How to Protect Your Immigration Status During a Criminal Case

Getting arrested or charged with a crime can seriously affect your immigration status, even if you’re not convicted.

If you’re not a U.S. citizen, here are 5 critical steps to protect yourself:

1. Don’t Talk Without a Lawyer

Anything you say can be used against you — in both criminal AND immigration court. Ask for a lawyer immediately.

2. Tell Your Attorney You’re Not a Citizen

Not all defense lawyers ask, so speak up. A good attorney can fight for outcomes that protect your immigration future.

3. Avoid Pleading Guilty Without Advice

Some plea deals may seem “safe” but can lead to deportation. Always consult an immigration attorney before accepting any plea.

4. Don’t Miss Court Dates

Failing to appear can trigger a warrant and immigration consequences. Stay on top of your court schedule.

5. Call an Immigration Lawyer ASAP

The sooner you get legal help, the better your chances of staying in the country.

Your freedom and your future are on the line.

If you’re facing criminal charges and you’re not a citizen, call us today for a confidential consultation.

763-549-0670

Serving Minnesotans across the state

📢 Major Update: USCIS Announces New Changes to the Naturalization Civics Test for 2025

On September 17, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) unveiled the first set of changes to the naturalization civics test, marking the beginning of a multi-step overhaul aimed at strengthening the integrity of the American citizenship process.

🧠 What’s Changing?

The updated 2025 civics test now includes stricter standards to assess an applicant’s understanding of U.S. history and government, a critical part of meeting the legal requirements for naturalization. USCIS is also placing greater emphasis on English proficiency, good moral character, and genuine contributions to American society.

📌 Key Highlights:

Tougher vetting and eligibility reviews

Stricter scrutiny of disability exceptions

Renewed focus on English reading, writing, and speaking skills

Disqualifications for unlawful voting or false citizenship claims

Resumption of neighborhood investigations to verify eligibility

⚖️ At Swaray Law, we understand that navigating the naturalization process can be overwhelming, especially with evolving policies. Our experienced team is here to help you prepare for the new civics test, gather the right documentation, and ensure your path to citizenship is on solid ground.

✅ Need Help Understanding These Changes?

Book a consultation with us today. Let’s take the next step together toward your American dream.

📞 763-549-0670

“Expungement: Clearing Your Record”

Did you know some criminal charges can be erased from your record?

Expungement is the legal process of sealing or erasing a criminal conviction, meaning:

It won’t show up in background checks

It can improve your job and housing prospects

You get a fresh start

Every case is different, and not all charges qualify, but it is worth exploring.

You don’t have to be defined by your past. Contact us today for trusted legal representation!

Receiving a visa denial can feel overwhelming, but it’s not the end of the road. Whether you’re applying for a family visa, work visa, or green card, understanding your options is key. If you’re in Minnesota, here’s what comes next:

1. Understand the Reason for Denial

USCIS or the U.S. Embassy will usually explain why your visa was denied — whether it’s missing documents, inadmissibility, or something else.

2. You May Be Able to Reapply or Appeal

Depending on the type of visa and the reason for denial, you may be able to:

-Reapply with additional evidence

-File a motion to reopen or reconsider

-Appeal to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO)

3. Local Legal Support Matters

Immigration laws are federal, but how your case is handled can vary by local USCIS offices and courts, such as those in St. Paul or Minneapolis. An immigration attorney in Minnesota will understand how these local offices operate.

4. Timing Is Critical

Appeals and motions often have strict deadlines. Don’t wait to act; delays can cost you another opportunity.

Need Help? We’re Here.

If your visa has been denied, our Minnesota-based immigration attorney can review your case, explain your options, and guide you through the next steps.

Call us today for a confidential consultation at 763-549-0670

You still have options. Let’s find the right one for you.

