Do I have a chance to get Citizenship

G

greg1979

Registered Users (C)
UPDATED - 8/12/2011 I became United States Citizen
District Office: Newark NJ.

Hi All,

I want to say there is hope in difficult cases. I'm one of them. Today (8/12/2011) in Newark NJ I had my "interview" which I passed and took an oath and I became US Citizen. My case was not so simple due to the fact I had a criminal charge (cocaine possession/use/being under influence) I had when I was a juvenile. Then not signing up for Selective Service and not having a valid passport. I did bring a lawyer to the interview but in reality she was not needed. Keep in mind I had this criminal charge while I was 17 years old and it was over 14 years ago so a lot of time had passed.

The three possible issues that could have prevented me from becoming a USC:
1.) My final disposition charge on my court paper work was 2C:35-10B Possession, Use or Being Under the Influence 0 Deg. D (cocaine was the drug involved) I also had a fine of $1025 which I paid while I did my probation for 1 year and piss tests.
The IO took my court papers that had the raised seal on them . The paperwork stated case was "DISPOSED" . Oh I made a visit to the probation office in Elizabeth NJ to get the probation director to write me a letter that I had completed my probation successfully. He had to go to the basement level to get my records because this was so long ago and a juvenile record. This document he made for me was a regular letter that stated I successfully completed my probation in 9/1/1998 and he signed it. No raised seal and not notarized. The IO took this from me as well. The IO at my interview never asked me any questions about my case I assume because along with my application I sent a letter explaining how it all happened and I was 17 years old when I got charged.

2.) I failed to sign up for Selective Service. I wrote an explanation letter that stated I failed to signup because I dropped out of High School at 17 and did not know I had to sign up . The SSS send me the letter "I was never registered but was required to" this I sent along along with my application. IO never asked anything about S.S part (I'm 32 now)

3.) I did not have a valid passport. My only passport I ever had expired over 12 years ago so I went with that passport. IO asked why I don't have a valid passport I told him I don't need to travel outside of US because all my family is in US and all are USC's and I pretty much grew up in this country and its the only country I know.

I was asked to write a sentence , answered 6 civic questions and I was recommended for approval. The whole interview process took about 15 minutes. I don't know if I got lucky or what but I'm very happy it is all
behind me and now I'm a USC.

Thanks All and good luck to all future USC's !
Greg

Below is my 1st msg I posted on 4/13/2011 right after I sent my N400 to USCIS.
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Hi All,

I have question regarding my chances of getting citizenship. Right now I'm 32 years old and I'm a permanent resident. I came to US in 1991 with my parents I was 12 years old. I only left US for a week in 1992. Since then I never left US and have always lived in the same town. At age of 17 years old (juvenile) I wanted to celebrate New Years Eve with drugs ( cocaine) everything was fine until my friend got sick and had to be taken to emergency room. Police came I got charged as a juveniles with possession of a controlled substance (empty vial no drug in it) I had fines, probation, counseling , AA meetings etc. That was the only time I was involved with law enforcement. I have never been ticketed or anything. This was 15 years ago.Second thing is I never singed up for Selective Service. I called SS and they sent me a letter that I failed to sign up. I got married at the ago of 23 to a permanent resident my wife of 9 years now. We have 2 great boys 4 year old and 10 month born in US. We own a home . I have always been employed I never been on unemployment. I have always paid my taxes and do not owe taxes. Oh I might add this at age of 17 I started my own business and dropped out of High School in my Junior year, few years later I went back to High School and got my High School diploma not a GED but a HS diploma. I've been obeying all the laws but when I was 17 years old I was dumb and made a mistake and I though
when I entered this country with my parents I was automatically signed up for Selective Service until recently I found out that was not the case. Do you guys think I have a chance to get my citizenship?

Thank You,
Greg.
 
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greg1979 said:
Hi All,

I have question regarding my chances of getting citizenship. Right now I'm 32 years old and I'm a permanent resident. I came to US in 1991 with my parents I was 12 years old. I only left US for a week in 1992. Since then I never left US and have always lived in the same town. At age of 17 years old (juvenile) I wanted to celebrate New Years Eve with drugs ( cocaine) everything was fine until my friend got sick and had to be taken to emergency room. Police came I got charged as a juveniles with possession of a controlled substance (empty vial no drug in it) I had fines, probation, counseling , AA meetings etc. That was the only time I was involved with law enforcement. I have never been ticketed or anything. This was 15 years ago.Second thing is I never singed up for Selective Service. I called SS and they sent me a letter that I failed to sign up. I got married at the ago of 23 to a permanent resident my wife of 9 years now. We have 2 great boys 4 year old and 10 month born in US. We own a home . I have always been employed I never been on unemployment. I have always paid my taxes and do not owe taxes. Oh I might add this at age of 17 I started my own business and dropped out of High School in my Junior year, few years later I went back to High School and got my High School diploma not a GED but a HS diploma. I've been obeying all the laws but when I was 17 years old I was dumb and made a mistake and I though
when I entered this country with my parents I was automatically signed up for Selective Service until recently I found out that was not the case. Do you guys think I have a chance to get my citizenship?

