A green card enables you to live and work full-time in the United States. While many individuals qualify for a green card through employment, family, or other immigration programs, not everyone is eligible. A mental disorder can be a disqualifying factor when applying for a green card. However, an immigration lawyer can review your case and craft arguments in your defense to increase your chances of obtaining a green card. Please continue reading this article to learn more about psychiatric issues that can result in green card denial.
Definition of Mental Health Conditions
According to an American Psychiatric Association publication, a mental disorder is a currently accepted psychiatric diagnosis. Generally, mental health conditions are ailments that affect a person’s mood, thinking, and behavior patterns.
Additionally, an addiction to a substance or a substance abuse diagnosis, which is not highlighted in Section 202 of the CSA (Controlled Substances Act) (a past of linked harmful behavior deemed to recur or with the latest related harmful behavior), is considered a mental condition.
Disorders that are mostly linked with harmful behavior include the following:
- Anxiety disorders — Anxiety disorders that include social phobias, panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
- Bipolar disorder — Bipolar disorder involves extreme mood swings ranging from manic episodes of elevated energy and impulsivity to durations of severe depression.
- Depression — Mood changes, loss of interest or enjoyment, and reduced energy are some of the signs of depression. There are varying degrees of severity and signs associated with depression.
- Schizophrenia — Schizophrenia is a complex psychotic disorder characterized by thought and emotion disruptions and a distorted perception of reality. Signs of schizophrenia vary but may include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, reduced motivation, social withdrawal, and impaired memory.
- Mental retardation
The immigration officers reviewing your green card application before issuing denials look at various factors, including the following:
- The underlying mental disorder
- Whether the mental health condition is an ongoing issue
- Whether the mental disorder resulted in dangerous behavior
- If the mental health condition is not a current issue, how much time has passed since you had the disorder, and can it recur?
If one year has elapsed since you, the green card applicant, exhibited harmful behavior, and the mental disease has a favorable prognosis, the examining doctor can decide that the condition is under control or in remission. In this case, you might not be found inadmissible.
As previously mentioned, having a mental condition that involves behavior harmful to property and public safety may cause a green card denial. Behavior deemed harmful includes the following:
- Inflicting severe psychological or physical injury on yourself or other people.
- Threatening another person’s health or safety (This conduct can include driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or verbally threatening to murder someone).
- Causing significant damage to assets
How Immigration Officers Discover Your Mental Health-Related Inadmissibility
The immigration officials will discover your mental health-related inadmissibility challenges when they review any of the following:
- Your immigration medical exam results
- Your answers to questions about your health in your green card paperwork
- Court and criminal records you submit with the application
- Any information or documentation you submit at inspections and interviews
Alcohol-Associated Driving Convictions or Arrests Relevance
The CSA’s Section 202 does not highlight alcohol. Consequently, alcohol use health conditions are considered mental disorders when determining inadmissibility. In other words, you are not regarded as inadmissible even with alcohol use disorder unless you have a recent linked harmful behavior or a previous related harmful behavior that will recur.
When determining benefit applications, immigration officers regularly encounter criminal backgrounds that can include convictions and arrests for alcohol-associated driving cases, for example, driving under the influence (DUI). These criminal backgrounds could or could not escalate to inadmissibility due to criminality. Records of criminal convictions and arrests for alcohol-associated driving offenses can constitute proof of a health-based inadmissibility as a mental health condition with linked harmful behavior.
Drunk driving is considered harmful behavior that creates danger to the assets, welfare, or safety of other people or the applicant. Suppose a designated civil surgeon’s mental condition assessment shows the existence of alcohol dependence or abuse, with proof of harmful behavior. In that case, they will certify the disease as a Class A medical condition on Form I-693.
Requesting Your Re-Examinations
You can underreport or fail to disclose alcohol-associated driving cases when responding to your civil surgeon’s inquiries. If these incidents led to apprehension, they could be disclosed in your criminal record during a fingerprint check. Therefore, a criminal history printout disclosing a significant record of alcohol-associated driving arrests could contradict the medical exam report that shows no alcohol-associated driving incidents your civil surgeon reviewed or reported.
In this case, an immigration officer could request your designated civil surgeon to re-examine you. The re-test may be restricted to your mental well-being review to consider your alcohol-associated driving case records. On the RFE, immigration officials will instruct you to return to your doctor for reevaluation.
