Advisory opinion mistake

[moormoor]

My friend applied for an advisory opinion and the letter states he is subject! He has never received any kind of funding from any government and his home country (Canada) has no skills listed in the skills list. All his visa stamps and DS2019s say he is not subject!

 

What can he do? Is it common that DOS makes mistakes in the advisory opinions? Can he write to them and let them know of the mistake?

[jairichi]

It is uncommon. He needs to check with DOS again.

[drrobo]

I am in a similar situation - I am a postdoc researching cancer at a US university. I have never accepted home government funding or US government funding directly or indirectly, and my country doesn't have a skills list. My DS-2019's variably either say I'm not subject or are not even marked. 

 

A few months ago I wrote for an advisory opinion to double check before I applied for a green card, now that I'm married to a US citizen. To my shock it came back saying I was subject, due to my funding. I sent an email to the DoS for clarification, and their reply 1 month later was that I had accepted home government funding, because of "X" which had funded my research. The "X" funding body actually has the US state in which it is based in it's title - it could not possibly be associated with my home country - so it's clearly an obvious error. I hired myself a lawyer and at the cost of more than $1k wrote another advisory opinion to ask the DoS to correct this error and confirm I'm not subject. My lawyer informed me they make this kind of mistake ALL THE TIME, and considering how blatant and stupid this error is - even a moron could see that a funding body with a US state in its name could not possibly be associated with an entirely different country - I'm inclined to believe her.

 

Suffice to say the DoS would not back down. They again found me subject - despite providing a watertight case concerning how my funding was derived from US based sources (non-government) that went to my University, not me. I'm not kidding when I say there was no way you could deny my case. But they did, and now I'm left trying to get a waiver based on no objection, of a rule that in fact I'm not actually subject to. I've spent over $5k on this farce of a process, and am still waiting to see whether I will be deported. 

 

My advice is to get a lawyer ASAP, and figure out if your friend really is subject due to their funding. If they think they should not be, apply for another advisory opinion with evidence and reference letters and a killer statement that shows categorically why they are not subject. At the same time start putting together a case for a waiver, since the DoS will likely not admit they've made a mistake, and as you can see in my case, they simply denied reality and fabricated reasons to cover themselves. Just remember, they have no incentive to keep you in the country. I had hoped my case is a one off, but as I mentioned, in the 20 years my lawyer has been practicing immigration law, she has seen a ridiculous number of errors in advisory opinions, which often do not get resolved as they should do. Good luck.

[TinyMoose4]

Hi there, if you don't mind me asking, what did your friend's DS-2019 say for the source of funding? I will be applying for a advisory opinion soon too and am from Canada; I also used only personal funds for my exchange program and no government funds.