Going to apply for US Citizenship soon and I have a question regarding arrest..... I was detained by INS for 3 wks long time ago for overstaying here in the US. I was released and years after I got married with my wife who is a US Citizen. It's been long gone and I dont have any more copies of court papers right now. Where can I get a copy of this court records? Do I need to hire a lawyer? or I can do this without it as long I have all the papers from previous case?
Need some advice please.
I have a similar situation, although I was detained by INS for a few hours and had to pay a $250 fine. Before sending in my N-400, I called the clerk's office at the federal court (Northern District of NY) in Albany for that, and they were extremely efficient. In my case, Albany referred me to the national archives, where all records go after some time. Turns out National Archives destroyed my file because it was too old. So I called Albany again, and they were nice enough to write me a letter describing the case from their computer records and also explain why the original case documents were destroyed.
So: were you in court? If not, then copies of court records do not arise. If you were in court, then call the court.
If the court can not find your record, no big deal. As it was the INS, they will have a copy of that detention and the court records. So I think even if you can not get a court-certified copy, you have no big worries, just some delay while the IO locates the record. To minimize that, send in the copies of any records you have, and explain why you can not send in certified copies from the court. Enclose copies of letters you sent to the court trying to locate your record, and their reply showing it could not be located.
I am assuming this was prior to your green card. Did this come up at that time?
Good luck
