I-212 Consent to Reapply for Admission

If you were removed from the U.S., or barred from reentering the country for a set number of years or permanently, to be admitted to the U.S. while the bar still applies, you must obtain an I-212 waiver.

If you are subject to the 5, 10 or 20 year-bar, and you wait outside the U.S. for the duration of the bar before you seek admission to the U.S., you do not need the I-212 waiver. If you wish to return to the U.S. before the bar expires, you must obtain an I-212 waiver.  When a permanent bar applies to you, you are always required to obtain an I-212 waiver.

Five-Year Bar applies to you if:

• You were removed upon arrival in the U.S., in an expedited removal proceeding by U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) at a U.S. port of entry.
• You were placed in removal proceedings upon arrival in the U.S. and then ordered removed by an immigration judge as an arriving alien.

Ten-Year Bar applies to you if:

• You were ordered removed, other than as an arriving alien, by an immigration judge in removal proceedings.
• You failed to timely depart the U.S. under an order of voluntary departure issued by an immigration judge, causing the voluntary departure to be converted to removal order.
• You departed the U.S. willingly, but before removal proceedings were concluded.
• You left the U.S. while a removal order was outstanding.

Twenty-Year Bar applies to you if you were ordered removed from the U.S. more than once, whether as an arriving alien or not.

Permanent Bar applies to you if:

• You were convicted of an aggravated felony.
• You reentered or attempted to reenter the U.S. illegally after you accrued more than one year of unlawful presence in the U.S. and left, or after you were ordered removed from the U.S.

Form I-212 only gives you permission to apply for a visa, it does not waive the other grounds of inadmissibility, and it is often filed in conjunction with I-601 waiver.

Filling address of the Form I-212 depends on the reason you are inadmissible to the U.S. and your current location. You will file with either U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Department of State (DOS), the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), or USCIS.

The I-212 application does not require a qualifying relative. The following factors are to be considered by the adjudicating officer: the basis for deportation, recency of deportation, length of legal residence in the U.S., moral character of the applicant, his respect for law and order, evidence of reformation and rehabilitation, family responsibilities of applicant, inadmissibility to the U.S. under other sections of law, hardship involved to himself and others, the need for his services (employment) in the U.S. Any negative factors involved will be weighed against the favorable factors in making a determination.

To learn more about your options contact our San Francisco law firm to speak with one of our immigration attorneys.