Making S visas even less appealing, the law requires that federal agencies monitor the applicant until the process is complete. Getting an S visa, an interagency process that requires an application from the Justice Department and then approvals by agencies under the Department of Homeland Security, can take up to a decade - a laborious process that dissuades officials at the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and other agencies from even applying for them. The Justice Department repeatedly declined, pointing to the fact that Coronado could not articulate “verifiable safety concerns” if he returned to the Dominican Republic, his native country.īut data that Gershel was able to obtain for his report suggests that bad faith isn’t the primary problem. He then asked the government to give him the S visa he’d been promised. In fact, Coronado’s agreement with the government specifically stated that if he fulfilled his obligations, the Justice Department would recommend that he receive an S visa to stay in the United States.Ĭoronado held up his end of the bargain, providing information that led to the arrest and conviction of nine people involved in the mortgage fraud scheme.
He immediately cut a deal with the Justice Department: He’d provide information about others involved in the scheme, including two lawyers and a former New York State Senate candidate, in exchange for what’s known as an S visa - a special visa, commonly referred to as a “snitch visa,” for noncitizen informants and cooperating witnesses.
As an adult, in 2009, Coronado was charged with participating in a mortgage fraud scheme. Nervin Coronado came to the United States when he was 12 years old, but he never became a U.S.
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