I-485 - Worried about arrests and charges as young offender.

S

someguyonl1

Registered Users (C)
Hello folks, I am currently living in the US on an L1 class visa and have recently married a USC.

I have a question regarding the I-485. It specifically asks if you have ever been charged or arrested.

Regarding my charges most occured as a youth while residing in Canada. I was charged and/or arrested on a few occassions, this was a long time ago and I do not recall the exact nature of my charges or arrests.

For almost all of my charges I was given some sort of alternative measures (basically a slap on the wrist). Under one instance, I was prosecuted (one charge may have been theft, again this is over 10 years ago so I do not recall) and I had to perform community service.

I know this sounds vague, but can I simply use a general explanation for why I am answering yes? The charges were over 10 years ago and none of them ever involved imprisonment. The records for these charges have been likely destroyed since they occured as a young offender over 10 years ago.

Also, as an Adult I received some serious charges, one being criminal harrassement, the allegations made against me were false and all these charges were dropped. That being said, can I simply state that I was charged and the charges were dropped?

Note that all of this occured before entering into the US, since then I have had multiple TN's and also a L1. I am assuming I have passed existing security checks. I just want to make sure that I provide the necessary information so I do not cause any problems down the road with my application.

I Look forward to your replies!
 
You need to answer the questions on the form truthfully, so you need to answer "yes" to that question.
 
someguyonl1 said:
I am going to make an appointment with a lawyer, I don't think it is worth taking any chances over this.
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The problem you face is that the Canadians and Americans share a great deal of information between them, and just because the Canadians expunge a record doesn't mean the Americans will.
 
TheRealCanadian said:
The problem you face is that the Canadians and Americans share a great deal of information between them, and just because the Canadians expunge a record doesn't mean the Americans will.
Click to expand...

So you are saying that my records might not be in a Canadian database but in an American database?

Given that I do not know the exact charges or dates and that the records are not available (I know this for sure, I called the local police office and they found nothing, they did a Canada wide search) how should I write my explanation?
 
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