Prince Harry may never get his hands on a US visa after admitting to taking cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms, a top lawyer has warned. The Duke of Sussex revealed his history of recreational drug use in his bombshell memoir Spare. Legal experts have since questioned how Harry was granted his US visa, as migrants are usually grilled about past drug use – and sometimes refused entry on those grounds.
Now a top lawyer has warned that Prince Harry’s past drug taking could stop him ever holding a Green Card or becoming a full US citizen.
Speaking to The Sun, solicitor Kaitlin Davies said: “Without exceptional circumstances, Harry would likely never be able to hold a Green Card or become a US citizen if he formally admits to using cocaine.”
She added that Prince Harry would be “deemed ineligible for a visa” if he ever told an immigration officer that he had taken illegal drugs in the past.
But Davies noted that Prince Harry’s stories of drug taking in Spare would not be considered “formal” until made under oath.
The legal expert’s insight into Harry’s US visa row comes as the Duke faces pressure to unseal his application documents.
The conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation submitted a Freedom of Information request for the documents to see whether Prince Harry declared his past drug taking with border control.
The Heritage Foundation’s request was rejected by officials, but it is still chasing the documents.
Samuel Dewey, a lawyer acting for America’s Heritage Foundation in its FoI case, said: “One condition of a waiver in the case of someone who has admitted drug use could be that the person has to check back with the medical examiner, so that there is some sort of follow-up.
“But we just don’t know how Prince Harry has been treated and that is why we are asking these questions.”
Sources close to Harry told The Telegraph that the Duke told the truth on his visa application, suggesting he did tell officials about his drug history.
In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry admitted to using cocaine, marijuana, magic mushrooms and ayahuasca in his past.
The royal said he took cocaine in order to “feel different” when he was a teenager, and said he was happy to “upset the established order” as a 17-year-old man.
Harry has also said his use of hallucinogens felt like “the cleaning of the windscreen” and brought him back a “sense of relaxation, relief, comfort, a lightness that I managed to hold back for a period of time.
