Entered Without Inspection
I'm EWI Aren't I?
As many of you already know, EWI is an acronym for "Entry Without Inspection." However, based on the number of inquiries I get in my office on this issue, many people misunderstand what EWI really means.
I often have people tell me that they are EWI, only to discover on further investigation that they really are not. The conversation typically goes something like this:
Q: How did you enter the United States?
A: I entered without inspection?
Q: Well, exactly how did you enter?
A: I came on a Plane from the Philippines?
Q: At which airport did you land?
A: LAX
Q: Well, if you landed at LAX, how did you manage to get past customs without being inspected?
A: I went through customs
Q: Did you have a passport?
A: Yes, I had a passport
Q: Did you have a visa?
A: Yes, I had a visa
Q: Did the immigration inspector look at your passport and visa?
A: Yes, he looked at them
Q: Then he admitted you?
A: Yes
Q: Sounds like you were inspected and admitted. Why do you think you are EWI?
A: The passport was not mine
Q: What do you mean it wasn't yours?
A: It had my picture in it, but it was someone else's name and information
Q: How did you get this passport?
A: I got it from a travel agency in Manila
Q: Why do you think this means you are EWI?
A: A friend told me that if you don't enter using your own passport, you are EWI.
This person did NOT enter without inspection; this person entered using a fraudulent passport. Obviously, the distinction is rather important when I'm trying to devise an immigration strategy to help him stay in the United States.
Whether or not someone is EWI is actually a legal issue and I still get into arguments with government attorneys over whether a client is EWI. For example, government attorneys, for strategic reasons, will sometimes argue that my fictional client above is actually EWI. They will argue that, since he entered on a fraudulent passport, the U.S. did not inspect and admit him. Instead, they inspected and admitted the fictional person whose information appeared on his passport. This argument is rarely successful, but the make it nonetheless.
For the lay public, the easiest way to figure this out is to determine whether you entered the U.S. through a designated Port of Entry (airport, seaport, etc.) and whether a U.S. official looked at you and the documents you presented before letting you in. If these things happened, you should assume you were inspected and admitted.
However, if you are planning on applying for an immigration benefit, you should always have your entry analyzed by a competent immigration attorney. There are waivers available both for people who are EWI and people who entered using fraudulent documents. However, not everyone is eligible for these waivers and the eligibility requirements for the two waivers are NOT the same; a person who is eligible for the EWI waiver won't necessarily be eligible for the fraud waiver, and visa versa. If you apply for a benefit and need a waiver for which you are not eligible, you are just putting yourself on the fast track to deportation.
