Discussing Criminal History with an Immigration Lawyer

I’ve developed a new pet peeve.  Lately, when I do consultations and ask people what they were convicted of, they tell me they were convicted of a “felony” or “misdemeanor.”  Felony and misdemeanor are classifications of crimes.  Telling an immigration lawyer that you were convicted of a felony or misdemeanor does not help an immigration attorney to figure out the immigration consequence of your conviction.  In order for an immigration attorney to determine the immigration consequence of a conviction, the immigration lawyer needs to know the actual crime that the person received a conviction for.  Grounds of removability and inadmissibility in immigration law are based upon convictions.  Sometimes whether or not someone was convicted of a misdemeanor or felony will be a factor in determining whether or not someone’s criminal history will cause them an immigration problem.  However, an immigration lawyer really needs to know what the conviction was for to determine if a conviction will cause an immigration problem.