Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the I-212, request a reapply for admission to the United States. Now what is this? We talk a lot about what are called I-601 waivers and in a sense the I-212 is kind of like an I-601 waiver, and depending on circumstances maybe filed in tandem with an I-601 waiver; in most circumstances I kind of view them almost one and the same. But I am not going to get really into depth about the filing and everything having to do with the 1-212, I have done those cases, it is a cumbersome amount of work. There a lot of work involved with an I-212 especially where you have got other grounds of inadmissibility but “why do you need it?” is sort of the question posed by this video. 

Well if you have been placed in what's called expedited removal proceedings you very much need it. In fact, it's the only way you are going to get into the United States within 5 years of being placed in expedited removal. The next question is what is "expedited removal"? It is basically a truncated deportation proceeding that can happen under the auspices of US Customs and Border Protection just at a border checkpoint. It occurred under the IRAIRA Act which was back in the late 90s I think that they created this thing that is called expedited removal, or expedited deportation. Basically the thinking was, “we want to give USCBP officers an arrow in their quiver to place folks through kind of an expedited removal proceeding so they don't have to go through the entire deportation proceeding”. Every time I have seen these, these almost always involve sometimes with a fraud and misrepresentation issue, sometimes without one, but almost all of them involve some sort of finding of an intending immigrant without proper documentation. Why would this be found? Well sometimes it is the so-called tourist visa "carousel"; somebody is using a Tourist Visa essentially improperly, basically using a US Tourist Visa to live in America. I have also seen cases involving people who had documentation on them that they were going to go ahead and apply for things like adjustment of status or change of status in the USA over to an Immigrant Visa posture but they were coming through Immigration on a Tourist Visa. In that particular set of circumstances, there was a finding of inadmissibility, there was a finding that that person was engaged in fraud and misrepresentation as well as being an intending immigrant without proper documentation. That person was put through removal proceedings. We then dealt with the I-212 and the 601 side of that. Ultimately all of that was waived and that person was able to go back to the United States but it does take a prolonged period of time oftentimes compared to a standard case, just a standard Immigrant Visa case for example, to process an I-212. It is pretty cumbersome, you're looking at a lot of time moving through the immigration system.

So something to think about for those who have a Tourist Visa. A Tourist Visa is not like a magic key to the United States. If you are looking to live there, you have a loved one in America, for example a spouse or something and you are trying to reunite with them on a permanent basis, it is not a good idea to use a Tourist Visa to do that. Use a proper Immigrant Visa and essentially do things per the rules or you may find yourself in expedited removal and unable to go to the United States for at least 5 years.