WHY I BECAME AN IMMIGRATION LAWYER By Sean Lewis

One of the first cases I accepted as a young lawyer was a very personal one. It involved bringing my own pregnant wife to be with me from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Back then, and as most people today think, I figured that since I was a United States Citizen, I had the right to quickly live with my spouse and start a family. I also counted on our government to process the immigration papers efficiently to ensure that I would have my first child in the United States, in a decent hospital. I quickly learned the lesson that drives me to help my own clients today:

The lesson: immigration law is complex.

In my case, a comedy of errors occurred which illustrate how difficult it is to legally immigrate to the U.S. I was separated from my wife while pleading with the legacy I.N.S. to just do its’ job for nearly a year. The long delay was caused by many errors made by the former INS.

Below, I will also illustrate how I learned the terminology we immigration lawyers use every day. Terms like "AOS", "POE", "DOS" etc... came to life before my eyes.

I filed for my spouse under the "new" LIFE ACT, K-3 spousal visa. At that time, Congress recognized the unnecessary long separations of spouses while waiting for adjustment of status ("AOS") and they intended that the K-3 spousal visa as a remedy to the situation. When I filed, the posted processing times from the Missouri Service Center ("MSC") at that time was "15-30 days". When I contacted the then-existing I.N.S. Commissioner and the White House, I had been waiting over 124 days. By that time, my wife was receiving no meaningful prenatal care (typical in Mexico) and it appeared that my child would be born abroad because she was 8 months pregnant. At one point, we nearly lost our child due to the negligent care of a "doctor" who could not determine the true age of the fetus but would not tell us that he was unsure. I learned that in Mexico, at least in Puerto Vallarta, there are even private "doctors" who have NO CLUE and are not regulated or threatened by malpractice suits as in the U.S.

The Petition

 I received a notice of rejection which stated "Wrong Fee" and the entire package was returned. I keep the rejection notice proudly framed and posted in my office to show that I also experienced the same problems a client might encounter. The correct fee was $95.00 (which is what I had sent), so I had to write another check with the correct fee of $95.00 again and re-submit the identical petition to the MSC.  It took the MSC twenty days to look at the correct fee, reject the file in "error" and print the rejection letter! The "error" cited by the Texas Service Center ("TSC") was that they had lost the photos in the process of accepting the petition. That meant more photo-taking in Mexico and more courier fees for us in addition to delay. This was only the beginning.

Two months later, I received a Request for Evidence ("RFE") asking for a "Copy of V Visa in Passport". Of course, this was a K-3 visa case, not a "V-Visa"! About 17 days later, I received another RFE asking for additional birth certificates for my two new step-children. The MSC had LOST both documents somehow, and now we would be faced with further delay, my wife was no less pregnant with a due date 2 months away at this point. It was during this time that a person who called himself a "doctor" attempted to induce labor on my wife two months early. Apparently he misread the ultra-sound. This is the type of pre-natal "care" available in Puerto Vallarta¹.

 Because there was no clear policy as to what constituted proof of a pending I-129F petition, I followed what fellow AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) lawyers were doing: I sent a copy of the cancelled check with the "A #" written on the back of the check as proof. In my case, the I.N.S. arbitrarily reversed its’ policy of accepting cancelled checks, and rejected my filing proof! This was immediately following a MSC liaison teleconference where the new policy was announced. Thus, I had to re-submit the petition and wait for it to be processed all over again.

At that point, I turned to Congressional liaison for help. I contacted then-Sen. Fred Thompson’s office and explained the situation. The response from I.N.S. was "the work visa is missing documents" and "a supervisor will issue an additional RFE if necessary. This was a direct quite from "Michael" at Fred Thompson’s office. Again, the I.N.S. could not even grasp what type of case it had been asked to process. By the time my case was approved my wife was 8.5 months pregnant, and she went into labor when I went to bring her "home" while I was connecting flights to meet her at the U.S. Consulate at CDJ

The U.S. Consulate experience: Cuidad Juarez.

Because I was expecting to bring my pregnant wife home, with my two small step-children, I was not prepared for a two day visit at the U.S. Consulate, begging for my 6 day old daughter to receive her "Consular Report of Birth Abroad to a U.S. Citizen" so she could enter the U.S. In order to bring your child of a U.S. Citizen from Mexico, it is necessary to "register" the birth at a local "Registro Civil" first. I believe that my daughter was 4 days old when we registered her and six days old when I brought her to the consulate.

After going though the medical examinations, long lines, avoiding being robbed in the streets of a rough border town, we were able to get a Report of birth to a U.S. Citizen (equivalent to US Citizenship) in about 8 hours on the second day. However, due to my past history of touring musician, and then 8 years of study, I did not "have any real evidence" that I had "not abandoned" my residency in the United States! This was the statement from the officer handling the case. One of the beautiful things of being in a famous 80’s rock band , was that there was a new technology (internet) which gave evidence of my existence in the United States: the internet! I actually got the officer to run a web search of my band’s name. She found some concert information and a few write-ups which confirmed my story. 

The Point of Entry ("POE"): Border Crossing.

In Juarez, there is this long bridge, possibly two miles long we had to walk across in the hot desert heat. I had everything my wife owned in large suitcases, three children (ages: six days, four years and six years), and a wife just out of child birth with me. When we arrived at the window to apply for the "visa", the officer had never heard of a K-3/K-4 spousal visa! I had to explain it to him, and even read the interim regulation to him. Then and only then did he issue the visas.

This is why I practice immigration law: to protect my clients from a large bully: the immigration process. I have been throgh the same process and will never forget it.


¹Subsequentally, we fired this "doctor" and found a great OB/GYN at the American Hospital (San Javier Hospital) and had no further complications.

"UPL And Language Fraud In Tennessee: A Notarious Problem", Nashville Bar Journal, (Feb. 2005-Vol.5, no.2).

In this article, Sean Lewis discusses the problem of businesses who take advantage of the language barrier and represent that they are licensed attorneys by the use of the word "notario publico" to take fees for unlicensed practice of law. The article reveals that most Spanish-speaking immigrants are too afraid to report the problem to authorities, and that virtually no enforcement had taken place in Tennessee at the time the article was released. Also revealed is the different classes of legal service providers in Latin America, similar to the Inns of Court distinction between barristers and solicitors. However, a notario publico is an attorney of immense prestige and represents the validity of transactions on behalf of the state in most civil-law notary jurisdictions. The article then discusses the problem related to botched immigration cases handled by these unscrupulous predators.

"Lost in Translation", Nashville Scene, (May 4,2006).

Illegal ‘lawyers’ in Nashville’s Latino community use a linguistic sleight of hand to rip off fellow immigrants, a lawsuit claims

Lost in Translation