Thank You,
Greg.
Click to expand...

Did your parents ever become naturalized citizens and if yes, when?
 
greg1979 said:
Yes my parents became naturalized citizens. I believe my age was 18 or 19 when they go their Citizenship. I'll call my mother to find out exact date.
Click to expand...

If you were over 18 when they naturalized, that would not help you now. If you were under 18 when they got naturalized, you might have automatically derived U.S. citizenship through your parents at the time of their naturalization, in which case you may be a U.S. citizen already.

If you did not derive U.S. citizenship through parents, then you would indeed need to file your own application for naturalization if you want to become a U.S. citizen.

In terms of answering your original question, you'd need to provide more details here, such as: what was the exact charge (and in which state) under which you were convicted, what was the precise punishment and what was the maximal possible punishment for the offense in question, whether your case was heard in the juvenile or adult court, etc.

It may well be that that single arrest made you technically deportable. See the relevant section of 8CFR at:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/8/usc_sec_08_00001227----000-.html

"(B) Controlled substances
(i) Conviction.
Any alien who at any time after admission has been convicted of a violation of (or a conspiracy or attempt to violate) any law or regulation of a State, the United States, or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance (as defined in section 802 of title 21), other than a single offense involving possession for one’s own use of 30 grams or less of marijuana, is deportable."

There is another provision that might be applicable to you as well:
"(2) Criminal offenses
(A) General crimes
(i) Crimes of moral turpitude. Any alien who—
(I) is convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude committed within five years [...] after the date of admission, and
(II) is convicted of a crime for which a sentence of one year or longer may be imposed,

is deportable".

As a practical matter, many technically deportable aliens have their N-400 applications approved, since the IOs adjudicating them have pretty wide discretion in making the good moral character determination in N-400 cases. In particular, they often forgive relatively minor infractions, even in cases where such infractions make the applicant technically deportable.

You would be well advised to consult an immigration lawyer before filing N-400 in terms of possible implications of your arrest. The real danger here is not that your N-400 may be denied, but that, if you are indeed deportable, the IO might forward your file to ICE for deportation proceedings. While that is probably rather unlikely, you still need to find out where exactly you stand in relation to potential deportability. I am not sure how the immigration law treats deportable offenses committed while the alien is still a juvenile - a lawyer should be able to clarify that too.

Actually, there is a BIA decision (from Sept 2000) which held that that an adjudication of youthful offender status under New York state law does not constitute a conviction for a crime under the Immigration and Nationality Act:
http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/removcrim/removcrim046.htm

This decision probably has implications for juvenile convictions that occurred in other states, but it could be that it depends on the specific laws of the state in question in relation to juvenile convictions. Still, this could well mean that the conviction that resulted from your arrest as a minor actually does not count as a "conviction" for immigration purposes - in which case you would not be deportable and could safely file N-400. Again, an immigration lawyer should be able to clarify this point.
 
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baikal has been paying attention and has given good info.

In addition, the selective service issue is now outside your statutory period and has become moot [irrelevant]. It is likely that the H.S. officials who strive to ensure that young men register missed you during the period when you dropped out and back in again. If your spouse has already naturalized at least 3 years ago, you would have a shorter statutory period to consider (and therefore, a longer period showing "reform of character").
 
greg1979 said:
when I entered this country with my parents I was automatically signed up for Selective Service until recently I found out that was not the case.
Click to expand...

I don't think the automatic registration was in place back in the early 1990s, and it's done only if you're in the 18-26 age range during the green card process. Apparently you obtained your green card before you turned 18, so you wouldn't have been automatically registered even if they were doing the automatic registration back then.

But now that you're over 31, the Selective Service registration is largely irrelevant. What you need to worry about is that drug offense. You should consult an immigration lawyer who can look through the exact details of the case and figure out if it's a deportable conviction (doesn't look like it, but you need to make sure of it before you apply).
 
greg1979 said:
Yes my parents became naturalized citizens. I believe my age was 18 or 19 when they go their Citizenship. I'll call my mother to find out exact date.
Click to expand...

My father became a US citizen on August 27 1999, my mother on April 29 2000. It took them almost 4+ years to get their citizenship after applying because it was so slow to get naturalized back then.
 
Without your date of birth, we do not know whether you were eligible. You do not need to disclose the DOB, but check whether you turned 18 before or after Aug 27, 1999. If you turned 18 after, you might be able to get citizenship thru your father.
 
sanjoseaug20 said:
Without your date of birth, we do not know whether you were eligible. You do not need to disclose the DOB, but check whether you turned 18 before or after Aug 27, 1999. If you turned 18 after, you might be able to get citizenship thru your father.
Click to expand...

