I entered the US without documents. Was my entry illegal?

Some individuals may have entered the US illegally due to a lack of a passport and/or visa.

There are also individuals who believe to have entered the US illegally when it actually wasn’t that way. For instance, if you have been a long time living near the border, or have frequently passed through the border in the past years.

If you are looking for ways to obtain legal status without leaving the US, there is an alternative that can be based on a US citizen son or daughter over 21 years or a spouse, and it starts with the way you entered the country.

In certain cases, to obtain legal status without leaving the US, legal entry to the country must be demonstrated. Is not always like this. There are individuals who do not need to demonstrate that they entered the country legally in order to obtain legal status without leaving.

It is possible that, during the 90’s or the first years after 2000, you have exited and entered back to the US without needing a passport for getting back. Back then, in order to get back to the US, certain individuals did not need a passport or visa, and it was possible to leave the US or stay in Mexico and enter back to the US through the border and immigration officers.

If officers were under the impression that the individual was holding documents to enter the US, access was granted. Waivers which letted individuals enter the country were also provided. In some other cases, officers could ask, either if you were inside a car or walking through the border, if you were a US citizen, to which it was needed to respond positively in case of being a US citizen, or mention the fact that you held a green card or a visa, point from which access to the US was granted.

In such times, when it was easier to enter the US, many individuals entered by foot or by car through the border, and immigration officers would allow access. There was no need to provide false documentation. Here is where individuals who immigration officers allowed enter the US through waivers come in.

Those individuals who went through this situation do not have illegal entry. It can be thought that, given the lack of a visa or a US passport, the fact that the officer granted you access to the US without documents constitutes an illegal entry, when is not.

If you entered by foot through the border too. Sometimes, it must be waited up to four hours to enter the US. La fila a veces es muy larga, y la gente puede empezar a caminar por el puente para ingresar al país. Sometimes, in order to speed up the traffic at the border, immigration officers would let people in without asking for documents. That does not constitute an illegal entry.

It can be hard to prove to have entered the US legally through the border without documents. However, if you count on witnesses and can explain to the point of clarifying everything, you may have the opportunity to obtain legal status without leaving the US.

Another common situation is that of individuals with permanent bar. It must be remembered that, with the permanent bar, the first thing to consider is the entries and exits, reason which is highly recommended that you talk with an immigration attorney, given that it can be difficult to determine if you are under this ban.

The permanent bar

Briefly: The permanent bar is applied to individuals who have at least one year of unlawful presence or a deportation order after April 1st of 1997, leave (or get removed) from the US, and get back a second time illegally. It can be important to receive the assessment of an immigration attorney, given that not every entries and exits imply the permanent bar.

About the legal and illegal entries, it is possible that an individual has a deportation order or had more than one year living in the US, has left the country, and gotten back without documents, but legally through the border being allowed by immigration officers.

An individual who believes to be under the permanent bar due to his/her entries and exits, or to a deportation order, that comes back by foot or car through the border and the officer grants access, does not have an illegal entry. This does not include cases of individuals who lied alleging to be US citizens or showing false documentation; but cases of individuals who entered by foot or by car through the border with the permission of an immigration officer without a visa or passport.

This can be a legal entry, and such entry, depending if it was legal or not, can be the difference between being or not being under the permanent bar.

Despite not being longer possible, as you can see, it was possible to enter the US legally without documents in the past under certain circumstances.

To make a consultation, you can call (202) 933-3379. Before having to pay for a consultation, we will evaluate your case completely free to determine if it is something we can help with.