Lottery Millionaire--Visas Galore Await

Jose Caballero, the illegal alien furniture factory worker, has little, if any, chance of obtaining a legal visa to remain in the United States.

But Jose Caballero, the 24-year-old Mexican millionaire, will find a variety of visas open to him should he decide that he wants to spend some of his $2-million lottery windfall in the United States, according to William B. Odencrantz, regional counsel for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Among them: multiple-entry tourist visas, long-term student visas and temporary residency visas for foreign executives.

“Say Caballero decides that once he’s back in Mexico, he wants to see the sights he never saw in the United States . . . Disneyland, the Empire State Building, the Seattle Space Needle,” Odencrantz said. “As long as he can establish that he has the money to support himself, that he is not likely to take a job from an American worker, that he doesn’t have a disease and is not a criminal, he can ask for the maximum visitor’s visa of six months.”

Join the Jetsetters

When the six months is up, Odencrantz added, “He could decide to go back to Acapulco and get a suntan, then decide to go up with the jetsetters to ski in Aspen. As long as it is clear he is just a visitor and is not living here, there should be no problem.”

If the young millionaire decides to continue his education in the United States, he could also apply for a long-term student visa, if he is accepted by a bona fide university here, Odencrantz said.

If he were to decide instead to establish a furniture factory in Mexico, and later opted to expand into the United States, Odencrantz said, the young manufacturer could apply for a temporary, long-term, inter-company “transferee” visa. He could also request a multiple-entry business visa, for example, to oversee exportation of his furniture to the United States, Odencrantz said. Such a visa would allow him almost free access to come and go.

The reason that Caballero’s sudden change of fortune also suddenly improves his chances of coming to the United States legally is because U.S. immigration laws are designed on one hand to protect American workers, and on the other to allow foreigners to spend money here, Odencrantz explained.

One Hitch

There is one hitch, however.

Caballero is under deportation proceedings. If he is judged deportable by an immigration judge, he would be barred from returning legally to the United States for five years. If he agrees to go home voluntarily, however, no such restriction would apply. Even if he is deported, Odencrantz said, Caballero could apply for a waiver of the five-year rule.

Caballero, a bachelor, has one other option that might be easiest of all, Odencrantz pointed out.

“He may become suddenly interesting to American citizen women,” he said. “If he marries a U.S. citizen, then he is immediately eligible to apply for a permanent residency visa.”