shimrod
08-19-2010, 06:32 PM
Hi,
Couple of years ago when being in US on a valid student exchange visa I did the stupidest thing in my life (young and stupid, though I was slightly over 18yo). It was shoplifting - the sentence was only to pay the court costs because the goods were returned to the store and the amount was very small (<50$). Little did I know about consequences of that case for my future USA travels.
Since then I applied for and received a B1/B2 visa twice. Both were granted only for 12 months and had an annotation "waiver 212(d)(3)(A) for 212(A)(2)(A)(i)(i)". Every time I entered US on those visas (3 times so far) I was referred for secondary inspection before being let in.
Currently I have an opportunity to transfer to US on an L1 visa. However, I'm not sure what to do in this situation. I have a couple of questions:
1) Will my employer learn about my condition if he applies on my behalf for the L1 visa and I get/don't get the visa?
2) What's my chance of getting the L1 visa (does the same waiver apply for it)? What are my options if I only get a waiver for 12 months like with the B1/B2 visa?
3) Can a privately hired lawyer do anything to help my case on top of the lawyer that will be provided by my employer to handle the documents related to the L1 visa itself? If yes, do you suggest I find a lawyer in the same state that the CIMT occurred or it shouldn't matter? (I have a slight suspicion that a lawyer could help because IMO my CIMT should have fallen under "Petty Ofense Exception" but was not classified as such by the consular officer - instead I got a waiver 212d3a)
I will be really grateful for any answers/hints to any of the above questions.
Best Regards,
Shim
Couple of years ago when being in US on a valid student exchange visa I did the stupidest thing in my life (young and stupid, though I was slightly over 18yo). It was shoplifting - the sentence was only to pay the court costs because the goods were returned to the store and the amount was very small (<50$). Little did I know about consequences of that case for my future USA travels.
Since then I applied for and received a B1/B2 visa twice. Both were granted only for 12 months and had an annotation "waiver 212(d)(3)(A) for 212(A)(2)(A)(i)(i)". Every time I entered US on those visas (3 times so far) I was referred for secondary inspection before being let in.
Currently I have an opportunity to transfer to US on an L1 visa. However, I'm not sure what to do in this situation. I have a couple of questions:
1) Will my employer learn about my condition if he applies on my behalf for the L1 visa and I get/don't get the visa?
2) What's my chance of getting the L1 visa (does the same waiver apply for it)? What are my options if I only get a waiver for 12 months like with the B1/B2 visa?
3) Can a privately hired lawyer do anything to help my case on top of the lawyer that will be provided by my employer to handle the documents related to the L1 visa itself? If yes, do you suggest I find a lawyer in the same state that the CIMT occurred or it shouldn't matter? (I have a slight suspicion that a lawyer could help because IMO my CIMT should have fallen under "Petty Ofense Exception" but was not classified as such by the consular officer - instead I got a waiver 212d3a)
I will be really grateful for any answers/hints to any of the above questions.
Best Regards,
Shim