#MinnesotaImmigration#VisaDenialHelp#ImmigrationLawyerMN#USVisaHelp#ImmigrationAttorney#LawFirm

The new school year is here! Whether your child is starting kindergarten or senior year, it’s a good time to make sure your legal affairs are in order, especially if you’re dealing with family, immigration, or juvenile legal matters.

Here are some essential tips to keep in mind:

1. Custody & School Decisions

Who gets to decide where your child goes to school?

If you share legal custody, both parents have a say. Disagreements about school enrollment, IEPs, or extracurriculars can lead to conflict, and even legal action.

Tip: Review your parenting plan and make sure school-related decisions are clearly addressed.

2. Updating School Records After a Divorce or Custody Change

If there’s been a change in custody or contact information, don’t forget to update the school so they know who to contact in case of emergency and who has permission to pick up your child.

3. Know Your Child’s Rights at School

Whether it’s bullying, suspension, or disciplinary action, students still have rights. If your child is facing serious consequences at school, they may also be at risk of juvenile court involvement.

Talk to an attorney before signing any school or legal documents related to discipline.

4. Immigration Status & School Enrollment

In Minnesota, all children have the right to attend public school, regardless of immigration status.

If you’re undocumented, don’t be afraid to enroll your children; schools are not immigration enforcement agencies.

Need help with DACA renewals or adjustment of status before graduation? Now is the time to act.

5. Juvenile Law: School-Year Traps

Skipping school, fighting, or even social media activity can lead to juvenile charges.

Minnesota takes truancy seriously, and it can result in court involvement for both students and parents.

Tip: If your child is summoned to juvenile court, don’t go it alone. Legal representation matters.

Need legal guidance this school year?

Our experienced attorney is here to help you protect your rights and your child’s future; from family court to immigration to criminal defense.

Call us today to schedule a consultation.

Serving families across Minnesota.

A preference category immigrant is an immigrant visa beneficiary that has been classified by her petitioner but cannot apply for an immigrant visa (Green Card) to enter the United States because no visa is yet immediately available to her.  The Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) issues the immigrant beneficiary a priority date that is listed on the notice of her approved alien relative petition.  The priority date is the date, in the case of a family based petition, on which the alien relative petition was filed with the CIS by the petitioner.  The alien beneficiary would then have to stay in the preference category, also called “The Waiting List”, until an immigrant visa becomes available.  A visa becomes available when the priority date on the alien relative petition becomes earlier than the stated cut-off date under a a particular Preference Category on the the United States State Department immigration visa bulletin.

There are four preference categories in family sponsored visa petitions, and to which the United States Congress allocates a maximum number of visas in each fiscal year.  The categories are as follows:

First:  (F1) Comprises unmarried Sons and Daughters, age 21 or older, of United States citizens.  Congress allocates 23,400 visas plus any number of unused visas from the Fourth preference category each year to this category.

Second:  (F2) Comprises spouses and children, and unmarried Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents. Congress, each year, allocates 114,200 visas plus any visa left overs after the 226,000 visa allocation in all the other categories plus any unused visas in the First Preference Category.  F2 Preference Visa Categories are subdivided into F2A and F2B.  The F2A visa subdivision comprises all spouses and unmarried children, under 21, of Permanent Residents.  The F2B category comprises unmarried Sons and Daughters, 21 years or older, of Permanent Residents.  Of the 114,200 visas in the F2 category, Congress allocates 77% or approximately 87,973 visas to the F2A category while it allocates 23% or 26,266 visas to the F2B category.  Of the 77% overall visa allocation to the F2A category, 75% are exempt from the visa per-country limit.

Third:  (F3) Comprises married Sons and Daughters of US citizens.  Congress allocates 23,400, plus any left over visas in the First and Second preferences in this category.

Fourth:  (F4) Comprises Brothers and Sisters of adult US citizens.  Congress allocates 65,000, plus any unused visas from the first three preferences.

