into the United States is a lottery; the twentieth time may be the trip where a diligent officer catches the conviction record in the ever increasingly state-of-the-art computer database. Several trips in and out without incident are not a guarantee that no record exists in the system or that the client is immune from being detained for further inquiry.

Additionally, the grounds of inadmissibility contained at §212(a) apply in certain circumstances to persons who are already physically within the United States, but seek to “improve” their status; for example, by adjusting from nonimmigrant to immigrant (i.e., permanent resident) status. Adjustment applicants, though already physically within the United States, are knocking at the door in the sense that they want to obtain a new status. In turn, a lawful permanent resident may want to naturalize to U.S. citizenship; this requires “good moral character,” whose definition references grounds of inadmissibility.

For this reason, before leaving the country or filing a change of status application, it is important to reveal potential grounds of inadmissibility and seek a waiver, rather than hoping that criminal activity simply does not come to light during the admission process.