Criminal Law shoplifting - am I inaddmissible?

[svetik]

Dear friends,


I am writing to get some information concerning my
problem.

I came to US form Russia 3 years ago, I had J-1 visa,
which has expired 2.5 years ago. So, unfortunately I
am illegal here.
My life situaution has changed and I
am getting married to a guy, who is a US Citizen.

Another shameful thing that happened to me 3 years ago
was gettng involved in shoplifting, here in US (my the
so called friend decided to try out to carry out from
a store a box of chocolate) , which we did and got
caught, the penalty was $70 dollars fine.
I am really
worried that this accident could have a negative
impact on my immigration status, can i be refused in
getting a green card?

Thank you very much for your attention to my problem
and I would appreciate a lot if you could give me any
kind of advice.

Sincerely,
Svetik S

 

[NYClex]

Now you are having a big problem:

If a person has been illegaly in this country for over a year, the law states he is inadmissible and deportable. He will be inadmissible for at least 10 years.

In practice this means he can be deported any day and probably will be once he contacts the CIS to apply for any other visa. The CIS will not issue him any visa for the next 10 years, including a green card.

If he marries an U.S. citizen he might be able to get this strict rule of inadmissibility waived. In cases where an alien is married to an American citizen AND it would be an undue hardship on the citizen if his spouse would be barred from entering the country this inadmissibility can be waived by the Attorney General.

Now, don't get your hopes too high: this is handled pretty restrictively and the courts in most cases have sided with the government. So it is by no means guaranteed that one would be granted this waiver.

In addition, there is also a criminal record. Having been convicted for a crime of moral turpitude, and that is shoplifting, usually makes an alien inadmissible forever. But there is an exception I have mentioned here pretty often: if the conviction was the first and the maximum sentence was 1 year and the actual sentence less than 6 months, this conviction will not lead to inadmissibility by itself. Of course, on an application for a waiver as mentioned above it won't look good at all.


So as you see, you are in serious trouble. And any day you stay longer illegaly it grows. You should immediately consult an immigration attorney and with him figure out the best way to proceed.