Immigration decision on a Domestic Violence Case
Thanks a lot to all for your inputs and suggestions.
After two re-schedules for the Citizenship interview and consulting to more than a dozen immigration attorneys, I decided to face the immigration officers. Upon the suggestions of immigration attorneys, I have filed the motion to vacate my old domestic violence case in the local criminal county court. My initial criminal attorney who filed the motion to vacate was experienced but lazy, hence he filed the motion but didn't follow up and my file was sitting in the clerk office for two months. When I found out that he didn't have any vested interest (since all the money for the case was taken on day one) I had to hire another criminal attorney to take over the case. My second criminal attorney is working on the case but it's like starting from scratch to get an appointment with criminal court judge. So it will take another two months to get the hearing.
In the mean time, since my citizenship interview was already re-scheduled twice, my immigration attorney suggested to go for the interview where we can request immigration officer to delay in making the decision on my citizenship file till the motion to vacate was finalized in the criminal court.
So I did go to the interview recently. The immigration officer was a lady. She went through my file as per the normal process. I had given all the documents about my domestic violence incident. I passed the English and History test with ease and was given N-652 (Naturalization Interview Results) with a check mark on "Decision cannot yet be made about your application". File had to be reviewed by another officer.
Yesterday, I received the letter from the Immigration office stating that I'm ineligible for naturalization as I have failed to establish the requisite good moral character for the five year period immediately preceding the filing application in Feb 2008, because I was arrested for battery-domestic violence in Sept-2003 and was convicted in Dec-2003. I was sentenced to probation for one year with early termination, to complete a twenty six weeks Domestic Batterers Program and ordered to pay fine. I successfully completed the Domestic Batterers program in about 6 months and my probation was terminated early, after about 6.5 months into probation.
This conviction occurred within the statutory period, which an applicant must prove good moral character. Since I committed an unlawful act that adversely reflects upon my moral character, my application for Naturalization is denied. If I desire, I can request a review hearing pursuant to section 336(a) with in 30 days of the day of notice with a fee of $605.00 with the application.
Now I have questions for the informed and knowledgeable.
Q1. Am I am still in trouble from immigration point of view, meaning that I can still be deported?
Q2: Can I now travel freely in and out of the US?
Thanks in advance.
