U Visa

U Visas are another extremely important aspect of of immigration law. The U visa has helped hundreds of thousands of people obtain immigration status after being the victim of a qualifying crime.  In order to get law status after being the victim of a crime, you must have called the police and have cooperated in the investigation of the crime.  That means follow-up phone calls, meetings and court-appearances with police officers or the local district attorney’s office.  What a lot of people don’t understand about U visas is that the most important aspect of the gaining status under a U visa is calling the police and then ALSO living in a jurisdiction where your local police department or district attorney’s office that is willing to sign the certification form.  Not all jurisdictions are willing to help immigrants obtain their status.  The most important and delicate phase of the case can be obtaining the certification if the jurisdiction, we are working with, does not have helping immigrants at the top of their priority list. But that is where you need your attorney to advocate for you most: at the local level, explaining in simple language why it is good for the community for you to gain lawful status. 

U visas are wonderful because they officer a generous waiver of inadmissibilies and they provide a direct pathway to permanent residency and U.S. citizenship.  In addition, your spouse, children and parents (if the victim was under 21 at the time the visa was filed) can be included. Parents of minors who are US Citizens can also be considered victims if they supported their children in reporting the commission of the crime to local authorities.  

The first step to seeing if you qualify for a U visa is obtaining the police report.  If you can’t obtain the police report, please know the approximate date of the incident, the name and date of birth of the victim and address or general location of where the crime occurred.    you have been the victim of a qualifying crime, our firm can help you and your family members, including your parents, children and siblings, obtain a U visa, which is a pathway to Lawful Permanent Residency, and then to citizenship in the United States.

Being the victim of the following crimes allows you to apply for a U visa:

• Domestic violence
• Felonious Assault
• False Imprisonment
• Kiddnapping
• Rape
• Murder
• Sexual abuse
• Obstruction of Justice
• Trafficking
• Other violent crimes
• Extortion/Blackmail
• Attempt to commit any of these crimes

It is imperative that you help the police and district attorney’s office as much as possible to bring charges against the person who committed the crime.  If you have been the victim of a crime and you think you could qualify for a U visa, call our office as soon as possible so that we can have contemporaneous contact with law enforcement and to ensure your cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of the crime.

U VISA RESOURCE: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services