Once your civil surgeon reevaluates you, they could refer you to a substance abuse specialist or psychiatrist for further assessment. Following a referral, the medical practitioner will decide whether you have a Class A medical disorder and make the relevant changes in your form. The medical verification of a Class A medical condition depends on the designated civil surgeon’s diagnosis.
Medical Re-exam for Substantial Alcohol-Associated Driving Cases Criminal History
Only an applicant with a substantial criminal history of alcohol-linked cases, which the designated civil surgeon did not consider during the initial medical exam, is referred for mental status reevaluation.
A significant alcohol-linked driving criminal history includes the following:
- An arrest or conviction for alcohol-linked driving cases, like driving under the influence (DUI) while the driver’s license was suspended or revoked due to prior alcohol-linked driving case(s).
- An arrest or conviction for alcohol-linked driving cases resulting in death or personal injury
- An arrest or conviction for alcohol-linked driving instances within the past five years
- An arrest or conviction for alcohol-linked driving cases where a conviction was classified as a felony in the state where it happened, or had a prison sentence imposed.
- Subsequent convictions or arrests for alcohol-associated driving cases within the past 10 years
If the immigration official discovers that the applicant’s criminal history conflicts with their civil surgeon’s findings, the officer must order a re-exam.
Determination on Re-Examination Grounds
Once the civil surgeon completes the re-examination, the immigration official must determine that you are inadmissible. You are inadmissible if your designated civil surgeon outlined a Class A health condition. If the medical practitioner fails to certify any mental condition, the immigration officer might not render you inadmissible. Under some instances, the official might seek assessment of the physician’s findings from the CDC.
If you are inadmissible, you can file a waiver application.
Relevance of More Proof
The guidelines governing alcohol-related convictions or arrests mentioned above also apply to cases where the preceding record has proof that could demonstrate inadmissibility due to a mental disorder with harmful behavior that the designated civil surgeon reviewed in the initial medical exam. The evidence can include the following:
- A previous determination of inadmissibility because of a mental disorder.
- A criminal history of other offenses, including domestic violence or assaults, in addition to drunk driving convictions or arrests in which psychoactive substances or alcohol contributed.
- A criminal history of mental disorder institutionalization
- Any other proof that indicates an alcohol abuse or dependence issue
- Other arrests with a reasonable likelihood of your mental health condition as the contributing factor
In cases where the document of proceeding accessible to the immigration contains proof indicating a mental health condition and the medical report fails to show that the designated civil surgeon evaluated the proof, you must receive a mental status re-examination to address the adverse proof that physician did not initially disclose.
How to Apply for Mental Disorder Waiver
Any person found inadmissible due to a mental condition that could harm the property, welfare, or safety may apply for a waiver. You can show that you pose no risk by submitting a physician’s report on your mental disorder and the harmful behavior linked with it. The report should include the following:
- A medical history of your mental health condition and harmful behavior it might have caused, like past hospitalization.
- Your current mental condition, like prognosis, life expectancy, and likelihood of potentially harmful conduct due to the condition.
- Your doctor’s recommended course of treatment, including health facilities near where you plan to stay or where you reside in the United States that may offer treatment to lower the possibility of you committing harmful behavior.
The immigration officer is required to report the mental health condition alone, without its related harmful behavior, or the disorder’s harmful behavior alone, without associating it with a mental health condition, which is not enough to render you inadmissible on a mental health-related basis.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) could grant the discretionary waiver following compliance with terms and conditions that the immigration authority may impose following consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
A common term for granting a person with a mental disorder linked to harmful behavior a waiver is that the individual should consult a United States health professional promptly following their admission to America and schedule appointments to receive treatment and care.
The immigration officer should decide if you qualify for your waiver, consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and decide whether to grant the waiver as a discretionary matter.
Here is what to expect regarding eligibility for a waiver and adjudication:
Qualifying Relationships
Unlike communicable disease waivers, waivers for mental health conditions with related harmful behavior do not need qualifying relationships.
Documentation for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Review
As previously mentioned, USCIS may only grant a waiver following a consultation with the CDC. Nevertheless, the CDC’s assessment of the relevant documentation does not mean the immigration authority will approve your waiver. CDC could suggest that the United States Citizenship Immigration and Services (USCIS) grant a waiver according to specific terms, regulations, and conditions.
To receive the CDC’s assessment following your waiver application, the immigration officer must forward certain documents to the CDC, which include the following:
- A cover letter proving the USCIS requested for the assessment
- Your waiver application, with all necessary signatures and without the supporting documents that are not medically relevant.
