H1 Stamping with DUI

D

DUI_HELP

New Member
I am in Chennai right now for H1 stamping and I am having issues due a DUI I got 2 years back. There was no sentencing except community work and 3 years court probation ( no need to report to a probationary officer).

I am in India now for H1 stamping, the consul officer saw my reply to question 38 in DS156 told to pay additional amount Rs. 3910. After this the finger print verification was done on the same day. Now they have asked me to come to the consulate for another interview with the Court Docs & LETTER from the Probationary officer that I can leave California!!!

I completed all the procedures with court - paid fines, completed First offenders program, have the court disposition document etc with me now. This letter from the probationary officer - I do not have and require because I was not placed under formal probation and not report to an officer.

Is this a problem now - since i DO NOT HAVE THE LETTER FROM THE PROBATIONARY OFFICER? Also, I am still under probation and can I travel now like this? I am going to this interview next week and hope I will get the H1 Stamped. Please let me know and thanks in advance for a prompt response.
 
1. The Clarity:

You WERE sentenced. To community service. You were also placed on court probation, which is not a jail alternative like formal probation.

Your court papers will have some criptic note or checkmark stating that court/informal protection was ordered.

Use this link (it's government): http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/protection/dv/resprob.htm#courtprob to educate the consulate that informal or court probation does NOT involve a probationary officer.

2. The Gray Area: Court probation usually is in situations where (a) there is no victim (b) you are not a flight risk (a person serving a jail-alternative is a flight-risk). So there are usually NO restraining orders NOR are there limitations on travel (outside so and so counties, for example). The reason why this is gray is, I don't know if these conditions can vary: one really needs to know what the CONDITIONS of your probation are. A competent California attorney should be able to help.

3. The Bad News: Sure, you do not have a probationary officer. It is technically the court's job to monitor your compliance of probation. This is losely taken to mean "don't get into further trouble", and CAN involve regular or scheduled reporting to the court by your attorney. So, the consulate will be justified in asking for two things:

a. the conditions of your probation
b. statement from the court that you are in compliance

My best bet would be to contact the attorney who represented you, to obtain such paperwork from the court clerk. I am assuming this can be done (no reason why the court cannot be petitioned to provide it as demanded by the consulalte... yeah, yeah, I know... laws of bureacracy will then demand that you produce a letter from the consulate to the court and so on and so forth...), but the long and short of it is that I'd recommend an attorney in California to get it out of the court for you.

4. The silver lining: There is an outside chance that you might get away with the consulate by showing them that court/informal probation does not involve reporting to a probationary officer.

Good luck!
 
Niladri,

Thanks for your input.

I have contacted my attorney in CA regarding this. Anyhow I hope the consulate will give me the visa seeing the court papers and proof of completion of the FOP.
 
Hello DUI_Help,

What happened to your case? Did you get the H1 stamping? Does finger printing take a week now?

thanks.
 
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