There are several reasons why the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) would consider you inadmissible for a green card. Namely, the common grounds of inadmissibility are medical concerns, immigration violations, and most notably, criminal convictions. With this, you may wonder whether your past misdemeanor offense carries the same weight as a felony offense for your immigration status. Well, in considering this, please continue reading to learn whether a misdemeanor conviction can make you inadmissible from entering the United States and how one of the experienced green card lawyers at Lupton Law LLC can help you avoid this fate at all costs.

How can a misdemeanor make me inadmissible from entering the United States?

Sometimes, a past misdemeanor conviction may make getting your green card application approved more challenging. Other times, though, such an offense may make you entirely inadmissible from entering the United States. Specifically, this is the case if your past offense was a crime of moral turpitude or a crime involving illegal drugs. Examples of each type of offense read as follows:

  • Crimes of moral turpitude:
    • A misdemeanor burglary offense.
    • A misdemeanor assault or battery offense.
    • A misdemeanor domestic violence offense.
  • Crimes involving illegal drugs:
    • Possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana.
    • Solicitation of the sale of drugs.
    • Sale or possession for sale of drugs.

How can I avoid inadmissibility after a misdemeanor conviction?

Unfortunately, for your immigration status, it may not matter whether your criminal case was eventually dismissed, if you were ultimately found not guilty of a misdemeanor offense, or if you got your misdemeanor offense expunged from your permanent criminal record. This is because the USCIS may still have reason to believe you are inadmissible from entering the United States.

For example, even if you were found not guilty of a crime involving illegal drugs, the USCIS may still consider you to have a medical concern that makes you inadmissible (i.e., that you possibly have a substance abuse issue). Or, you may have gotten your crime involving smuggling drugs across the border expunged from your permanent criminal record. Yet the USCIS may still assume you will commit another immigration violation, such as illegally crossing the border.

However, certain exceptions and waivers may help you avoid such inadmissibility. For one, the petty offense exception may have your misdemeanor offense no longer considered a crime of moral turpitude if its maximum penalty is one year or less and you get sentenced to prison for six months or less. Secondly, the youthful offender exception may help if you committed a crime of moral turpitude when you were younger than 18. Lastly, the waiver of inadmissibility may help if you prove you will not pose a public danger to the United States. Plus, if you prove your United States citizen or resident spouse will experience extreme hardship if you do not join them in the United States.

Please do not wait for another second. Retain the services of one of the skilled family-based immigration lawyers from Lupton Law LLC today. We look forward to working with you and taking on your case.