- Medical exam paperwork
- Copies of your supporting medical reports, if presented, outlining the mental disorder related to harmful behavior and your doctor’s recommendation about the treatment plan and prospects.
- Copies of medical reports, lab results, and reviews, irrespective of their connection to your mental disorder, with related harmful behavior.
Sending Records to the CDC
The immigration must email the applicant’s documentation to the CDC.
To ask the CDC for an expedited assessment, the immigration office must state in the CDC’s email subject that the issue is urgent.
The CDC’s Response
After the CDC receives the documentation, a consultant psychiatrist will assess it before the CDC forwards a response with its suggestions to the USCIS office.
The CDC’s processing period for evaluation and response can be about four weeks. If the CDC’s response seems delayed, the immigration officials will consult the CDC to acquire a status update.
The USCIS will determine the next course of action after receiving the CDC’s review.
Suppose the CDC’s response shows that additional details are required to complete its assessment. In that case, the immigration official will make a Request for Evidence for you to offer further details, as the CDC specifies. The immigration official should present the information acquired through the Request for Evidence to the CDC. The CDC will give the USCIS a response regarding additional details. Once the CDC shows that it does not require additional information, the immigration official may continue adjudicating your waiver.
Waiver Discretion
Your waiver for a mental disorder with related harmful behavior needs an immigration official to review whether to grant the waiver as a discretionary issue.
The CDC’s assessment and endorsement of the recognized United States health professional should be enough to warrant granting your waiver. Nevertheless, if you openly state your unwillingness to undergo treatment, the USCIS will not grant you the waiver. If the CDC fails to endorse the recognized United States health professional, the immigration official will deny the waiver.
The law requires the USCIS to decide whether to grant the waiver based on terms, regulations, or conditions. While the CDC’s recommendation regarding the terms, regulations, or conditions for granting your waiver has convincing weight, the USCIS does not have to use them.
The USCIS should notify the CDC of its decision (the waiver’s approval or denial).
Why You Should Hire an Immigration Lawyer
The benefits of enlisting an immigration attorney include the following:
- The attorney comes with experience and expertise — Immigration applications require extensive documentation and paperwork. Navigating the legal jargon during the procedure can be challenging because immigration laws are ever-changing and intricate. An immigration attorney is up-to-date with the latest requirements and laws, ensuring you fill out your application and paperwork without error and submit them promptly.
- Minimizes mistakes — Simple omissions or mistakes on immigration paperwork could result in delays or denials. An immigration attorney’s thorough diligence could help avoid errors hindering your application process.
- Offering tailored legal advice — Every green card application and case has unique qualification criteria and documentation requirements. An immigration attorney can offer personalized legal guidance to suit your circumstances, helping you know how to qualify for a green card regardless of your mental health condition.
- Offering legal representation — If complications arise in the application procedure due to your psychiatric issue, an immigration attorney can advocate for you. They will consult immigration authorities and address potential issues, giving you peace of mind.
- Waiver — If the USCIS denies you a green card due to a mental health condition, an immigration attorney can assist you in exploring a waiver. Their expertise could be valuable when seeking reconsideration.
- Preparing compelling documentation — An essential aspect of a green card application is the supporting paperwork. An immigration attorney will help you collect, compile, and present the relevant proof to strengthen your case and increase your chances of approval regardless of your psychiatric issue.
- Prompt processing — An immigration attorney’s expertise could accelerate the application procedure. The lawyer understands how to navigate the green card system efficiently, lowering the period it takes the immigration authority to evaluate and approve your application.
- Strategic planning — Immigration attorneys are experienced in developing formidable strategies for the green card application procedure. They will identify potential issues and create a plan that addresses them, increasing the possibility of approval.
Find an Aggressive Immigration Law Attorney Near Me
The United States government prioritizes public health, and green card applicants should satisfy specific medical criteria. You can face green card denial if you have a mental health condition or substance abuse disorder that poses a threat to public safety. The realization that your mental health-related ailment is a barrier to your American dream can be frustrating. Nevertheless, you can overcome this obstacle with the appropriate legal guidance. At California Immigration Attorney, we recognize that the effects of inadmissibility need cautious legal analysis. We can help you prepare your detailed applications to ensure you approach the process with confidence and clarity. We can also give an assessment of the viability of potential waiver applications given your case circumstances. Please call us at 424-789-8809 to schedule your initial consultation.