Let us suppose that a United States citizen acquires an approved alien relative classification from the CIS for her adult Daughter that is over 21 years old, but the beneficiary, after the establishment of the application priority date, gets married to an alien.  What then happens to the approved alien relative petition after the marriage?  Does the marriage extinguish the petition?

The answer to this question, which very often confronts the ill-informed immigrant visa beneficiary, is no, because the doctrine of automatic conversion springs to the rescue of the petition, and saves it from destruction.

Automatic conversion, under immigration law, as it relates to the preference category visa processing, is where an event pertaining to the status of the alien beneficiary causes the beneficiary’s relationship to the qualifying relative to shift from one preference category to another in the list of preference categories.  In Matter of Wang, the BIA stated that when the event occurs, neither the beneficiary, nor an immigration officer, need take an action to bring the preference category conversion into effect.  Rather, the conversion occurs by operation of law.  The Board further stated that the conversion does not entail a change in the petitioner or the sponsored’s status as it relates to the application process, or a new filing of the petition.  See Matter of Wang, 25 I & N Dec. 28, 35 (BIA 2009).  In addressing the same matter in 2014, the United States Supreme Court stated that the conversion does not involve additional service decisions, contingencies or delays.  In fact, it operates as a mechanical cut-and-paste job, and moves the petition without any substantive alteration from one category to another.  The occurrence of the event should notify and instruct the immigration officer to change the current preference category of the beneficiary to another as provided by the preference category law.  See Scilabala v. De Osorio, 134 S.Ct. 2191, 2204 (2014).

In the case of the over 21 alien beneficiary, the conversion would automatically remove the beneficiary from the First Preference category comprising unmarried Sons and Daughters of United States citizens to the Third Preference category, which comprise married Sons and Daughters of US citizens.

Automatic conversion allows the beneficiary to keep her originally approved alien relative priority date.  Here, the married beneficiary, even though she is now in a different preference category, will maintain, based on this provision, her original alien relative priority date.

But what happens if the alien beneficiary’s marriage fares badly and she is forced to dissolve it even before the completion of the immigrant visa process?  Does the dissolution destroy the approved alien relative petition and the concomittant new Third Preference Category?  If not, is she stuck in the category?

The answer is no!  The Code of Federal Regulation (CFR), in support of the automatic conversion theory, states that when the dissolution event occurs, the beneficiary’s classification reverts back from her present F3 category to the former F1 Preference Category, where she was before she conjugally became active.  Again, under the automatic conversion theory, no special legal intervention is warranted.  The appropriate event shifts occur automatically and by themsleves. See 8 CFR 204.2(i) (1) (iii).

As one can see, by now, automatic conversion is a refuge to approved alien relative petitions that are kept on the waiting preference category cliff.

The writer of this blog, Amadu Edward Swaray, is an immigration attorney with Swaray Law Office in Brooklyn Center Minnesota.  Brooklyn Center is one of the contiguous cities around Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park, Crystal, Robbinsdale, Anoka and Champlin.  The article is not intended to be a legal advice to anyone, but a mere legal information.  If you or someone you know is interested in knowing more about family immigration visas, and or Automatic Conversion, in particular, contact the Law Office at 763-549-0670 or swarayassociates@cs.com.        

Voluntary Departure is the departure of an alien from the United States because of an immigration offense without an order of removal from the immigration court.  Once an alien is granted the voluntary departure, he gives up all rights to any other available relief and must depart the United States within the time the immigration court has specified.  Under a voluntary departure grant, the alien can depart the United States on his own, without the ten year bar of a removal order, and can legally re-enter the country.  There are four types of voluntary departure. They are pre-hearing voluntary departure, voluntary departure at the beginning of a removal hearing, voluntary departure from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during a removal proceeding and voluntary departure from the court at the end of a removal hearing.

An alien who is arrested and detained by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for an immigration offense may ask ICE to grant him voluntary departure even before he appears before the immigration court to answer to the charges against him.  This option makes sense where the alien’s commission of the offense is not questionable, and he also has no available relief to protect him from deportation.

