Green Card Inadmissibility Based On Membership in a Communist Party
When seeking U.S. permanent residency, the USCIS or Department of State will ask (among other things) whether the applicant has ever been a member of a Communist Party or any other totalitarian party. While many applicants will answer “no,” citizens of certain countries may have to disclose some type of affiliation with a Communist Party – even though membership was involuntary and there was no active participation.
Example: Sergei is a 30-year old U.S. citizen and he wants to sponsor his father, Fedor – a Russian citizen – for U.S permanent residency. In 1982, prior to the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., Fedor was required to register as a member of the Communist Party in order to qualify a government job. Since this was the only job available to him, and since he had three children to support, he had no choice but to register for the sake of employment. After the dissolution in 1991, Fedor ceased any affiliation with the Communist Party and found a new job as a project manager with a private manufacturing company.
In applying for Adjustment of Status, Fedor disclosed that he had been affiliated with a Communist Party from 1982 to 1991. In doing so, Fedor may have admitted to being inadmissible for purposes of obtaining a green card.
However, there are exceptions to this inadmissibility: