Immigration Corner | Will my visa be returned?

Good Day Mrs. Walker-Huntington,

I was in the United States on a B2 visiting visa and I got deported in 2004. I used to stay up to six months, but immigration took away my visa. I reapplied five times and they turned me down. I’m a Jamaican living in The Bahamas married to a Bahamian and I am a permanent resident here. Please let me know how to get my visa back. Thank you.

NB

Dear NB

As I always say, no one is entitled to a US visa. It is a privilege not a right. Which means that you can meet all the requirements the US government lays out, i.e. you must have significant ties to your home country to which you will return, and you must be admissible to the United States – and your application can still be denied.

When a person on a B1/B2 visiting visa travels to America and spends up to the six months they are given at the border, the presumption is that they are working in the United States during that stay. Yes, there are some people who spend six months at a time in America without issue, those persons are usually financially capable of showing that they have the means to support themselves – i.e. Canadians who winter in Florida and other people who can afford long vacations. There are also times when regular working people go to America and spend a couple months visiting family and friends without working.

Once the presumption is made that you misused your US visitor’s visa by staying too long and working without authorisation, you essentially give the US Embassy a reason not to entrust you with another non-immigrant visa.

You can reapply with a non-immigrant waiver if you have evidence that maybe you were not working during your long visits, that you currently have strong ties to your home country, (and) that you are not a danger to the American society.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com