gaude

Hey All-

I filed the 485 Adjustment of Status on Feb 14, 2002.
I immedietely received my A.P document and EAD card (in Boston)
When I filed the 485, I had to answer "Yes" to criminal charges.
I have never been convicted of any criminal charges, but I had to go to court for 2 separate incidents

1. I forgot to pay a ticket and my drivers license got suspended
because of this. A police officer pulled me over for not
stopping completely at a red light and noticed that I
was "operating on a suspended license". I immedietely
paid off the ticket (same day) and got my
license reinstated. They gave me a court date and when I got
there, they dismissed the case upon payment of $200 for
court costs.

2. I had a second vehicle that I parked on the street. I intended
to donate this vehicle to charity, but my kindly neighbour
complained to the police that it had been abandoned.
So, after I got back from business travel, I noticed that
the vehicle had been towed and I was given court summons
for "Abandoning vehicle". I did go ahead and donate
the vehicle, and the charge was immedietely dismissed.


I disclosed both these incidents. My interview date is May 1.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? What did you answer when the immigration officer asked if you had any criminal convictions (I was not convicted). Would these constitute crimes of moral turpitude and result in denial? Additionally, I hired a P.I to run a background check on me and neither of these cases showed up and it came back clean. I am a nervous sort and could use experience from someone else if you have been in a similar situation.

Thanks much
-- Gaude
[email protected]

Rete

Well dear you do like to make your life interesting and more complicated than necessary don't you.

Those were not criminal activities. You were not arrested. Traffic tickets do not fall within the range of criminal history unless you were driving in a manner and killed someone and was charged with vehicle manslaughter and/or had drunk driving convictions where you might have received some jail time.

You could have indicated NO and been quite alright. Now you are going to have to explain to the DAO just what you said here and hope they accept your naive understanding of the question. If you had anything to back up these two offenses to prove your story that would be great.

gaude

Thanks for your help Rete. When I got the tickets for these, they were marked as "Criminal" instead of civil charges, which is why I disclosed them, since perjury would be a big deal. I do have a copy of all the "charging papers", summons, dismissal and all paperwork that went into the two cases. I have submitted those as well with my 485 application in an addendum explaining the cases in detail. Since these were dismissals, I was hoping that they would not be a big deal. Hope this should suffice. I will take the papers with me and also a lawyer to be on the safe side...!!

If anyone else has any other experience in this, please let me know.


-- Gaude.

Alvena Ferreira

I do not anticipate that you will have any problems. Alvena

See the Doc Steen site here:
http://www.mindspring.com/~docsteen/...o/visainfo.htm I am not a lawyer, and this
is not immigration advice. The information I provide is mostly gleaned from old
newsgroup posts and visa links on the internet. If you want or need a lawyer, go to:
http://www.aila.org

gaude wrote:
    >
    > Hey All-
    >
    > I filed the 485 Adjustment of Status on Feb 14, 2002. I immedietely received my A.P
    > document and EAD card (in Boston) When I filed the 485, I had to answer "Yes" to
    > criminal charges. I have never been convicted of any criminal charges, but I had to
    > go to court for 2 separate incidents
    >
    > 1. I forgot to pay a ticket and my drivers license got suspended because of this.
    > A police officer pulled me over for not stopping completely at a red light and
    > noticed that I was "operating on a suspended license". I immedietely paid off
    > the ticket (same day) and got my license reinstated. They gave me a court date
    > and when I got there, they dismissed the case upon payment of $200 for court
    > costs.
    >
    > 2. I had a second vehicle that I parked on the street. I intended to donate this
    > vehicle to charity, but my kindly neighbour complained to the police that it
    > had been abandoned. So, after I got back from business travel, I noticed that
    > the vehicle had been towed and I was given court summons for "Abandoning
    > vehicle". I did go ahead and donate the vehicle, and the charge was immedietely
    > dismissed.
    >
    > I disclosed both these incidents. My interview date is May 1. Has anyone been in a
    > similar situation? What did you answer when the immigration officer asked if you
    > had any criminal convictions (I was not convicted). Would these constitute crimes
    > of moral turpitude and result in denial? Additionally, I hired a P.I to run a
    > background check on me and neither of these cases showed up and it came back clean.
    > I am a nervous sort and could use experience from someone else if you have been in
    > a similar situation.
    >
    > Thanks much -- Gaude [email protected]
    >
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com