Applying for GC after 10+ years illegal presence

Katherine22

Registered Users (C)
Hello, my brother-in-law entered the US on a valid visa over 10 years ago. He overstayed the visa ever since. While his visa was still active, he was arrested for "criminal usury," which is charging unlawfully high interest rates. He served jail time briefly (1-2 months) and was on probabtion for some time thereafter.

That was 10 years ago. He has not been in any trouble since that time. He now wishes to apply for his green card based on his marriage to my sister (married for 5 years now). I know that USCIS will usually forgive illegal presence, but how does his previous arrest work against him? Does anyone know whether his "criminal usury" conviction will prevent him from obtaining his GC? And how does USCIS deal with arrests once the person has been illegal for so long?

Thanks so much for any help.

Katherine
 
That was 10 years ago. He has not been in any trouble since that time. He now wishes to apply for his green card based on his marriage to my sister (married for 5 years now).

If your sister is a US citizen, his overstay will be forgiven. If not, then he will not be able to get a GC.

I know that USCIS will usually forgive illegal presence, but how does his previous arrest work against him? Does anyone know whether his "criminal usury" conviction will prevent him from obtaining his GC? And how does USCIS deal with arrests once the person has been illegal for so long?

His illegal presence is orthogonal to the arrest. He needs to consult an immigration attorney to determine whether he is criminally inadmissible, and then get certified court records regarding the disposition of his case.
 
There is a requirement to have a "good character" to obtain a green card. Arrests and jail time interfere with that and you have to wait a number of years until they consider it expired. They definitively need a good lawyer.
 
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