Was arrested over 10 years ago

D

Dpaullaa

New Member
...and the District Court does not hold onto records older than 10 years.

Hi all,

I finally convinced my husband (who has been a permanent resident for over 20 years) to apply for his citizenship. I myself am a naturalized citizen so I can claim "experience" with the process, but this issue beats me.
He has been arrested in his teens for trespassing (he is now over 40), he has been convicted of it and received community service as his sentence. No parole time, no jail time. It's been so long he doesn't even remember to many details.

I know he needs original arrest record, disposition from the Court, sentence and so on, but the District Court in the city he has been arrested and convicted in, gave him a letter stating " XXX General District Court is not a court-of-record and, by statue, retains records for a period of ten years. We are unable to provide you with your request for certified copies"

Where do we go from here? Would this letter from the Court be enough? Where else should we try?

I really appreciate the help. Thank you!
 
Dpaullaa said:
...and the District Court does not hold onto records older than 10 years.

Hi all,

I finally convinced my husband (who has been a permanent resident for over 20 years) to apply for his citizenship. I myself am a naturalized citizen so I can claim "experience" with the process, but this issue beats me.
He has been arrested in his teens for trespassing (he is now over 40), he has been convicted of it and received community service as his sentence. No parole time, no jail time. It's been so long he doesn't even remember to many details.

I know he needs original arrest record, disposition from the Court, sentence and so on, but the District Court in the city he has been arrested and convicted in, gave him a letter stating " XXX General District Court is not a court-of-record and, by statue, retains records for a period of ten years. We are unable to provide you with your request for certified copies"

Where do we go from here? Would this letter from the Court be enough? Where else should we try?

I really appreciate the help. Thank you!
Click to expand...

It should be enough. If there is no records what can you do?
 
This should be more than sufficient. It was a minor offense a long time ago, and quite frankly USCIS wont care
 
Thank you both so much!

Do you think the local police office still has something about it? Or they also get rid of old records? I mean, he does not even remember what exactly he was charged with, but he knows he was trespassing. I want to make sure he doesn't look like he's trying to hide something.

I hope USCIS will understand.

We will go ahead and submit what we have and we'll update.


And since I'm at it...he also told me he had a few years when, for some reason, he did not file for taxes. He went ahead and filed before IRS came after him though. He did not owe anything and he's officially up to date. Should he answer "yes" to the question "Since becoming a lawful permanent resident have you ever failed to file a required Federal, State, or local tax return?"
And if he answers "yes", should he also maybe send copies of the last 5 tax-returns? Just wondering if it's a good idea..
 
No, the courts are the way to go, and you have what you need.

By filing the tax return (even if late), he did not fail to file a return, so the answer is No
 
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