Arrest in India

A

Avalon

Registered Users (C)
I am a Green Card holder and living in US for past 10 years. I got my GC in 2004 and I am thinking of taking US citizenship. Last year, I was arrested in India. My then wife called police on me and had me arrested. It was out of domestic quarrel. I was then released on bond. I have a court document from Indian Government about the release and the permission to travel abroad. The case is still pending in India as it takes years to get a case run in India. I will not be convicted as it was a domestic incident. Later I filed for divorce in US and divorced the wife.

I never had any other problem in US except 2 minor traffic tickets. There is no record of my India arrest in US.

1. Will I be deported in US?
2. Do I mention about arrest in N-400?
:confused:
 
1. Will I be deported in US?
No. India does not have the jurisdiction to have you deported from USA. They would have to seek the assistance of Interpol to do that . You did not do something that severe to have Interpol after you.

2. Do I mention about arrest in N-400?
Well, this is a gray area ! What happens in India can stay in India.
 
Avalon said:
I will not be convicted as it was a domestic incident.
Click to expand...
If you're found guilty, you're convicted. Convicted doesn't mean going to jail. "Domestic incident" doesn't mean you can't be found guilty.

If they know of your case still pending they won't approve your naturalization until the case is resolved. But if you don't tell USCIS about it, and they find out at any time after granting your citizenship, they can revoke your citizenship.
 
I would not mention anything that happened in India. And you would have to be a war criminal Jackolantern or some kind of person of interest for your citizenship to be revoked! Almost never happens.
 
Foreign convictions can be used to determine moral character of an applicant. Not disclosing any foreign conviction or arrest on the basis that US authorities don't have access to such records amounts to an applicant lying to gain an immigration benefit and potential revocation of naturalization down the road.

This being said, there are several possible scenarios in your case:

1) Don't disclose foreign arrest , get approved, and naturalize. However, this gives USCIS a reason to revoke citizenship down the road based on lying to gain an immigration benefit. While the chances of this happening may be slim, they aren't zero percent either. It's up to you if you want to take the chance.

2) Disclose arrest , provide Indian court papers, get approved a naturalized. A pending foreign trial may not have an impact on your application.

3) Disclose arrest, provide Indian court paper, but get denied due to pending trial for domestic quarrel. In this case a pending trial does affect decision.


If you disclose the arrest, the IO might further question you about the domestic incident during the interview and try to determine your guilt based on what happened. This is especially true for a domestic dispute arrest which suggests that violence may have been involved. Don't go into more details about the arrest and incident than required. It's always best to consult a good immigration lawyer to determine how you should proceed.

As for fear of deportation, since you were never convicted to begin with you wouldn't have anything to worry about.
 
So no Deportation

So in my case, I will not be deported as I was not convicted. The worst thing that can happen is I may be denied citizenship. But am I eligible for citizenship as this incident happened last year and one needs to have clean record for last 5 years?
 
That's correct. You won't be deported since you weren't convicted of a deportable offense.
You're eligible to apply, but the question is how USCIS will view the foreign arrest for moral character purposes. They may ignore the arrest and approve your case or deny your case based on pending trial.
 
Anyone....

Is anyone in similar situation? They can send me a Private Message if they wish to.

or

Have you heard of anyone with similar charges here in US and got Citizenship without a problem?

Avalon.:confused:
 
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