 INS DISTRICT OFFICE APPEARS TO DENY 245 (I) APPLICATIONS BASED ON UNAUTHORIZED EMPLOYMENT
We have received information that the INS District Office in Minnesota, in adjudicating Section 245(i) family based cases, is planning to deny applications where the applicant used a false Social Security number to gain employment. According to the INS, such used of a Social Security number constitutes a crime involving moral turpitude.
It seems the INS is arguing when the applicant admits that they have used a false number, they are making an admission of a crime. Section 245(i) waives the application of many entry bars, but not those relating to criminal offenses, one of which is the admission of certain crimes even without a conviction. In the past, such use of a Social Security number was not considered a crime that would bar someone from entering the US, so the admission provision would not apply.
Applying the admission provision would appear to be a substantial policy change, although it is unclear whether it may be only an error by the Minnesota office. A memo from the INS General Counsel in 1991 indicates that “misrepresentations made to an employer in completing a Form I-9 are not statements made to a United States government official authorized to grant visas or other benefits under the Act and therefore cannot form the basis for the exclusion of an alien under section 212(a)(19) of the Act. The same holds true for presentation of counterfeit documents.”
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