Citizenship Approval with Criminal Defense and Deportation Proceedings

Our client, “Katerina” is a legal permanent resident who applied for citizenship. At the citizenship interview she informed immigration that she had been convicted many years before for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Immigration denied her citizenship application and had just notified her that she would be placed into removal/deportation proceedings, when she came into our office seeking assistance. After submitting a timely filed appeal to immigration, we determined that there were technical legal errors in the processing of the case, therefore her criminal conviction was in violation of her constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. Our Boston Criminal and Immigration lawyers submitted a motion to vacate the criminal conviction and reopen the case which was subsequently granted by the criminal court. After the case had been reopened, the case was successfully litigated so that the charges were dismissed. We informed immigration of the dismissed charges and the client was interviewed a second time to determine if the previous denial of her citizenship application should be changed. The deportation proceedings were stopped and Immigration granted her citizenship.