But the alien can wait until the beginning of his removal proceeding to ask for voluntary departure.  This is usually at his Master Calendar hearing in immigration court.  To qualify, the alien must make the request before his first Master Calendar hearing; request no other form of relief; admit his removability; waive his right to appeal all issues; and prove that he has not been convicted of an aggravated felony; and not deportable for national security or public safety reasons.

Sometimes a DHS attorney may agree with the alien’s attorney to grant voluntary departure to the alien, if the alien does not have an aggravated felony record, at any time in the removal proceedings.  But this rarely happens.

The alien can also request voluntary departure at the end of his removal proceedings.  This happens where the alien is not likely to prevail on the removal claims against him, and he does not have a relief that will save him from deportation, and the removal proceedings is about to come to an end.  But the court’s grant of his request is pegged on the following factors:  the alien has been physically present in the United States for one year immediately before the service of the Notice to Appear (NTA) on him; has money to post a bond within five days of the judge’s order; has good moral character in the most recent five years before his voluntary departure request; not an aggravated felon or terrorist; not granted voluntary departure previously; has a valid passport or travel document for inspection and authentication by the United States Government and establishes that he has the financial means to leave the United States at his own expense and intends to leave within the required time.

Voluntary departure, in all cases, is a discretionary grant either by the DHS or the immigration court.  The conditions become tighter the longer the requester waits in the course of the immigration proceedings.  If the alien is granted voluntary departure, and he does not leave within the departure specified time, he will face severe consequences, including ineligibility for several other forms of relief.  The failure to depart turns into a warrant against the non-departing alien.  The relief does not forgive other immigration violations, such as unlawful presence.

The writer of this blog is an immigration attorney with Swaray Law Office, LTD located in Brooklyn Center in Minnesota.  Brooklyn Center is contiguous to Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park, Crystal, Robbinsdale and Maple Grove.  If you are in removal proceedings, and need the service of an attorney, please visit www.swaraylawoffice.com or contact us at swarayassociates@cs.com or 763-549-0670

Swaray Law Office building on a bright sunny day.

Residency and physical presence in the United States are among the centerpiece requirements for naturalization in the country. The applicant must reside in the country for the five year period immediately before he files his naturalization application.  If married to a United States citizen, he must reside continuously in the United States for the three year period immediately before the date of his application.  He must also be physically present in the country for at least 30 months or for two and half years of the five year period immediately before his application.

But if  a permanent resident must live outside the United States because of a job with the US Government, private sector or religious organization, and wants to apply for naturalization, he can avoid the residence and physical presence requirements by applying with the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) for preservation of his residency for naturalization. If the CIS approves his application, he can live outside the country as a permanent resident and the period will not be counted against the residency and physical presence requirements of his naturalization application.

The application is filed on a Form N-470, also known as an Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization purposes.  To qualify for the relief, the applicant must first have been physically present and resident in the United States continuously, without absences, for at least one year upon admission as a lawful permanent resident.  Religious workers are exempt from this requirement.  Second, the applicant must be employed with the United States Government, a private sector or a United States religious organization.  One is deemed to be physically present in the United States when the person is within the territorial borders of the United States.  One is deemed to be resident in the United States when the person has a principal residence in any part of the country.  Examples of principal residences include the ownership by the person of a house, apartment or other of abode type which the person owns or possesses with no immediate intent to abandon while outside the United States.  Examples of employment with the United States Government are work with the United States Government under a contract or with an American research institution, firm, corporation or the like.  Employment with a public international organization of which the United States is a member by treaty or statute is another example of a job with the United States Government.  But the applicant should not have been employed with the public international organization before becoming a lawful permanent president.

