Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal here is to give you the reality of what happens when an H1B visa holder faces federal criminal charges - not the sanitized version immigration attorneys present at consultations, not the overly optimistic spin criminal defense lawyers sometimes offer, but the actual truth about how these two systems interact to destroy careers, families, and futures.
If you are reading this at 11pm because you just got arrested, or your spouse did, or you received a target letter from a federal prosecutor, understand something immediately: you are now caught between two legal systems that operate on completely different rules, with completely different definitions of success, and they do not communicate with each other. The criminal justice system and the immigration system run on parallel tracks - and what saves you in one can destroy you in the other.
This is the truth that nobody explains until it is too late: your criminal defense attorney may get you the best possible outcome in federal court while accidentally ensuring your deportation. A plea deal that avoids prison time. Deferred adjudication. Probation. These are victories in criminal law. In immigration law, every single one of these counts as a conviction - and certain convictions mean automatic removal from the United States with no possibility of return.
Why Your Criminal Attorney Cant Save Your Immigration Status
Heres the thing most people dont understand until their sitting in our office watching their life fall apart. The federal criminal system has one job: determine guilt or innocence and impose punishment. The immigration system has a completly different job: determine whether you get to stay in this country. These systems have different rules, different definitions, and different outcomes.
Your criminal attorney is probly focused on keeping you out of prison. Thats there job. They might negotiate a plea deal to a lesser charge that avoids jail time. They might get charges reduced. They might secure deferred adjudication where, after completing certain conditions, your record shows no conviction.
But heres were people get absolutly destroyed. Immigration law doesnt care about your state court outcomes. It has its own definition of "conviction" - and its much broader then you think. Under immigration law, a conviction exists if you plead guilty or nolo contendere, or if a judge or jury finds you guilty, regardless of whether the court enters a judgment of guilt. Deferred adjudication? Still a conviction for immigration. Expunged record? Still a conviction. Sealed juvenile record from when you were 16? Immigration can see it and use it against you.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Padilla v. Kentucky established that defense attorneys have a constitutional duty to advise noncitizen clients about immigration consequences. But "duty to advise" doesnt mean "expertise in immigration law." We see it constently. Criminal attorneys mention there might be immigration issues and move on. Thats technicaly satisfying there duty. But its not actualy protecting you.
The Aggravated Felony Trap
This is were terminology becomes activly misleading - designed to trap the people it affects. An "aggravated felony" for immigration purposes includes many offenses that are neither aggravated nor felonies under state law.
Think about those words. Aggravated. Felony. You hear that and you think murder, armed robbery, serious violent crime. You would be wrong.
A misdemeanor theft conviction with a one-year sentence possibility can be an aggravated felony for immigration. Certain fraud offenses were the loss exceeds $10,000 qualify. Drug trafficking - including some distribution charges that might be misdemeanors under state law. Crimes of violence with a sentence of at least one year. Money laundering. Tax evasion involving more then $10,000.
Heres what happens if your convicted of an aggravated felony: you are permanately barred from almost all relief. No cancellation of removal. No asylum. No voluntary departure. No waiver of inadmissability. You will be deported and you will be barred from returning - potentialy forever.
The permanant bar is real. We have seen people convicted of aggravated felonies try everything - extraordinary ability petitions, marriage to US citizens, children who are US citizens - and theres no way back in. The door closes compleetly. Its not like criminal law were you can eventualy move on with your life. For immigration, the conviction follows you forever.
Expungement: The Solution That Doesnt Work For Immigrants
Todd Spodek has watched this trap destroy clients who thought they were safe. You get arrested on your H1B. Your criminal attorney negotiates a deal. You complete probation or diversion. The court expunges your record. You think its over.
Its not over. Its never over.
For immigration purposes, an expunged conviction still counts. The goverment can still see it. USCIS will still consider it. The consulate will still find it when you try to renew your visa or re-enter the country after traveling. The thing that helps you with employment background checks, with housing applications, with professional licensing boards - that expungement does absolutley nothing for immigration.
