Did you know that a crime on your record can block your eligibility for a lawful permanent residence on US ground? If you are applying for either a visa or a green card, officials will make sure you are admissible to the US, and this involves an investigation of your past and all the possible crimes you may have committed. In some instances, a legal forgiveness application may be available, in other words a waiver, but this is a complicated process. Here are a few immigration lawyer tips about what crimes are inadmissible in your visa or green card application process.

• Section 212A of the INA- the Immigration and Nationality Act includes several grounds for inadmissibility that indicate several crimes, past immigration violation acts or recorded communicable diseases.  While financial situations or immigration violation are considered small impediments, crimes present a major issue. However, not every small law breaking act will make you inadmissible.
• Crimes appearing on an applicant’s record after the US visa or green card have been received can also be a problem, but there will be analyzed under a separate act of the immigration law, and they are considered grounds for deportability.

Below are a few crimes that the INA lists as being utterly inadmissible. One thing that you should know is not all of these crimes will have to require actual conviction in court.

–          Crimes or conspiracy to committing crimes involving moral improbity. This will exclude any such crime committed below the age of 18.

–          Violation of a controlled substance law by either consumption or traffic. This may include conspiracy to committing such a crime.

–          Any conviction or multiple convictions for a crime that made you spend at least 5 years in a prison.

–          Prostitution or engaging in acts leading to prostitution. This may also include trafficking video and audio material that involves human trafficking and prostitution or conspiracy to committing such a crime.

–          Human trafficking crimes, commission or conspiracy on such offenses, within or without the US territory.

–          Severe violations of religious freedom while serving as a foreign official of another non US government.

–          Money laundering crimes or acts of aiding, abetting, conspiring on such crimes

The list also includes such crimes as espionage, terrorism, persecution or sabotage.

If you are wondering how these crimes are discovered, when you apply for a green card or visa, you should know that you will be asked to declare them yourself. Even if an applicant decides to lie on the application, lies are usually unveiled. Lying is grounds for complete ineligibility and any further US immigration benefit in the future. This is why it is best to work with your immigration lawyer very closely and solve such issues in a legal matter.