Hi Everyone -
I am a U.S. citizen now. It’s a euphoric feeling and I cannot begin to describe how relieved I am.
History:
Some of you may not know or remember my case from May. To those of you, a brief history - I had filed for my CZ in April and arrested for shoplifting in May’05. Due to the unique nature of my case and the circumstances that led to this charge – ( I didn't realize I was at fault, and at that time my intention was not to do something unlawful. I can explain this later if anyone cares to know), the Judge downgraded my charge and I was only charged with a Municipal Ordinance for Disorderly (Noisy) behavior. I had to pay a fine to the Municipal Court – but there was no probation, community service, suspended or actual jail sentence.
I was very worried (this is actually an understatement) that my CZ might be denied because this incident happened during the statutory period of 5 years and most importantly - only after I had filed my CZ application, when Good moral character is definitely expected. I had been to many immigration forums seeking answers. I had seen some cases with shoplifting charge denied stating that it was CIMT (Crime involving Moral Turpitude) but some were approved. But I believe it is only because these applicants were still on probation or still performing community service at the time of interview. Ron Gotcher of imminfo.com kept reassuring me that under no circumstances that I would be denied. God bless him for taking his time out to help us immigrants!
The interview :
I was waiting for my name to be called since 9.30 a.m. when my interview was scheduled (one day last week). I got really nervous around noon when people that came in after me finished their interview and were getting ready for oath (Newark has two oath ceremonies on any given business day – 1.30 and 5 p.m.). I was also worried because in my application I had indicated that I had no arrest etc., because at that time when I filed I had no arrests whatsoever and I didn’t want the officer to think I had lied on the application. I knew that FBI would’ve already sent the arrest record to USCIS. I wasn’t called until 12.30.
I should say that the officer I got was an angel. He was very friendly, polite and from the beginning said “You don’t look alright – are you okay?”. He went through the application from page 1, going item after item. I couldn’t wait to tell him about the arrest and was getting extremely nervous – I was freaking out. When it came to the questions under Moral character he looked me in the eye and said “I know you have an arrest record. Do you want to tell me what happened?”. Anyway, this is what I was waiting for and narrated the whole incident to him. I was so scared about the outcome I was shaking and almost in tears. I handed over the certified Court disposition to him. Mine was a computer generated disposition and he said “I hate the way they print these” as he couldn’t find quickly what he was looking for. So, I showed him the downgraded offence number. I also gave him a copy of the Municipal Ordinance that I got from my township. He just filed those and made an entry in the application about arrest, disposition and his own comments, which he made sure he hid from me as he was writing.
I was still gritting my teeth, to hold back my tears. He said “Relax – I know you are very nervous. There is no need to be. Shoplifting is not a big crime for which you should be denied. People make mistakes sometime intentionally, sometimes not. Yours is one of those. And you don’t have multiple charges of these. The point is you learn from this that you did something in anger. There are a lot of people that I see everyday with big issues in CZ. In fact the reason you are not going to be in the oath ceremony in the after noon is because I had a bad day with some tough cases which took me longer than usual. You were on my list and I couldn’t get to you sooner. I was stunned when he said that he’s scheduling me for the oath ceremony in the evening. He then asked me the History/Civics questions, which I answered right and the English sentence to write. He then handed me the form where he checked “Passed the History test” and “Recommended for approval”. Yesterday, I did see God in his form.
Newark D.O. is unbelievable. Everyone is so friendly – right from the guard who lets you in at the interview hall, the friendly officers, clerks. I was frequently asking them why I wasn’t called, when are they having the oath ceremony and so on and the clerk(s) said “Sweetie – will let you know when it’s your turn, please take a seat”. The way they were saying it really calmed me down. The oath officer was such a comical guy – we were running so late with the oath and everything and he was trying to get the boredom out of the whole thing by saying funny one-liners all along. He was also extremely helpful when I had some questions for him after oath and even briefed me on expunging my record.
I was there from 9 to 6 at the D.O. and had nothing to eat the whole day. But none of this mattered because I was walking out of the office, a naturalized citizen at the end of the day.
My journey with immigration isn’t over yet. The foremost reason that I wanted my CZ was to petition for my parents. I’m already looking into those forms. I hope the members of this forum will help me once again.
Thank you Notes
I want to thank this forum and all of its members who helped me in the worst time of my life so far.
I’d like to thank JoeF, Mozelack, Jenny2005, Rajesh (ab100), Rahul, especially Kimberlyd – she gave me a full account of her interview and so much first hand information I could’ve never gotten anywhere. Last but not the least, Publicus (Man.. you do really care about People – you should be in politics, I hope you win your case and become a USC soon). Since the thread was deleted I cannot remember all the Ids of people who helped me in my hard time. (It does feel like one of those award recipients who won an Oscar) If I have left you out, please forgive me – you know I’d pray for all of you. Thank you all so much once again and Good Luck to all of you.
P.S: When I came looking for info on previous cases of shoplifting on this forum, I couldn’t find any. I wonder if this post of mine would help someone in similar shoes if they ever visit this forum. So, should I add keywords to search: Conviction, shoplifting, Municipal Ordinance. Or make this one of the faqs – It might not help a lot but it will certainly help people with similar charges. I really owe it to this board and want to give back to it. If anyone at any point sees this thread and want to learn from my experience, my email is: jen_immi@yahoo.com.
