Fireant

Thankyou.
I'm just hoping that now, once the Acro certificate arrives, that they can grant me my k1 visa.
I've tried to do everything right, so fingers crossed 🤞

SanDiegogirl

Presume you all have been discussing the OP's situation with regard to the following question included in the ESTA application:

“Have you ever been arrested or convicted for a crime that resulted in serious damage to property, or serious harm to another person or government authority?”

What does 'serious harm to another person' even mean? Physical harm? What if you stole from a person, but did them no physical harm, but they suffered psychological damage due to the robbery? What if you stole someone's identity? Would that be serious harm to them?

.... and what does serious harm to government authority refer to?

Seems to me that, with the US Authorities, apparently, having access to European criminal databases, anything they find on an applicant could be interpreted as fulfilling this ESTA question.

Fireant

I meant to add, upon arriving in the USA, both my girlfriend and I went to see another immigration attorney about this, and they said the same thing.
It was expensive though, but we both wanted to do the right thing.

Rete

As noted there are several members who don't agree with the advice of either attorney.

Just wanted to let you know that when you and the gf are ready to go for the K-1, that you ask your questions on the marriage-based visa forum.

Curious to see what your ACRO report says.

Fireant

Notes, thanks
I'll update when I receive the report

materialcontroller

I'm another one that disagrees with the attorney advice. Cases like this make me wonder why we bother handing out advice to people who don't listen to it and just go ahead and take an incorrect path anyway.

The OP has a CIMT conviction, so there is no way they can legitimately answer "no" to the criminality question on ESTA. Following that bad advice probably won't negatively affect their K-1 application, but they have still inadvertently lied (or at best, misunderstood the process) in order to gain an ESTA.

materialcontroller

The ESTA question is asking about CIMT, just as it always did. The only change is that the wording no longer mentions moral turpitude explicitly - but it is made clear in the explanatory help notes that accompany an ESTA application (and which it seems most people, and even some attorneys, cannot be bothered to read properly).

AFAIK, the US authorities do not have routine access to European criminal records or databases.

Fireant

If what they say is wrong, the problem is, we don't have this bad advice in writing, it was verbal during our appointment. The immigration attorney we seen in the US, spent a full hour with my girlfriend and me answering questions etc. When we asked about the ESTA and moral turpitude, she said something along the lines of its a common misunderstanding with people from outside the US and she believed the forms had changed. So she went and checked. She then came back and said as there was no serious harm done to a person or property, no drug related offences etc etc, then it won't be a problem ticking no on my ESTA.

She then made notes about the silly crimes I did in the past and asked me if I could get this report.
Then once that's done, don't travel with it. Either post it from the UK or email a copy over to her.

She did say that once she's done seeing how my specific crimes translate into American law, that we should make another appointment and then go from there.

The visa I was told to get after this stage was the k1 fiancée visa.
But one question I wanted to ask you guys was, would it be OK to ask my girlfriend the big question before this visa goes through or wait until after its been processed? Is there a correct way of doing that, or doesn't it matter? Is the fiancée visa like permission to ask her or can I still do it?

Just that my girlfriend has kind of hinted at this several times now and with Christmas on its way and me spending it with her this year, I was thinking of asking her around then.
Probably a daft question I kmow.

scrubbedexpat099

A K1 means you do not have a GF you have a Fiancee and she is going through the process to petition you, one of the requirements is a statement that you intend to marry.

Nutmegger

The whole point of the K-1 visa, also known as the fiance visa, is that you have both already committed to marry each other!

Fireant

I know it probably sounded daft, but thanks for clearing that up.

Also, her family and herself have already said that they'd sponsor me.
They know people who would give me work, maybe a written job offer would help?
Also one question we did discuss on the phone, but haven't found a proper answer too yet, is that during my next trips time over there, am I able to do any unpaid volunteer work, or would that not be allowed?

Noorah101

A job offer won't help the K-1 visa. Your fiancee (or another USC or LPR) must be your financial sponsor. The form to look at is the I-134.

You can do volunteer work if its truly a volunteer-only position for which no one ever gets paid. Think of things like volunteering in a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, Feed My Starving Children, etc. You can't volunteer to do for free what someone else gets paid to do.

Rene

Fireant

​​​​​​Thankyou very much for your reply.
My other half has said that she will sponsor me. I contacted my old solicitors today and asked to confirm what my offences were.

She said one from 1999 was for the most minor assault possible (common I believe), but they added on criminal damage, unsure why, probably a torn shirt or something. But there was no damage carried out to my knowledge. I only hit back once and walked away as soon as he left me alone.

The one from 2013 was for again the most minor assault again, but I also appealed that, but lost.

Then the final one (the bad one), was from 2014, theft from employer for light bulbs to the value of £500
Now seriously, the bulbs I was going to give back once he paid me my wages and money owed. That's mentioned in my statements somewhere. I gave the police the keys to where they were and told them where to look. That aside, I admit I took the law into my own hands and went about things totally the wrong way. But anyhow I was prosecuted and that was it.
Another addiction to this, after this was over, the place I worked refused to give me back my tools, Drill, being the most expensive and a few other tools, as the manager said he believed I had used the money from the bulbs to buy the tools. The police said this in an email. Which I still have. - would this help if I printed it out?

​​​​​​Each sentence carried a community service order and a fine.
But the latter one I was taken back to court for (my own choice alongside probation), because my doctor signed me off sick so I couldn't complete the sentence. - this was reduced to a bigger fine. Instead of carrying out the community service.

Also just to add, all these were heard in a Magistrates Court, but the appeal for the second assault which I didn't do, was taken to the Crown Court as appeals can't be heard in a Magistrates Court.

That's all of it.

I know nobody on here has a crystal ball and can tell me what the outcome will be, but it feels that the chances of getting the K1 have now just gone from slim to none.

In the mean time I'm still waiting for my Acro Police certificate to come through. But I'm also wondering is there any other documents that you guys would suggest I'd need to help my chances or am I just best giving up now?

Sorry for the long post.
​​​​

tom169

Make sure you use a reputable attorney to navigate this. Not sure how reputable or experienced your last one was. At the end of the day, use an attorney or not, it's you're life they're playing with and if you're denied or banned it's on you.

shiversaint

You might be up shit creek here. Your two common assault offences are not an issue but the theft thing definitely is one:

The problem now is that USICS has a credible argument that you misrepresented yourself by using ESTA when you were in fact potentially not eligible.

A misrep claim makes your case infinitely more difficult. Do not return to the attorney you saw previously, you need one that is familiar with UK Court proceedings in addition to the details of the INA. Members of this forum, myself included, can give you recommendations of competent counsel. That counsel will have to successfully argue that you did not mean to permanently deprive the victim in your theft case, which is additionally more complex given your relationship. The INA does not care about eye for an eye type cases, and it's likely the background context will be ignored. You need a good attorney for this and I am still not entirely convinced that you'll get away with it.

I hate to rub it in, but this is a prime case of ignoring the advice you were given here, and doing something that might have royally screwed up your next steps. If you'd gone for a B-2 with waiver of inadmissibility, you would have no problems going forward.