See if this helps..
Hi Made One Mistake,
I was looking at your post and wanted to get in some more information.
1) Do You suggest a good attorney who is well versed with Immigration / DUI cases to run the 485 (EAD/etcc) and if so do u have anyone to suggest.
My Case -- Has been on H1B since April,2000 , had a DUI on April,2004,which was then changed to wet reckless driving on court, had a 3 year Informal Probabtion,AA,etc. etc. which has been completed. Have court disposition letter, Police Report etc. Obviously have never been to India after 2004 because of fear of H1B stamping. Hoping to have EAD and go . PD just became current, so planning to file.
If anyone else can reply with their good experience of lawyers.attorneys handling such kinda of cases, would appreciate your reply. Thanks
1) For USCIS, DUI and wet reckless are One and the same thing.
2) File your 485, you will have no problems travelling on AP. I didnt have any. Travelled twice, no questions asked.
3) Keep extending your H1b and H status of your spouse(if any), just in case. If anything untowards happens and if you have H1b, you wont have to leave the country right away and you will get time to take reactive actions..
4) Now Immi/DUI attorney combo may not be of much use at this stage. A DUI attorney is of help when case gets decided in court. Now the deal is done and your case disposition is going to dictate everything. You can use one specialist when you get interviewed because that guy can tell to IO with authority that your crime is not a CIMT incase Immigration Officer is ignorant or not well werse with the situation and is intent on delaying stuff(Just my guess). During I-485 filing, attorney just does paperwok. I filed only through my company's attorney. However they are a big firm with top companies as their clients. Not sure they handle applications from individuals. They are pricy though. Just an immigration attorney may be good enough.. as long as attorney doesnt ask you to hide information or twist facts just to look smart, it should be OK
5) You will have to check 'Yes' for arrest question. Surely you will be called for an interview. If you plan to change address to a place where local office is faster in processing interviews, do it now. Address change is a messy.
6) Make sure you sent an additional declaration to the attorney and USCIS, that this was your one and only crime and you did pay your dues to the justice system. My attorney asked me to do that and got a letter signed. It was on a plane paper.. kind of sworn affidavit though.
7)Nice to send the copy of case related documents beforehand. Just in case, some nice immigration officer get to see your case and waive your interview(1 in a 1000 chance however) as your crime is not a CIMT and USCIS can not deny you a GC based on one DUI. I dont claim it as I havent passed that bridge yet but I am hopeful.
8) Sit tight for a long haul as it will definetly take time with new flood of applications and your applications also will travel around US like mine. Service Center to National Benefit Center to Local office and may be back to service center again before final approval happens. Obviously at all these steps individually, dates need to be current in most cases. For me, nothing moved at all when dates were not current. Once they became current, my application started behaving like a hot potato.
9)Do not drink and drive anymore. Second DUI and you are done and over with. Even after GC, a second offense means you will be deprted. Risk remains till you become a citizen.
Good luck.
