Expungements & Immigration

An Expungement and Sealing is a great way to start over and recover from your past. Illinois has very liberal expungement and sealing laws. Past mistakes get wiped away, never to be brought up again.

For some immigrants though, years after the Expungement is granted and people have moved on, the Expungement continues to create a massive headache. Even years after an Expungement, those misdeeds can come back to haunt you. If you now find yourself in the USCIS process, you will come to find that they don't care that crimes were expunged. They still want to see details from that case. This becomes an even greater problem when the case has been expunged as the USCIS will demand a certified disposition or a Certified complaint that detailed the charges. If that case was expunged 30 years ago, a headache is the least of your concerns as it could prevent you from immigration relief!

We can file a Motion to Unseal and Reseal, but what happens if the file is lost or destroyed? You need to protect yourself from this scenario.

So, before you hire a lawyer to expunge your case, protect yourself and get 2 documents out of the file prior to the Expungement. Get 3 Original Certified dispositions and 3 original Certified Complaints. Make sure all the documents are embossed. These are the documents that USCIS will want to see and the documents that are most likely to be destroyed upon Expungement.

If you already had cases expunged, call me now so we can Unseal your case and get the documents you may eventually need! This process can sometimes take up to 12 months!