a crucial path to U.S. citizenship • I n October 2000, Congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (“Act”). As part of the Act, the U visa was created for undocumented victims who suffered substantial mental or physical abuse as a result of certain crimes. The U visa is intended to achieve two goals: The Application Process The U visa application (Form I-918 5 ) is submitted to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and requires the applicant to prove that she was the victim of a qualified crime, aided law enforcement in the investigation and/or prosecution of that crime, suffered substantial mental or physical harm as a result, and is otherwise admissible to the United States. 6 Whether an applicant is admissible is a legal determination of the applicant’s eligibility to receive a visa or be admitted into the United States. 7 Grounds of inadmissibility include, but are not lim-ited to, prior criminal histories, risks to national security or public health, prior unlawful entries into the U.S., or prior deportations. 8 An enormous benefit of the U visa process is the ability to apply for a waiver (Form I-192 9 ) of grounds of inadmissibility. A waiver is filed with the U visa application and may be granted where the immigrant proves that it is “in the public or national interest” 10 to grant admission. This process may allow an applicant to begin life as a U visa recipient with a clean immigration history. This ultimately may lead to a successful application for Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) status where it was otherwise unavailable. Law enforcement and prosecutors play pivotal roles in the U visa application process. To prove that an applicant is a victim who cooperated with law enforcement, she must include a certification with her application (Form I-918B 11 ) signed by a “Federal, state, or local tribal law enforcement agency; prosecutor; authority; or Fed-eral, state or local judge.” 12 The certifying official verifies that the victim suffered a qualified crime, that the victim possesses infor-mation about the crime, and that the victim was helpful or could October 2021 Wyoming Lawyer 43 • “Strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to inves-tigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking, and other crimes; and Protect victims … who have suffered substantial mental or physical abuse due to the qualifying crime and are willing to help law enforcement authorities in the investigation or pros-ecution of [that] crime.” 1 Undocumented victims often fear reporting a crime to law en-forcement because of the fear that doing so will result in depor-tation. However, the U visa provides protection to undocumented victims by providing a pathway to lawful status. The program inten-tionally incentivizes the reporting and prosecution of crimes, which has been shown to result in safer communities for everyone. 2 Another intended incentive of the U visa program is the op-portunity for a victim to include certain family members in the application. 3 For example, a victim under the age of 21 (whether documented or undocumented) may include his spouse, children, parents, and unmarried minor siblings to petition for lawful status for all of them. Similarly, a victim over the age of 21 can petition for her spouse and children. In this way, the U visa is an opportunity both for victims and certain family members to find a path to lawful status. 4 www.wyomingbar.org
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