Q: My husband was told he can not apply for the green card because he crossed the boarder twice is this correct?

A: It probably isn’t a question of how many times your husband crossed the border but rather how much time he was in the US without permission.

Anyone who is in the US for more than a year without permission, leaves, and then reenters without permission, is permanently barred. If he crossed the border once, stayed more than a year, left, and then crossed again, that could be the reason.

We recommend you contact an immigration attorney to discuss your case in detail.

A: You may be referring to the permanent bar.

The permanent bar comes from Section 212(a)(9)(C)(i) of the I.N.A., which makes inadmissible “Any alien who (I) has been unlawfully present in the United States for an aggregate period of more than 1 year, or (II) has been ordered removed under section 235(b)(1) , section 240 , or any other provision of law, and who enters or attempts to reenter the United States without being admitted.” This part of the law came from legislative changes made in 1996, called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act or IIRIRA.

For example, let’s say someone crossed the U.S. border from Mexico illegally, stayed for a year, went home for a while, and then tried crossing the U.S. border a second time. That second attempt (whether it succeeded or not) makes the person inadmissible under this section. Leaving and coming back a few times so that no stay is longer than one year would not have helped, either. The word “aggregate” in the law means that it’s enough that the person’s stay added up to one year in total.

Similarly, someone who was removed from the U.S. and then tries to enter without going through the required admission procedures will be subject to the permanent bar.