Oakland, CA – During the week of January 15, 2018, the Alameda County public defender brought to the attention of the Oakland Police Department two cases of U-Visa certifications that were improperly denied. Upon learning this, OPD immediately conducted an internal audit, reviewing U-Visa certifications starting from 2007, the first year the visas were made available.
The chart below shows the number of U-Visa applications approved and rejected by the Department each year. The audit found that as many as 25 of the 144 rejected certifications in 2017 may have been improperly rejected based on a misapplication of the legal standards governing U-Visa certifications. If you have been denied U-Visa certification during the application process, we encourage you to resubmit your application to the Oakland Police Department.
The U-Visa is a non-immigrant, temporary visa, which allows a victim who has suffered substantial physical or mental abuse from certain crimes (specified in federal law), and who provides information that can assist law enforcement in the investigation or prosecution of the crimes, to remain in the United States for up to 4 years.
An immigrant granted a U-Visa will subsequently be given legal status to live and work in the United States. To learn more about the U-Visa program, please visit this OPD webpage: https://tinyurl.com/OPD-u-visa (in Spanish, https://tinyurl.com/OPD-laVisaU; in Chinese, https://tinyurl.com/OPD-ChineseU-Visa).
The Oakland Police Department apologizes for any inconvenience to our community members who have been affected.
For more information, please contact the Media Relations Office at (510) 238-7230 or opdmedia@oaklandca.gov.
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