[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 22, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 22CFR40.22]

[Page 165-166]
 
                       TITLE 22--FOREIGN RELATIONS
 
                     CHAPTER I--DEPARTMENT OF STATE
 
PART 40--REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO BOTH NONIMMIGRANTS AND IMMIGRANTS UNDER THE IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT, AS AMENDED--Table of Contents
 
  Subpart C--Criminal and Related Grounds--Conviction of Certain Crimes
 
Sec. 40.22  Multiple criminal convictions.

    (a) Conviction(s) for crime(s) committed under age 18. An alien 
shall not be ineligible to receive a visa under INA 212(a)(2)(B) by 
reason of any offense

[[Page 166]]

committed prior to the alien's fifteenth birthday. Nor shall an alien be 
ineligible under INA 212(a)(2)(B) by reason of any offense committed 
between the alien's fifteenth and eighteenth birthdays unless such alien 
was tried and convicted as an adult for a felony involving violence as 
defined in section 1(l) and section 16 of Title 18 of the United States 
Code. An alien, tried and convicted as an adult for a violent felony 
offense, as so defined, committed after having attained the age of 
fifteen years, and who has also been convicted of at least one other 
such offense or any other offense committed as an adult, shall be 
subject to the provisions of INA 212(a)(2)(B) regardless of whether at 
that time juvenile courts existed within the jurisdiction of the 
conviction.
    (b) Conviction in absentia. A conviction in absentia shall not 
constitute a conviction within the meaning of INA 212(a)(2)(B).
    (c) Effect of pardon by appropriate U.S. authorities/foreign states. 
An alien shall not be considered ineligible under INA 212(a)(2)(B) by 
reason in part of having been convicted of an offense for which a full 
and unconditional pardon has been granted by the President of the United 
States, by the Governor of a State of the United States, by the former 
High Commissioner for Germany acting pursuant to Executive Order 10062, 
or by the United States Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany 
acting pursuant to Executive Order 10608. A legislative pardon or a 
pardon, amnesty, expungement of penal record or any other act of 
clemency granted by a foreign state shall not serve to remove a ground 
of ineligibility under INA 212(a)(2)(B).
    (d) Political offense. The term ``purely political offense'', as 
used in INA 212(a)(2)(B), includes offenses that resulted in convictions 
obviously based on fabricated charges or predicated upon repressive 
measures against racial, religious, or political minorities.
    (e) Waiver of ineligibility--INA 212(h). If an immigrant visa 
applicant is ineligible under INA 212(a)(2)(B) but is qualified to seek 
the benefits of INA 212(h), the consular officer shall inform the alien 
of the procedure for applying to INS for relief under that provision of 
law. A visa may not be issued to the alien until the consular officer 
has received notification from INS of the approval of the alien's 
application under INA 212(h).

[56 FR 30422, July 2, 1991, as amended at 62 FR 67567, Dec. 29, 1997]