Heres the kicker: their is exactly one narrow exception. First-time simple possession of a controlled substance can sometimes be treated as if no conviction occured if its expunged under certain state rehabilitation statutes. Thats it. One narrow exception. Everything else - fraud, theft, assault, tax offenses, financial crimes - the expungement is completly meaningless for immigration.
Think about that irony. Your criminal attorney tells you the record is expunged, its like it never happened. Technicaly true for most purposes. Completly false for immigration. And you dont find out until years later when you apply for a green card or try to re-enter after a trip abroad.
How ICE Moves Before Your Trial Even Starts
OK so lets talk about what actualy happens when an H1B holder gets arrested on federal charges. Becuase the cascade starts immediatley and most people dont realize how fast things move on the immigration side while there focused on the criminal case.
Hour 1-4: You get arrested. Federal agents execute a warrant or you turn yourself in. Your processed. Somewhere in this process, your arrest gets entered into federal databases that immigration authorities can access.
Hour 4-24: Your employer finds out. Either you tell them, or they find out threw other channels. Depending on company policy, they may suspend you immediatly. Some employers terminate on arrest - not conviction, arrest - becuase they dont want the liability exposure.
CRITICAL: If your employer terminates you, your 60-day grace period starts NOW. Not when you get convicted. Not when you loose your case. The moment you no longer have H1B employment, you have 60 days to find a new sponsor, change status, or leave the country.
Hour 24-48: ICE may already know about your arrest. If there looking at you as a priority case - which depends on the charges and your enforcement environment - they can issue an immigration detainer to the jail. A detainer is a request that the jail hold you for up to 48 additonal hours after your criminal release so ICE can decide whether to take you into custody.
That 48 hours doesnt count weekends or holidays. Friday arrest means Monday calculation.
Heres the system revelation most people miss: ICE detainers are technicaly voluntary requests. There not court orders. Hundreds of jurisdictions across the country refuse to honor them. But if your in a jurisdiction that cooperates with ICE, you go straight from criminal release to immigration detention - no moment of freedom in between.
The 60-Day Trap
The 60-day grace period after losing H1B employment sounds like protection. It is designed to help you find new employment, to give you time to transfer your status, to arrange your affairs.
If you have any criminal history whatsoever, that 60-day period becomes something else entirely.
Lets say you were arrested three years ago for something minor - public intoxication, disorderly conduct, a DUI that got reduced. You handled it. Maybe it was dismissed. Maybe you did diversion. You forgot about it.
Now you get laid off in tech downturn. Your in your 60-day window. You apply for a new H1B with another employer. That application triggers a USCIS background check.
USCIS pulls up your complete record. They see the old arrest. Suddenly your new H1B isnt getting approved quickly. Questions come back. Requests for evidence. The 60-day clock keeps ticking while bureacracy churns.
Day 61 arrives. Your new H1B hasnt been approved. Your now unlawfully present. Every day that passes accrues against you - building toward bars on reentry.
The protection became the trap. The grace period became the deportation countdown.
Crimes That Dont Sound Serious But Destroy Everything
"Crimes involving moral turpitude" - the legal terminology is designed to be vague. Courts have said it involves conduct that "shocks the public conscience" or involves "fraud, dishonesty, or intent to harm persons or property." Sounds like serious stuff right?
Heres what can qualify:
Shoplifting. Yes, stealing something from a store. Even small amounts.
Tax fraud. Including disputes with the IRS that become criminal.
Passing bad checks.
Credit card fraud.
Insurance fraud.
Certain assault charges, even misdemeanor assault.
Look at that list. These are not violent crimes. These are not crimes that would make someone dangerous to society. But they all potentially qualify as crimes involving moral turpitude.
If you commit one CIMT within five years of being admitted to the United States on your H1B, your deportable. Automaticaly. Not discretionary - automatic. If you commit two CIMTs at any time after admission - even if they arise from the same incident - your deportable.
