Lawyers saying diferent things. Need your advise!!!

[Karina]

Hi, I'm out of status for 9 month now. I won a Green Card Lottery about 2 month ago. I know that there is not much I can do, but there is still one important thing that I'm confused about. I've seen 5 lawyers so far who tell me completely different things about my situation and what I can do about it. I just don't know who is wrong and who is right. Maybe you can help me to clear things out?
First of all, I was on F-1 student visa all these years. I graduated from the college in 2001 after which I received the Employment Authorization Card. I have D/S on my I-94. Now that's where my lawyers seem to disagree about one thing. One belives that because I was on F-1 visa and I have D/S on my I-94 I still can go home and 3-10 year bar won't apply to me. My other lawyer first got excited becase of D/S part, but as soon as he found out that I did receive an Employment Authorization Card that's when he said my D/S is no longer played a part and unlawfull presence began when the EAC expired. Therefore I'm out of status and if I'll go home I would be banned for 3 to 10 years. My first lawyer disagree because he says that Employment Authorisaion Card gives you promission to work in the US for the time shown in the Card. It does not change your status. It's not like I receved a woriking visa or something. So he suggest for me to go home and apply for a green card there. I want to mention that his father who is also a lawyer was a first one to open an immigraton law firm in California so they're dealing with this kind of situations all the time. At least that's what he said.
So please, any comments whould be appreciated.

[Karina]

Hi, I'm out of status for 9 month now. I won a Green Card Lottery about 2 month ago. I know that there is not much I can do, but there is still one important thing that I'm confused about. I've seen 5 lawyers so far who tell me completely different things about my situation and what I can do about it. I just don't know who is wrong and who is right. Maybe you can help me to clear things out?
First of all, I was on F-1 student visa all these years. I graduated from the college in 2001 after which I received the Employment Authorization Card. I have D/S on my I-94. Now that's where my lawyers seem to disagree about one thing. One belives that because I was on F-1 visa and I have D/S on my I-94 I still can go home and 3-10 year bar won't apply to me. My other lawyer first got excited becase of D/S part, but as soon as he found out that I did receive an Employment Authorization Card that's when he said my D/S is no longer played a part and unlawfull presence began when the EAC expired. Therefore I'm out of status and if I'll go home I would be banned for 3 to 10 years. My first lawyer disagree because he says that Employment Authorisaion Card gives you promission to work in the US for the time shown in the Card. It does not change your status. It's not like I receved a woriking visa or something. So he suggest for me to go home and apply for a green card there. I want to mention that his father who is also a lawyer was a first one to open an immigraton law firm in California so they're dealing with this kind of situations all the time. At least that's what he said.
So please, any comments whould be appreciated.

[mmorales]

It is true that the EAD did not have an effect on your D/S status and that you technically have not accumulated unlawful presence. But, when it comes to traveling, you are dealing with immigration officers who either don't know the fine distinctions under the law or make-up their own law. The danger is that you can run into an officer that believes you were here unlawfully and will refuse to allow you to reenter. Thus, although you have legal grounds to reenter, you most likely will not have any recourse against such an officer. It's unfortunate, but the law does give them a lot of discretion. If you were to run into a situation like this, you should have your lawyer's number on hand. Thus, this implies that you attempt to enter during his/her business hours.

info@myronmorales.com

[Karina]

Mmorales, thank you very much for your response. I just talked to my lawyer today, the one who told me that EAD did not have an effect on my D/S status. He seemed very confident that he can help me and agreed to take my case. He said that it's very important to prove to the immigration officer that I wasn't here unlawfully present. Basically I just need to be prepared. I need to have all the necessary documents of prove on hand before I go home. Hopefully I'll get lucky.

Thanks again