Here's How to Make Sure You NEVER Get a Green Card

[00:00:00]Here's how to really screw up your marriage based green card case.

[00:00:04]Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States out of our offices in St. Louis, San Diego, Washington D.C., and Chicago, Illinois. I was speaking to an immigrant couple the other day. A U.S. citizen is trying to sponsor his immigrant wife from Paraguay. She has been to the United States on many occasions, five or six. And but for the first two visits to the United States, she has come here for the sole purpose of working in the United States. She's been entering on a visit visa. She has been working for an employer at a restaurant using somebody else's name, a fake social security number, and get this, she's been stopping off on Mexico on her way back to Paraguay to make it look like she's only been in the United States for two weeks, when in fact, she overstayed her visa by two or three months.

[00:00:57]This couple was talking to me, "Do you think that my spouse is going to get a green card in the United States in June of 2026?" My answer, most likely not.

[00:01:09]This is why we don't do these things.

[00:01:12]You're not supposed to come to the United States and work on a visit visa.

[00:01:17]You're not supposed to use somebody else's social security number and identity. You're not supposed to work at a restaurant when you're here visiting.

[00:01:26]The purpose of a visit visa is to travel around, to go see the Smithsonian, to go to Niagara Falls, to stop by the Alamo in San Antonio. It is not to come work at Chi-Chi's. That is not the purpose of a visit visa. And the fact that you've married a U.S. citizen is nice and all, but the chances of success on a case like this when USCIS is using its discretion to deny green card cases left and right is very, very low, like 3%.

[00:01:59]What's much more likely to happen?

[00:02:01]You're going to get put into removal proceedings and they're going to find that you committed immigration fraud and broke several laws and they're going to put you in removal and you're never going to get to come back to the United States. What are people thinking? You can't be coming to the United States and breaking the rules like this. In fact, it's people like you that make it hard for everyday immigrants to go through this process. When USCIS comes across someone like you, that's what gives them the ammunition to say, "Oh, look at these immigrants.

[00:02:35]They're all a bunch of frauds. They're all here working illegally. They're all here here stealing jobs from US citizens." Now, do do any US citizens want this job? I don't know, but that's not what's important. What's important is you're purposely coming here over and over and over, lying to CBP, lying to them when you come through customs and saying, "I'm just coming to visit." Or even, "I'm just coming to see my boyfriend." When in fact, what you're coming to do is work.

[00:03:02]This is a huge problem. This person should not apply for lawful permanent resident status. There are so many questions on the I-45 that cover this conduct. Have you ever violated the terms of your non-immigrant visa? Have you ever worked in the United States without authorization? Have you ever given any documentation to a US government official that was false, fraudulent, or misleading? Not only did she stop off in Mexico to get that fake stamp to make it looks like she left after 2 weeks, she used that when she came right back to the United States.

[00:03:34]So, she lied to the CBP official as to when she had left the United States and she handed them documentation, namely her passport and her I-94 that made it look like she had left on time. I don't know what people are thinking, but what I do know is there's no way in hell that USCIS is going to give this person a green card. And you could conceivably say, "Well, Jim, what if they were honest about everything? What if they admitted the uh working without authorization, the using a false social security number, using doctored documents to reenter the United States?

[00:04:10]What if they admitted all that, got the I-130 approved, and then sought a waiver? I would posit that even if the US citizen who is the test person as to whether or not a waiver is issued, would they, the US citizen, suffer extreme hardship?

[00:04:26]I submit that even if that person was dying of brain cancer, that there's no way in hell USCIS is going to give an immigration benefit like a green card to someone who has so flagrantly broken the law, who has so flagrantly worked without authorization, and done everything you're not supposed to do on a visit visa. So, I don't usually get this worked up over people breaking the law, but this is like deliberate. This is like purposeful. Like, you had no real excuse or reason for doing this.

[00:04:58]Maybe you needed money, I get that. But that doesn't mean you get to break the law, and mostly what it means is you sure as hell are not getting a green card in the United States. So, I wish this person well. I hope they have a wonderful life. I don't bear them any ill will for what they're doing, but I do take offense to people breaking the law in such a brazen manner, and more importantly, making it so hard for everyday American uh visitors and residents who want to become US citizens, making it so hard for them to get all this extra scrutiny because of people like this lady. She gives the people that hate immigrants the ammunition that they need to really put the screws to all immigrants. And these days at USCIS, they can't distinguish between people who are really trying to do the right thing, and people like this lady who just so brazenly broke the law. So, this is not a case that we would take. A lot of people think, "Well, immigration lawyers, you only need them when you're breaking the law. You only need them when you haven't followed the rules. And you need an immigration lawyer to help you figure out how to get around this."

[00:06:04]Like, the husband was asking me, "Well, Jim, is there anything you can do for us?"

[00:06:08]No. No, I'm not taking this case. No, I have no interest in representing you.

[00:06:13]And I don't mean to be harsh. I'm sure there's somebody out there who might be willing to take your money and apply and say, "Oh, yeah, we can get you a waiver." There's no way in hell. There's no way in hell that this administration is going to give this person a green card based on this set of facts. That's just the cold reality here in 2026. And in fact, in this situation, I think that's the right outcome. What do you think? Let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear from you. If you have a legitimate green card case, if you are married and want to adjust your status in the United States, give us a call at 314-961-8200 or email us [email protected].

[00:06:50]Now, please don't contact us that way if you're just looking for free information. We have a ton of free information. I'm going to tell you about it now. But the purpose of calling the firm and the purpose of emailing the firm is if you're interested in having Hacking Immigration Law serve as your immigration lawyers and your immigration team as you go through the next process, asylum, immigration court, naturalization, green card, H-1B, whatever it is. We love to work with you, work with you and your employer, whatever it is. We'd be very happy to do that. But if you're just looking for free resources, there's like a little wall there.

[00:07:23]There we have the Immigration Answer Show, which is a show that I do on YouTube that you can uh subscribe to the channel and get alerted whenever we're going live. I go live three or four times a week where I do an hour and a half long show answering people's questions. We have our uh Facebook group. It's called Immigrant Home. You can join us there.

[00:07:41]You can post. there's 16,000 people in that group. You can ask questions, you can talk about whatever immigration issues you're going through. We'd love to have you join us there. You can follow us on TikTok, that's where we sort of have a little bit more fun with immigration at immigration hacking. You can follow me on LinkedIn where we post the news of the day as it relates to immigration. And then finally, make sure you subscribe to the channel and that you follow us on all the socials at Jim Hacking or at immigration hacking and we'd love to connect with you there.

[00:08:09]Thanks so much and we'll see you on the next video.