I am a U.S. citizen now. It’s a euphoric feeling and I cannot begin to describe how relieved I am.
History:
Some of you may not know or remember my case from May. To those of you, a brief history - I had filed for my CZ in April and arrested for shoplifting in May’05. Due to the unique nature of my case and the circumstances that led to this charge – ( I didn't realize I was at fault, and at that time my intention was not to do something unlawful. I can explain this later if anyone cares to know), the Judge downgraded my charge and I was only charged with a Municipal Ordinance for Disorderly (Noisy) behavior. I had to pay a fine to the Municipal Court – but there was no probation, community service, suspended or actual jail sentence.
I was very worried (this is actually an understatement) that my CZ might be denied because this incident happened during the statutory period of 5 years and most importantly - only after I had filed my CZ application, when Good moral character is definitely expected. I had been to many immigration forums seeking answers. I had seen some cases with shoplifting charge denied stating that it was CIMT (Crime involving Moral Turpitude) but some were approved. But I believe it is only because these applicants were still on probation or still performing community service at the time of interview. Ron Gotcher of imminfo.com kept reassuring me that under no circumstances that I would be denied. God bless him for taking his time out to help us immigrants!
The interview :
I was waiting for my name to be called since 9.30 a.m. when my interview was scheduled (one day last week). I got really nervous around noon when people that came in after me finished their interview and were getting ready for oath (Newark has two oath ceremonies on any given business day – 1.30 and 5 p.m.). I was also worried because in my application I had indicated that I had no arrest etc., because at that time when I filed I had no arrests whatsoever and I didn’t want the officer to think I had lied on the application. I knew that FBI would’ve already sent the arrest record to USCIS. I wasn’t called until 12.30.
I should say that the officer I got was an angel. He was very friendly, polite and from the beginning said “You don’t look alright – are you okay?”. He went through the application from page 1, going item after item. I couldn’t wait to tell him about the arrest and was getting extremely nervous – I was freaking out. When it came to the questions under Moral character he looked me in the eye and said “I know you have an arrest record. Do you want to tell me what happened?”. Anyway, this is what I was waiting for and narrated the whole incident to him. I was so scared about the outcome I was shaking and almost in tears. I handed over the certified Court disposition to him. Mine was a computer generated disposition and he said “I hate the way they print these” as he couldn’t find quickly what he was looking for. So, I showed him the downgraded offence number. I also gave him a copy of the Municipal Ordinance that I got from my township. He just filed those and made an entry in the application about arrest, disposition and his own comments, which he made sure he hid from me as he was writing.
I was still gritting my teeth, to hold back my tears. He said “Relax – I know you are very nervous. There is no need to be. Shoplifting is not a big crime for which you should be denied. People make mistakes sometime intentionally, sometimes not. Yours is one of those. And you don’t have multiple charges of these. The point is you learn from this that you did something in anger. There are a lot of people that I see everyday with big issues in CZ. In fact the reason you are not going to be in the oath ceremony in the after noon is because I had a bad day with some tough cases which took me longer than usual. You were on my list and I couldn’t get to you sooner. I was stunned when he said that he’s scheduling me for the oath ceremony in the evening. He then asked me the History/Civics questions, which I answered right and the English sentence to write. He then handed me the form where he checked “Passed the History test” and “Recommended for approval”. Yesterday, I did see God in his form.
Newark D.O. is unbelievable. Everyone is so friendly – right from the guard who lets you in at the interview hall, the friendly officers, clerks. I was frequently asking them why I wasn’t called, when are they having the oath ceremony and so on and the clerk(s) said “Sweetie – will let you know when it’s your turn, please take a seat”. The way they were saying it really calmed me down. The oath officer was such a comical guy – we were running so late with the oath and everything and he was trying to get the boredom out of the whole thing by saying funny one-liners all along. He was also extremely helpful when I had some questions for him after oath and even briefed me on expunging my record.
I was there from 9 to 6 at the D.O. and had nothing to eat the whole day. But none of this mattered because I was walking out of the office, a naturalized citizen at the end of the day.
My journey with immigration isn’t over yet. The foremost reason that I wanted my CZ was to petition for my parents. I’m already looking into those forms. I hope the members of this forum will help me once again.
Thank you Notes
I want to thank this forum and all of its members who helped me in the worst time of my life so far.
I’d like to thank JoeF, Mozelack, Jenny2005, Rajesh (ab100), Rahul, especially Kimberlyd – she gave me a full account of her interview and so much first hand information I could’ve never gotten anywhere. Last but not the least, Publicus (Man.. you do really care about People – you should be in politics, I hope you win your case and become a USC soon). Since the thread was deleted I cannot remember all the Ids of people who helped me in my hard time. (It does feel like one of those award recipients who won an Oscar) If I have left you out, please forgive me – you know I’d pray for all of you. Thank you all so much once again and Good Luck to all of you.
P.S: When I came looking for info on previous cases of shoplifting on this forum, I couldn’t find any. I wonder if this post of mine would help someone in similar shoes if they ever visit this forum. So, should I add keywords to search: Conviction, shoplifting, Municipal Ordinance. Or make this one of the faqs – It might not help a lot but it will certainly help people with similar charges. I really owe it to this board and want to give back to it. If anyone at any point sees this thread and want to learn from my experience, my email is: jen_immi@yahoo.com.
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