Canadian L-1 Applicant Admitted for Three Years with a Canadian Border Crossing Card in Lieu of an I-194 issued by the Admissibility Review Office (ARO)

Our client, a Canadian citizen seeking L-1 status, not only needed to apply for admission into the U.S. in L-1 status, but required a non-immigrant waiver to waive his inadmissibility resulting from a criminal conviction. (Unlike most foreign nationals, Canadian citizens seeking L-1 status pursuant to North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) may file their petition at the Port of Entry (POE) for immediate (same-day) adjudication.) However, because he possessed a lifetime waiver vis-à-vis, a Canadian Border Crossing Card, we were able to have his L-1 petition adjudicated without first obtaining a waiver from the Admissibility Review Office (ARO), which most recently is taking over 130 days on average to adjudicated non-immigrant waiver applications.

Canadian Border Crossing Card [A Life Time D-3 Waiver Still Worth its Weight in Gold]

In its discretion, legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which is the predecessor of the current Department of Homeland Security (DHS), utilized the Canadian Border Crossing Card (CBCC) as a lifetime non-immigrant waiver authorization for Canadians, who are visa exempt. The CBCC’s were issued to Canadian citizens who had shown a high level of rehabilitation and had been approved for several waivers prior to the issuance of the CBCC. The greatest benefit of the CBCC is that it was issued for life and a Canadian who was seeking to come into the United States, whether for business or pleasure, would not have to apply for a waiver in advance of his or her entry.

Currently, all nonimmigrant waivers (NIVW) are handed by the Administrative Review Office (ARO), a subset of U.S. Customs & Border Protection, and the maximum validity of waivers issues by the ARO are five (5) years. Initially, however, the ARO will not issue a five (5) year visa and will restrict it to one year or less and eventually go up until they issue the maximum validity of five (5) years (as an individual demonstrates continuing compliance with U.S. immigration laws).

In addition to the CBCC being a lifetime waiver, the current processing time by the ARO for nonimmigrant waiver applications can take more than six to eight months! This further adds stress in planning logistics for Canadians seeking to enter the United States for business or pleasure. Hence this blog’s title – why the CBCC is worth its weight in gold - if you have one, you no longer have to deal with the ARO.

Interestingly, although the CBCC is no longer issued, those that were fortunate enough to have had one issued previously, and who may have subsequently lost/misplaced their CBCC, can apply for a replacement through the ARO.

If you are one of those fortunate Canadians who was previously issued a CBCC and you have lost/misplaced your CBCC or still have your CBCC and have questions about its continued validity, feel free to call our office and speak with one of our lawyers in a confidential consultation.