Experienced Help With Criminal Deportation Matters
For an immigrant, a criminal conviction, especially one involving drugs, violence or fraud, can seriously impact your immigration status in Los Angeles, California and the rest of the United States. If you are an immigrant, a criminal conviction can make you ineligible to immigrate to the U.S. at all. If you have a green card, you can lose your permanent residency and any chance for United States citizenship. You could also be deported. This is true even if your crime is 20 years old.
Contact a Los Angeles Criminal Deportation Attorney Today!
If you are having immigration problems because you are an immigrant with a criminal conviction, contact the Law Offices of Gita B. Kapur with an experienced Los Angeles criminal deportation attorney. Call toll free at 866-643-8852.
At the Los Angeles, California Law Offices of Gita B. Kapur, we help immigrants who have already been convicted of crimes overcome immigration consequences such as deportation or denial of a green card. We also handle the criminal deportation matters and mitigate any negative immigration consequences with your criminal arrest. Our firm has a strong record of post-conviction relief successes that have helped some of our immigrant clients move forward without criminal records obstructing their goals.
Immigration Waiver Lawyer in Los Angeles
If you have criminal convictions, it is more difficult to get legal status through a family member. You may be eligible to ask for a waiver (or pardon) for your crimes with a Los Angeles criminal immigration attorney. There are several types of waivers, but the most common are the 212(h) waiver and 212(c) waiver.
- 212 (h) waiver: This waiver allows you to get legal status through a family member even though you have criminal convictions. It can waive crimes of “moral turpitude” except murder or torture, prostitution, one offense of simple possession of marijuana and multiple criminal convictions.
- 212 (c) waiver: This is a discretionary waiver that allows lawful permanent residents who are deportable on the basis of criminal convictions to keep their green cards and remain in the United States. But it is important to keep in mind that it is within the discretion of the Immigration Judge to grant it after considering all the evidence.
- Cancellation of removal for certain permanent residents (42A) waiver: This relief is for a person who has already obtained a green card but who later commits a crime which makes the person removable. They need to have had a green card for at least 5 years prior to the decision on the application and they need to have at least 7 years since being admitted in any status into the United States before the person is placed in proceedings and at that time the person committed any offense that renders the person inadmissible.
At the Law Offices of Gita B. Kapur, I handle both kinds of waivers in Los Angeles on a regular basis and I know how to prepare them competently. If you need legal help with a waiver because of a criminal conviction, do not hesitate to contact me to schedule an appointment.
Reduction of Your Criminal Conviction
In some situations, there are statutes that allow a person to petition to the court to reduce people’s — including immigrants — criminal convictions from felonies to misdemeanors or to reduce a sentence from 365 days to 364. These tactics can enable people to become eligible for green cards or to avoid deportation. We can also handle your criminal matters and represent clients with post-conviction relief such as:
- Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis: It is a judicially-created remedy to secure relief from a judgment which was rendered by the court in ignorance of a fact which does not go to guilt or innocence but if known by the court would have prevented the judgment. If successful, there is no conviction to be held against the defendant for immigration purposes.
- Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus: It may be used to vacate a judgment of conviction, to obtain a remand for a new trial when the right to counsel has been denied, or to correct a sentencing error. If the conviction is vacated as legally invalid through use of habeas corpus, the former conviction may not be used at all against the defendant for immigration purposes.
- Motion to Vacate on Constitutional Grounds: It can be filed on constitutional grounds such as ineffective assistance of counsel at the time of plea or sentencing or violation of the state and federal rights to due process and a fair trial.
- Statutory Motion to Vacate based on Judge’s failure to provide warning of possible adverse immigration consequences prior to the entry of plea (§ 1016.5), or due to lack of understanding (§ 1018), or due to prejudicial error damaging your ability to meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the actual or potential adverse immigration consequences of the plea (§ 1473.7): Failure to warn a non-citizen, prior to a plea of guilty or no contest, that the conviction may cause deportation, exclusion, and denial of naturalization requires automatic vacating of the conviction. Moreover, new California law allows people to challenge the validity of old convictions if they can demonstrate the existence of prejudicial error at the time of their plea that damaged their ability to understand the immigration consequences that would or could result from the conviction. If successful, the conviction will be vacated and will thus in the removal of many of the obstacles and challenges a noncitizen will face while having the conviction on their record.
Contact Us
Since each case is different, it is important to seek the advice of an experienced Los Angeles criminal deportation attorney to evaluate the case to determine the appropriate type of post-conviction relief to seek in order to eliminate any negative immigration consequences.
Contact me toll free at 866-643-8852 or send me an e-mail. My legal services are competitively priced, and I offer payment plans to clients in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, including Long Beach, Pasadena, San Fernando Valley, Santa Monica, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Ana, and Palmdale who qualify.
We speak a variety of languages to ease the process for our immigrant clients, including Spanish, Hindi, Punjabi, Zapotec, Armenian, and Urdu.
Most credit cards accepted.
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