Losing Your Green Card Through Rescission
Are you in danger of losing your permanent residency status?
Are you in removal proceedings because you were charged with lying to obtain your green card?
Did you commit marriage fraud to obtain your green card?
Your green card (lawful permanent resident status) may be rescinded within 5 years of adjusting status (being granted U.S. permanent residency status), if it appears that you were ineligible for a green card. Also called “rescission,” this process can strip you of your permanent residency legal status and place you in removal proceedings.
To bring recission proceedings, USCIS must determine that you were not eligible for adjustment of status at the time you were granted your green card and that you were not eligible for adjustment of status under any other provision of the law at that time. Recission proceedings take place in front of an Immigration Judge and you will face an ICE Trial Counsel who will fight to take away your green card. Although you can contest the recission in these circumstances, it could be an uphill battle.
The consequences of having your green card rescinded can be far reaching. If you sponsored a spouse or child based on your own lawful permanent residency status and your status is rescinded, your relatives who became green card holders also lose their status. If you became a U.S. citizen in the five years after you received your green card grant (possible if you were married to a U.S. citizen), then you would lose your citizenship status based on fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship and a separate proceeding would commence.
Challenging rescission cases and defending your green card can take a huge amount of effort and legal skill. You will find yourself in an adversarial proceeding with an ICE attorney looking for weaknesses in your case by challenging your credibility and the credibility of your evidence and witnesses. S/he will conduct an aggressive cross-examination of you and your witnesses with the object of rebutting and refuting your evidence. For these reasons, and because changes in the law have made it harder for noncitizens to win in immigration court, it is vital to talk to an experienced family and removal immigration attorney about your options.
SGG’s team of removal attorneys have a combined 50+ years of experience with complex family and removal cases. We are used to challenging judges, immigration officers, and ICE trial attorneys and defending the rights of our clients, thinking outside the box, and preserving options for relief.