By Debbie McGoldrick

“MY Irish-based niece is 27 years old, and is a single mother. When she was 24 she spent a very short amount of time in prison for an altercation she was involved in. She has been a model citizen ever since, but is finding it hard to get ahead in Ireland and would like to come to the U.S. She tried to come here a few months back and was stopped by an immigration officer in Dublin who said she couldn’t prove sufficient ties to Ireland. Then she applied for a visa at the embassy and was also turned down as her record came up. I contacted my congressional representative about this and received an unsatisfactory, stock answer in reply to the effect that all procedures were being followed. But I don’t think it’s fair, and I’m wondering what I can do to help her move on with her life here in the U.S.”

FROM the sound of your letter, it doesn’t sound as if you’ll be able to provide your niece with much help.

By U.S. immigration standards, she seems to have insurmountable strikes against her. The prison record is obviously a problem. You don’t mention the circumstances or what she was convicted of, but jail terms are extremely difficult to overlook when it comes to seeking U.S. immigration privileges. 

Those applying for B-2 tourist visas need to show plenty of evidence that they intend to return to their home country when their legal period of stay in the U.S. expires. This can be done most easily by showing proof of employment in the home country. And, commitments to things such as leases, mortgages, etc. are also helpful.

Was your niece able to provide any of the above. You say that she’s had a hard time in Ireland, so it seems likely that she doesn’t have a job or indeed any other binding ties to home. That’s bad news as far as applying for a temporary tourist visa goes.

Your commitment to helping her sort her life is admirable. However, putting details of your niece’s life to one side for a moment, there are rules and regulations that all potential emigrants to the U.S. must follow.

There are several avenues by which a foreigner can secure legal status in the U.S. They can apply for permanent resident status (green cards) via an employment offer or close family connection, or the annual green card lottery. Or they can obtain non-immigrant (temporary) status in a few ways, including employment or acceptance at a U.S. university for a course of study.

As far as the family link, aunts, uncles or cousins cannot sponsor foreign relatives for green cards. The only relatives who can act as sponsors are U.S. citizen spouses, children, parents and siblings.

Employment-wise, your niece would need an offer of a job from a U.S.-based employer, and would then have to go through a fairly rigorous application process. Again, it doesn’t sound as if she’d be able to avail of this possibility, given the information you’ve provided.

As long as embassy personnel followed all the correct rules in judging your niece’s visa application, there’s very little a congressional representative can do other than file a standard inquiry, which your contact has already done. 

She can apply again for a visa if at some stage she’s able to show she has a stable job and commitments in Ireland, but even so, the criminal conviction could always prove problematic for her.