In his first post in this thread the OP says that he is 32 years old now. This makes it mathematically impossible for him to have been under 18 years old on Aug 27, 1999.
 
So I took a gamble ... I mailed my N400 form last week. I will let you guys know how it goes. I'll update my first post later on today with the exact drug charge I had as a juvenile. I'm hoping for the best but I'm assuming anything can happen. Thanks for all the help guys and gals.

Greg
 
You applied without consulting an immigration lawyer to review the details of your case? Are you aware that you could be risking deportation?
 
Glad you got it!!! I was looking for a post that had a successful but I know it doesn't mean anything as each case is different.
I'm so scared of mine. I just had my interview. Everything when well but back in 2005 I had a dv misdemeanor but I know its the same. after the interview she said that they only need the police record they got the court dockets and all.
I'm scared cause I know.I could be deported because of that but my question is why even bother interviewing me knowing what's on my court docket. Obviously dv is ground of deportion why didn't they just deny me and told me what's gonna happen?
What's my chances of being deported ? I call lawyers around but they didnt seem too interested.
It's been 6 years. I've been a good person. Married to a US citizen with 2 kids and I'm scared for them for what they suffer for my mess.
What's my chances of getting it or just being denied is fine but I can't take being deported.
Thank you.
 
scaredandalone said:
I'm scared cause I know.I could be deported because of that but my question is why even bother interviewing me knowing what's on my court docket. Obviously dv is ground of deportion why didn't they just deny me and told me what's gonna happen?
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You would prefer them to deny people without providing applicants a chance to explain and update the situation? Suppose you filed an appeal of the conviction? Rather than deny outright, they could put the case on hold to wait for the outcome of the appeal, and approve it if the conviction is overturned.

Or suppose there was a clerical error on the court paperwork, in which they cited the wrong statute because of a typo but you didn't realize it until after submitting the N-400? If they don't deny you before the interview, you can provide a corrected court document at the interview.
 
Jackolantern said:
You would prefer them to deny people without providing applicants a chance to explain and update the situation? Suppose you filed an appeal of the conviction? Rather than deny outright, they could put the case on hold to wait for the outcome of the appeal, and approve it if the conviction is overturned.

Or suppose there was a clerical error on the court paperwork, in which they cited the wrong statute because of a typo but you didn't realize it until after submitting the N-400? If they don't deny you before the interview, you can provide a corrected court document at the interview.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. I'm just so scared. I took the no contest plea because I was scared to be in jail. I was really scared.
Is there even a chance I still could get approved? I was reading around about a 5 year rule and I've been good ever since that scare.
If not do they always go to the last resort as being deported? And there is always a court trial before and fight it ? Thank you. I'm trying to get some rest but everything is been a nightmare. I didn't know thus would be the outcome. I know what i did was no excuse. Would they consider me being good moral for 5 years?
 
scaredandalone said:
That makes sense. I'm just so scared. I took the no contest plea because I was scared to be in jail. I was really scared.
Is there even a chance I still could get approved? I was reading around about a 5 year rule and I've been good ever since that scare.
If not do they always go to the last resort as being deported? And there is always a court trial before and fight it ? Thank you. I'm trying to get some rest but everything is been a nightmare. I didn't know thus would be the outcome. I know what i did was no excuse. Would they consider me being good moral for 5 years?
Click to expand...

If the details of the crime are such that it makes you deportable or permanently ineligible for naturalization, having a clean 5 years won't help much.

You should have checked with an immigration lawyer to review the details of the case before applying, to determine if you're deportable or approvable.
 
I'll put it this way my expired passport said I'm a child and the photo in there hardly resembled me now. My passport was expired 12 years ago. With expired passports I assume it all might depend on the IO during interview. This was my case though.


Greg
 
Jackolantern said:
If the details of the crime are such that it makes you deportable or permanently ineligible for naturalization, having a clean 5 years won't help much.

You should have checked with an immigration lawyer to review the details of the case before applying, to determine if you're deportable or approvable.
Click to expand...


I'm getting the police report sometime today or tomorrow since I have to get copies from California. I'm in Arkansas now.
I talked to my ex were good friends now. I asked her what exactly was on the police report. we had am arguement. We were pushing each other and pretty much that sums it all. Cop had to take me.in because she called and has a small tiny red mark not bruises or anything.
My charges was drop to first count misdemeanor.
Could they read the report and be like oh that's it his getting deported or would they axtually consider hat iy wasn't a hanus crime. ?
With you knowledge and beibg here around. What are the chances that you seen people get approve or do I get deported for sure or just deny and try again later on ?
 
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