Spouses of United States citizens that are eligible for naturalization are exempt from establishing the naturalization residency and physical presence requirements, and therefore, not required to file for preservation of continuous residence.  Note that the grant of an application to preserve residence for citizenship does not relieve a permanent resident from obtaining a re-entry permit in advance of trips outside the United States for one year or more.  The grant does not also exempt the permanent resident from United States admissibility requirements of his permanent residency status.

This blog is by an attorney at Swaray Law Office in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.  Brooklyn Center is located in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities.  It is north of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and contiguous to Brooklyn Park, Crystal, Robbinsdale, Maple Grove and Blaine.  To visit Swaray Law Office, please go to www.swaraylawoffice.com, or call 763-549-0670 or email us at swarayassociates@cs.com.

Without an executed and signed certification, the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) cannot issue a U-Visa.  Certification is where the U-Visa applicant requests and a law enforcement officer confirms that the applicant suffered from a qualifying U-visa crime, and is helpful or likely to be helpful in the prosecution of the crime. The process is also referred to as “Certification of Helpfulness”.

Side view of Swaray Law Office

Under the U-Visa Act, “Helpfulness” is not specifically defined.  But in several post enactment guidelines, DHS has explained the term, and in general, now means that a victim of a U-visa crime informs law enforcement that she is a victim of the crime, and has specific and detailed knowledge of the crime, and has been, or is being or likely to be helpful to law enforcement in the detection, investigation or prosecution of the crime.  Some of the ways a victim can be helpful to law enforcement is to identify the crime perpetrator, assist in his apprehension, provide evidence useful to finding and apprehending him, and agree to testify against him if the case were to go to trial.

The certification starts with the victim filling out the USCIS Form I-918 and filing it with a particular law enforcement agency, which will, in turn, assess her usefulness to the investigation of the crime, and if satisfied sign the form.  Occasionally, the process is initiated by law enforcement.  Where certification is initiated by a crime victim, it is usually done with advocate or attorney assistance.  The agency head or his delegate signs the certification.  The law enforcement agency is not obligated to certify a U-Visa application since certification is purely discretionary.  Neither the victim, nor her attorney or the DHS or any other agency can compel a certification.  By signing a certification, law enforcement attests that the victim’s crime information is true and correct to the best of his knowledge.

Certification has no statute of limitation, and valid even where the investigation or the prosecution of the case is closed.  Once the certification is completed, the law enforcement official must return it to the victim or her attorney.  It does not need to separately send it to the CIS.  The victim can then send it together with her U-Visa application to the CIS.  The head of a law enforcement agency at the federal, state of local level or prosecutor, judge or other agency with authority to investigate or prosecute a qualifying crime can issue a certification.  This includes, among others, agencies with criminal investigative authority, child and adult protective services, Equal Opportunity Commission, federal and state departments of labor, and even law enforcement officials with a memorandum of understanding with DHS.

A U-Visa certification can be revoked if the victim unreasonably refuses to provide assistance after the U-visa has been granted.  In such a case, the law enforcement agency would inform the USCIS of the victim’s refusal, and after due investigation, the visa will be revoked.  The signing of a certification does not guarantee a U-visa grant.  It is merely a fulfillment of a requirement in the U-visa process.  Other requirements have to be met for the U-visa to be ultimately granted.

A U-visa certification is valid even if the initial crime being investigated is different from the crime that is eventually prosecuted.  For example, a U-visa investigation starts with burglary, which is not a listed qualifying crime, but in the process of investigation, the person is found to be a victim of torture.

This blogger is an attorney at Swaray Law Office, LTD.  About 65% of the attorney’s practice is in immigration law.  Swaray Law Office is located in Brooklyn Center in Minnesota.  Brooklyn Center is north of Minneapolis/St. Paul.  The city is contiguous to Robbinsdale, Crystal, Brooklyn Park, Blaine, Maple Grove and Golden Valley.  Should you be interested in contacting the office, visit www.swaraylawoffice.com or 763-549-0670 or email at swarayassociates@cs.com.