Statistics show something terrifying about ICE enforcement: 65% of people ICE detained in 2025 had no criminal convictions at all. The bar for immigration enforcement is far lower then the public understands. If ICE is picking up people with no convictions, what do you think happens to people with convictions?
What Happens After ICE Takes Custody
So your released from criminal custody. Maybe you made bail on the federal charges. Maybe you served your time. You think your walking out.
ICE is waiting.
Under the detainer system, you get transfered directly to immigration custody. No freedom period. No chance to go home, see your family, get your affairs in order.
What happens next depends on your conviction. If its an aggravated felony, your subject to mandatory detention. That means no bond hearing. No immigration judge deciding whether your a flight risk or danger. You sit in detention until your case is resolved.
The immigration court system is backed up for years. Cases take months to resolve even in detention. And immigration detention is not like criminal jail - you have fewer rights, less access to legal help, and your in a system designed for removal, not rehabilitation.
Your family visits you in detention. Your spouse on H4 is watching there status crumble. Your kids are asking when your coming home. And their is nothing you can do but wait while bureaucracy grinds forward.
Eventually you see an immigration judge. If your conviction is an aggravated felony, the outcome is pre-determined. Removal order. Bar on reentry. Your American life is over.
The Re-Entry Trap Nobody Mentions
Your employer keeps you on. Your fighting your case. Your still in status. Your safe, right?
You travel abroad for a family emergency. Your mother is dying. You have to go.
At the consulate to get your visa stamped for reentry, the officer looks at your file. Sees the pending charges. Under "prudential revocation" policy, they cancel your visa on the spot. Your stuck outside the country.
What happens next is a cascade of devastation that we at Spodek Law Group have seen unfold:
Your case proceeds in federal court without you. Your attorney files motions, but your not there. If you miss hearings, bench warrants get issued.
Your family - spouse, kids - are inside the US on H4 visas. H4 status derives from your H1B. If your H1B is invalid, there status terminates. They have to leave within 60 days.
Your children get pulled from school. Your spouse looses there job. The house you were buying falls threw. The life you spent 10 years building collapses.
And heres the thing nobody tells you about reentry bars. Once your removed from the United States after an aggravated felony conviction, your permanately inadmissable. Not 10 years. Not 20 years. Permanant. Their is no waiver. Their is no exception for hardship to US citizen children. Their is no appeal that fixes this.
If you attempt to re-enter illegally after removal for an aggravated felony, your facing up to 20 years federal prison. Not months - years. The punishment for trying to come back to your own family is more severe then many violent crimes.
The Immigration Court System That Isnt Really A Court
Heres what nobody explains about removal proceedings. Immigration court is not a real court in the way you understand courts.
Federal criminal courts are Article III courts - part of the judicial branch, independent from the prosecutors. Immigration courts are administrative bodies under the Department of Justice - the same department that prosecutes immigration violations. The judge works for the same organization trying to deport you.
Think about what that means. Their is no jury. Their is no right to appointed counsel. 67% of people in removal proceedings face deportation completley alone, without any lawyer, becuase they cant afford one and the government doesnt provide one.
The immigration judge handles hundreds of cases. The backlog in immigration court has reached 3.5 million cases. Your waiting 3.9 years on average for your hearing. If your in mandatory detention for an aggravated felony, your sitting in immigration jail that entire time. Years. Not months.
And the standard of proof is different. In criminal court, the government must prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. In immigration court, once the government establishes you have a removal charge - which they do by introducing your conviction record - the burden shifts to YOU to prove your entitled to stay. Guilty until proven not-deportable.
This isnt the American legal system you learned about in civics class. This is something else entirely.
Your Family Falls With You
This is the uncomfortable truth. On the H4 visa, your spouse and children derive their status from you. They have no independent basis to remain.
If your deported, they dont get to stay. If you loose your H1B status, there H4 status terminates. If you cant re-enter the country, they eventually have to leave to be with you - or you have to be apart.
Weve seen it happen at Spodek Law Group. Families who built entire lives here. Kids who grew up American in every way except citizenship. Suddenly facing moving to a country they barely remember, leaving behind schools, friends, everything.
