Last week, our office assisted our client, a Canadian citizen, in obtaining a port of entry parole so that she could return to the U.S. for a brief period after unexpectedly learning of her inadmissibility. Our client had been spending the earlier part of the year at her vacation home in California so she could enjoy the warmer weather in California and had brought down her car, her dogs and enough household goods to cover her six month anticipated stay in the U.S. However, in order to attend to an urgent business matter in Canada, she planned a quick trip to Canada and asked her neighbor to check in on her dogs and home. However, on her attempted return to California, she was denied entry by U.S. Customs & Border Protection officers based on two criminal convictions in Canada from the mid-1980's (shoplifting).

Our client, who had been traveling to the U.S. for the past twenty plus without incident, was frankly shocked at learning of her inadmissibility and extremely stressed about how to retrieve her dogs, car and belongings from the U.S. while she sorted out this issue. After our client contacted our office, we were able to explain that her two criminal convictions from the mid-1980's rendered her inadmissible to the U.S. because they were considered to be crimes of moral turpitude. Had she only had one conviction, it would have likely fallen under the petty offense exception found at INA §212(a)(2)(A)(ii)(II), and she wouldn't have had any issues and could have continued to travel to the U.S. without a waiver.

However, since she had two such convictions, she was inadmissible to the U.S. under INA §212(a)(2)(A)(i)(I). In order to overcome the inadmissibility and return to the U.S. as a visitor, our client needs to apply for a waiver - specifically, our client needs to submit Form I-192, Application for Advance Permission to Enter as Nonimmigrant. We explained to our client that while we could assist her with the waiver application (for which she was a good candidate given how old the convictions were) the Admissibility Review Office (ARO), which reviews these applications worldwide, was currently taking 4-6 months to adjudicate these types of petitions.

In order to solve her more immediate need to retrieve her dogs, car and belongings, we also reached out to our local port of entry to apply for a port of entry parole to wind down her affairs in California. After submitting a detailed packet to CBP explaining our clients urgent need for a port of entry parole, Senior Partner William Reich accompanied our client to the port of entry to apply for parole, where she was approved for a single-entry parole valid for twenty-one (21) days.