Please help - I-140 and unauthorized employment

K

kid4life

Registered Users (C)
Hello,

My wife's company is currently processing her green card. The I-140 application was submitted about a month ago. It included my name as her husband on the application as well.

Here is the problem -
I worked without employment authorization in 1998 for about 2 months during a summer internship at a local government office. I think this pay is being reflected in my Annual Social Security Statement as my "taxable earnings for 1998" .

My question is - how will this lapse in judgement affect my wife's I-140 application. We were initially planning on doing Consular processing after her I-140 got approved, but now it seems it may be a problem to do so.

Will the USCIS have access to my tax records going back for 8+ years. ?

I am really stressed out by this. I am planning on call a lawyer on monday morning, but need the collective help of this community !! Please help !!

Thanks
 
I dont think it will be a problem approving I-140. for I-140 USCIS will look at your wife's Labor and company credentials. However, It might be an issue later when you file I-485. USCIS might not ask for details of your unautorized employment If you have maintained Legal Status all time you have stayed in USA and you have documentation to prove it.

Are you maintaining legas status all the time?

what is your legal status when your are involved in unauthorized employment?
 
Hello,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I was on a Canadian permanent resident status during 1998. Before 9/11, Canadian permanent residents did not need visas to come into the US. I spent the summer of 1998 in the US visiting my aunt. However, in those days, the border people did not make any entry or exit stamps on my passport. Hence during the summer internship in 1998, I was technically a visitor to the US.

After 1998, I have maintained valid legal status in the US ranging from a student visa to H1B and now back to student visa. During this time frame, I also acquired my Canadian citizenship and have not partaken in any further unauthorized employment.

My main concern is that I did have to give to my summer internship employer my SSN and this record of my employment exists. I was wondering if there is any recourse to this dilemma?
 
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My guess is that the only search where this may pop up is the FBI name check or during an interview - if they ask to produce tax return statements and it shows up as income.

For FBI name check, unless you had been importing uranium from Angola, I highly doubt anything will pop up. And even with the uranium import business, most likely they will not find it.

It is still a paper process, and all the databases are not linked. I am making living selling software to federal government. They keep paying pretty penny, and keep screwing it up beyond all recognition.

In any case, if that was not gainful employement, I would think you will slip past interview as well.
 
Hello,
Thanks for the reply.

How many years worth of tax returns does USCIS usually ask for? Assuming the EB3 backlog takes another 2-3 years to get to our priority date (June 2006), this would make it about 2008-2009 before our case (I-485 application) gets processed. Would they ask for a tax return from 10 years (1998) ago or do they usually ask for the last 5 years worth of tax info?
 
Well , my employer sent in recent tax returns when we sent in my I140 petition and we got an RFE asking for tax returns of the year the job was offered (which is the year we applied for labor certification).
 
Unauthorized employment in 1998 should not be a problem provided that you have left and re-entered the United States since then.

What is important is that under NO circumstances do you lie about it. If it's on the tax records, there's a chance that USCIS knows about it. I've seen several cases where someone lies about a trivial matter, and that results in a denial and a lifetime bar due to fraud or misrepresentation.

To give an analagy, it's like someone about to get pulled over for a broken taillight and instead leads the cops on a five hour chase across two states. They were about to get a $50 ticket before, and wind up spending months (or years) in jail.
 
Hello,
Thank you for your replies.

I have left and reentered the US (with valid status always) ~ 50 times since 1998, mostly on trips to Canada.

I do not plan on misrepresenting myself about this unauthorized employment in 1998. Can you please give me an example of how it would come up?, ie. would it have to be entered on any application form? or would this come up during conversation during an immigration interview?

I guess I am torn between letting the USCIS know proactively about this indiscretion or should I wait and see if it comes up during the I-140 or I-485 application process and deal with it then?

How should I broach the subject with my wife's lawyer?

Thanks.
 
kid4life said:
Hello,
I guess I am torn between letting the USCIS know proactively about this indiscretion or should I wait and see if it comes up during the I-140 or I-485 application process and deal with it then?
Click to expand...

Part 3 of I485 has 14 questions. None is about the unauthorized employment or anything related. So there is no opportunity to lie. Maybe item 10 can be interpreted as related (willful misrepresentation of a material fact in order to procure immigration benefits), but I do not see how.

There is nothing wrong with not volunteering information. Let them ask, if they bother. I would think that possibility would be miniscule. They have bigger fish to catch, and that's how it should be.
 
Hello,
Thanks for the reply.

So, would I-485 be the path of least resistance for this type of case. My wife and I were quite intent on going the CP route (obviously to get the plastic card in hand sooner).

During the CP process what information is requested in the "Packets", is it similar to the I-485 supporting documentation? ie, do they ask for Tax returns and if so, is it for a specific prior date range?
 
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