One federal conviction doesnt just affect you. It destroys four lives. Five lives. However many people depend on your status.
The Cooperation Trap
Maybe your thinking about cooperating with the federal investigation. Providing information. Testifying against others. Your attorney tells you cooperation can significanly reduce your criminal sentence under the sentencing guidelines.
Thats true. For criminal sentencing.
Heres what cooperation does NOT do: it does not change your immigration consequences one bit.
The immigration system doesnt care that you helped the government put other people in prison. It doesnt care that you received a reduced sentence becuase of substantial assistance. It doesnt care that you risked your safety by cooperating. An aggravated felony is an aggravated felony regardless of how you got there.
So you cooperate. You get a reduced sentence - maybe probation instead of years. From a criminal perspective, thats a win. From an immigration perspective, you still have the conviction. You still have the deportation grounds. You still face mandatory detention and removal.
And now you have an additonal problem. You cooperated against people who may have family or connections in your home country - the country your being deported to. You helped put there relatives in prison. And now your going to live in there neighborhood.
The criminal justice system rewarded your cooperation. The immigration system ignored it. And the deportation sent you somewhere potentially dangerous becuase of it.
The Timeline That Destroys Everything
Let me show you how fast this cascade moves when you dont have the right representation:
Day 1: Arrest on federal charges. Booked. Fingerprinted. Your in the system.
Day 2-3: Employer notified. Depending on company policy, your employment may be terminated immediatly. If terminated, your 60-day grace period starts ticking.
Day 7: ICE reviews arrest records. If charges qualify, detainer issued to holding facility.
Day 14: Initial appearance in federal court. Your focused on bail, conditions of release.
Day 21-30: Your criminal attorney is working on discovery, building defense. Meanwile, ICE has already flagged your case.
Day 45: Grand jury indictment if charges proceed. Your still focused on criminal defense.
Day 60: If you lost your job on Day 2, your grace period just ended. Your now out of status. Accruing unlawful presence.
Month 3-6: Criminal case proceeding. Discovery. Motions. Maybe plea negotiations.
Month 6-12: Trial or plea. Either way, a conviction triggers automatic immigration consequences that were determined by categories, not by facts.
Day of Release: ICE waiting. Handoff from criminal custody to immigration custody. No moment of freedom.
Month 12+: In immigration detention. Mandatory for aggravated felonies. No bond. Waiting for hearing in a backlogged system.
Year 2-4: Finally see immigration judge. Removal order entered. Appeals limited.
Final: Deported. Permanent bar. Life in America over.
That entire cascade can unfold while your focused only on the criminal case. Two systems. Two tracks. One destroys you while your attention is on the other.
What To Do Right Now
If your reading this and your already in trouble, heres what you need to do immediatley:
Step 1: Do not talk to anyone about the case except attorneys. Not friends. Not family. Not coworkers. Anything you say can be used.
Step 2: Get BOTH a federal criminal defense attorney AND an immigration attorney. Not one then the other. Both at the same time. They need to coordinate strategy from day one. At Spodek Law Group, we handle this coordination - Todd Spodek and our team understand both systems and how they interact.
Step 3: Do NOT travel internationally under any circumstances until both attorneys clear it. Do not assume your visa is safe.
Step 4: Document your employment status carefully. If your terminated, your 60-day clock starts. Know exactly when.
Step 5: Do not accept any plea deal without written analysis from your immigration attorney. Do not assume your criminal attorney knows immigration law. Do not assume "deferred adjudication" will save you.
The window for protecting yourself is narrow. Once certain decisions are made - accepting a plea, traveling abroad, missing deadlines - they cannot be undone.
The federal goverment has been preparing your case for months or years before you knew about it. They gathered evidence, interviewed witnesses, built there theory. You have days or weeks to mount a defense.
But having the right team - attorneys who understand both systems and how they work together - gives you the best chance of surviving this.
Call us at 212-300-5196. The next 48 hours may determine the next 20 years.
