World Cup & US Immigration Law: Visas, Bans, and Border Denials Explained

The World Cup is here and so are some fascinating immigration stories! In this episode, Immigration Attorney and Board Certified Specialist of the State Bar of California, Richard Wilner, breaks down the real-world US immigration issues playing out on the world's biggest soccer stage.

Topics covered:

• How the US expanded visitor visas for World Cup players and referees (and why most players don't have athlete visas)
• The Somali referee Omar Tons — why a valid visa didn't guarantee entry into the US
• The difference between a visa (Dept. of State) and admission (Customs & Border Protection)
• A Ghana player denied entry into Canada due to pending UK criminal charges — and why the same charges wouldn't bar him from the US
• Why Canada's border rules are stricter than the US (including DUI convictions)
• What happens to your visa if you're arrested for a DUI while already in the US
• Argentina's child support notifications to FIFA and the US government — and what that means for travelers

For more information on US immigration law, visit: www.wilneroreilly.com

Transcript

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Welcome back to the podcast of Wilner and O'Reilly, known as Immigrate. My name is Richard Wilner. I'm board certified as a specialist in immigration law by the State Bar of California, and I'm one of the founding shareholders of Wilner and O'Reilly. There's a rather large sporting event going on right now in North America known as the World Cup. So I thought in today's episode we would take a deeper dive into some immigration issues that have impacted both players, referees, fans, and potentially others as it relates to U.S. immigration law. There's no one specific topic that I'm going to cover today, so we're going to jump around a little bit in our short time together, but I hope you find it interesting, as do I. Every four years the planet tends to agree on something, and right now we're all in agreement that the World Cup is a spectacular sporting event. I'm reminded that while politics divide us, sports unite us. And if you've seen any of the social media on the things happening throughout the United States and in Mexico and Canada, sport really does unite us and people seem to be having a great time. To come to the United States, whether as a player, a referee, or a fan, you need a way to enter the United States lawfully, and that's typically with a visa. One key point that I want you to remember a visa gives you the opportunity to knock on the door. It doesn't get you in the house, however. One recent example that's illustrative of that point has been profiled pretty largely and it pertains to the referee from Somalia. Omar Atan is Africa's most famous international referee. He had a diplomatic passport and a visitor's visa to come to the United States to referee his first World Cup match. Interestingly enough, to digress a second, the United States Department of State for FIFA, for the World Cup, has expanded the purposes of the visitors' visas. And almost all of the players and all of the teams don't have athletes' visas, the P1 visa, which we've spoken about in other episodes. Instead, they've been allowed to enter the United States on visitors' visas in order to compete. That's new. The referee that I was talking about also had a visitor's visa. So the purpose of his trip was to come to the United States to referee a match, and he had the visa that allowed him to do so. Also keep in mind, Somalia, the country that he's from, is on one of the list of banned countries. So Somalis, unless they meet a specific exception, sport being one of them, are not allowed to come to the United States. He was permitted to come here. He was permitted to board a plane to come, but then was denied entry at the port of entry. Why? Well, when you get a visa, that's done by the Department of State at the consulate. When you come to the United States, people say clearing customs or otherwise, you're meeting with an officer from Customs and Border Protection. Those officers have the opportunity to ask you different sorts of questions. They have the opportunity to look at your electronic devices, cell phones, laptops, etc. And in Mr. Artan's case, they asked him a number of other questions and apparently, so they claim, discovered ties to known terrorist organizations in Somalia. I'm not commenting on whether that's true or not. The point of what I'm telling you is that as a result of answers that he gave or things that they may have discovered at the port of entry or prior to him arriving, that caused him, after seven or more hours of detention, to be turned away from admission to the United States. And even though FIFA is paying him as though he was able to referee, he was not allowed into the United States. Similarly, there was a player from the national team of Ghana. And while this individual was allowed into the United States on a visitor's visa, he was denied entry to Canada and was not allowed to play in Ghana's first match in Toronto. Whether or not he will be allowed in, I do not know. Remains to be determined. Why was he denied entry to Canada when he was allowed into the United States? The reason is because he has pending criminal charges in the United Kingdom, all of which he vehemently denies, nonetheless, he's been accused of a serious crime. If you've been accused of crime, that does not prevent you, for the most part, from being admitted to the United States if you're otherwise qualified for admission. In other words, to be denied entry to the United States, you would have to be convicted of crime. Of course, there's exceptions to that rule, as it relates most specifically to drug trafficking. That's not what he was accused of. But for the most part, in order to be denied entry into the United States on account of criminal grounds, you have to actually be convicted of that crime. Not so with entry into Canada. To gain entry into Canada, or the opposite, to be denied entry into Canada, you only have to be accused of certain types of crimes. That's why this individual was denied entry into Canada. Canada's borders, believe it or not, are for the most part stricter than the United States borders. One issue, for example, that often results in denial into Canada is if one has been convicted of a DUI. If one has been convicted of driving under the influence, whether a misdemeanor or a felony, one will be denied entry into Canada and needs to go through a waiver process. Not so in the United States. Those people who've been convicted of misdemeanor DUIs, that in and of itself doesn't serve as a ground of inadmissibility. Inadmissibility naturally means not being allowed to enter the United States. Ironically, however, if you have entered the United States on a visa or if you've been admitted in another category known as ESTA, ESTA is people from Western Europe, Southern Hemisphere, parts of Asia that are allowed to come to the United States without a visa, if you're admitted to the United States and then you get arrested or convicted of a DUI, your visa or your ESTA can and normally will be canceled. You're still allowed to stay in the United States after your visa is canceled for as long as you're legally admitted to the United States. For example, if you enter as a visitor, you'll normally be allowed to stay here for six months. If two months into that stay you get convicted of a DUI or arrested for a DUI, the visa in your passport can and will be canceled. It's done electronically. You'll receive an email saying your visa was canceled. You're still allowed to stay the remaining part of your admission in the United States, but once you leave, in order to come back, you're going to need to go through a new interview process at the consulate. Similarly, you may have heard about the Argentinian government issuing notification to both the United States government as well as FIFA as it relates to unpaid child support obligations. Long story short, the government of Argentina notified FIFA and the U.S. government of approximately 13,000 individuals who are traveling to the World Cup that have outstanding child support obligations in Argentina. Both FIFA and the United States government essentially said that's an issue internal to Argentina and we're not going to deal with it. It's not a ban to being admitted to the United States, nor is it a ban to be admitted to a stadium after one has purchased tickets to go watch a World Cup match. In the United States, however, if you are behind on your child support, which you shouldn't be, but if you are, depending upon the amount of child support arrears, the Bureau of Child Support Enforcement will notify the Department of State. And if you're a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident with a travel document, that travel document or U.S. passport will be suspended until you resolve your outstanding child support obligations. Key takeaway there is take care of your kids. Don't be behind in your child support payments. And if you are, don't travel. Spend that money on your kids. If visas are revoked, you have the opportunity to reapply. Clear up what's been in the past or better yet, try not to make those mistakes in the past. Travel freely, enjoy the World Cup. I hope you found today's episode informative. For further information on U.S. immigration law, please check us out at wilnerorilly.com.