Another Traffic Ticket Question

A

azguy

Registered Users (C)
I will be applying for citizenship soon, I have been following the discussions in this forum and I understand that I must declare all traffic tickets when filing the N-400.

I received a speeding ticket in Arizona about 10 years ago, unfortunately I don't have the paperwork relating to that incident anymore. If I disclose the ticket on the application, how do I prove at the interview (if I am asked) that I took care of the ticket. The arizona DMV only retains driving records for the last 5 years, so I am out of luck there.

Anybody else face this situation before, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
azguy said:
I will be applying for citizenship soon, I have been following the discussions in this forum and I understand that I must declare all traffic tickets when filing the N-400.

I received a speeding ticket in Arizona about 10 years ago, unfortunately I don't have the paperwork relating to that incident anymore. If I disclose the ticket on the application, how do I prove at the interview (if I am asked) that I took care of the ticket. The arizona DMV only retains driving records for the last 5 years, so I am out of luck there.

Anybody else face this situation before, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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if you have proof of cancelled check, payment by credit card(statement) use it and tell them you paid the ticket. take a copy of your driving record.or if you have the ticket number you can ask the court to give you proof of payment. If they dont have proof tell them to write a letter saying they do not have any records to show the ticket.
 
I would not worry about it. I declared mine. I don't have any record of my tickets. As long as you can prove that your license is not suspended, I would think that you should be enough. License get revoked if they don't pay tickets.
 
I agree with the other responses ... maybe you can show in a written statement what you did to retrieve a record of your payment (Phone Numbers, dates you called, people you spoke to, letters you wrote, etc). That is probably already more than the adjudication officer would want to read. It is not a big deal, especially if your ticket was not for DUI or reckless driving. Those serious offenses is what the immigration worries about ... the other tickets are just to complete the picture and not to have people argue about what type of ticket has to be declared. Everthing has to be mentioned, only certain violations matter at all.

Alex.
 
Reconfirming

So looking at this discussion, I have few questions.
1. Do we need to have to provide the ticket info. in the N400 or just during the interview? I did not fill out anything about the tickets in the N400, since I was not sure.
2. Additionally, I have the same problem as the original question, no record of the tickets. Is there a clearance certificate that DMV will give saying that there are no outstanding violations on my driving record?

Responses would be highly appreciated.
 
Premald, you were supposed to mention them ...but this will not a big deal. I would state during the interview that you learned over the past weeks that you should have included traffic citations. Maybe you heard from somebody who naturalized before 1998 that traffic citation were not to be included (they were NOT at that time) ?
Anyway, see what you can collect in information. Have you driving records available and any information about the tickets themselves. You won't be in trouble. In part, the interview is there to add or update certain information.

Alex

P.S. I received a certificate of payment for a parking ticket (!) that I got about 8 years ago in another state. I knew only what year it was ... not even the month. I called the local institutions and finally got some info. I had to know my licence plate though. That is all plain overkill, especially for a parking ticket. But it took only 15 minutes of a lunch break.
 
AlexanderG said:
Premald, you were supposed to mention them ...but this will not a big deal. I would state during the interview that you learned over the past weeks that you should have included traffic citations. Maybe you heard from somebody who naturalized before 1998 that traffic citation were not to be included (they were NOT at that time) ?
Anyway, see what you can collect in information. Have you driving records available and any information about the tickets themselves. You won't be in trouble. In part, the interview is there to add or update certain information.

Alex

P.S. I received a certificate of payment for a parking ticket (!) that I got about 8 years ago in another state. I knew only what year it was ... not even the month. I called the local institutions and finally got some info. I had to know my licence plate though. That is all plain overkill, especially for a parking ticket. But it took only 15 minutes of a lunch break.
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Alex,
Thanks for your response, I will call up the local offices and see if I can get any record of clearance. I will also check with DMV if they can give some clearance records on my DL.
I had received the tickets long time back (almost 7-8 years back) so let's see what I can find.
And you are right, I can always tell them that learnt about this fact after filing (which I did) N400, and I am correcting that information during the interview.

Premal
 
premald said:
Alex,
Thanks for your response, I will call up the local offices and see if I can get any record of clearance. I will also check with DMV if they can give some clearance records on my DL.
I had received the tickets long time back (almost 7-8 years back) so let's see what I can find.
And you are right, I can always tell them that learnt about this fact after filing (which I did) N400, and I am correcting that information during the interview.

Premal
Click to expand...

I just called the DMV office, they told me they can give me a DMV record, that will show all the tickets that were added to my record (paid for). And that my license is not suspended (i.e. valid till 2010). Additionally, they also told me that the record will not contain the information about tickets that were corrected thru traffic school. So do you think I might need more evidence?

Thanks
Premal
 
I think you will be perfectly fine. Remember, this section of the N400 is about judging you moral character. If you'd lie, that would possibly indicate to an adjudication officer that you have a 'bad' character. Having these harmless traffic citations and disclose them at the time of the interview won't make you 'look bad'.
I think you have enough evidence. You will show that you made a reasonable effort to disclose all your traffic citations before the immigration will decide about your N400 petition.
By the way, most people file the N400 without lawyer and not listing the traffic citations must be the most common 'mistake', I believe.

Alex

P.S It is important though also to mention citations that were dismissed. Those will not appear in the driving record. By mentioning also those you will be on the save side. My wife had a citation that was dismissed in court because she had a valid reason/explanation for exceeding the speed limit. No record in the driving record but we mentioned it anyway. Please note, on the N400 being cited and having the charge dismissed are two separate things !
 
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