I need help urgent~

H

hoopbang44

New Member
i have passed the N445 naturalization test. I got cited for a Petty theft misdemeanor in los angeles california a week after i passed the test. i have received the naturalization oath ceremony letter couple days ago. and in the letter they ask me if i got arrested before. and the answer is YES, will i get denied for my u.s citizenship? what can i do to get approve?
 
At the very least you will get pulled from oath ceremony. Since petty theft is a CIMT, contact an immigration lawyer specialized in criminal law to see what (if any ) your options are at this point.

Btw, don't even think about not mentioning it on N-445 in the hopes that it will be missed. Not mentioning it will have far more serious consequences for you down the road.
 
hoopbang44 said:
i have passed the N445 naturalization test. I got cited for a Petty theft misdemeanor in los angeles california a week after i passed the test. i have received the naturalization oath ceremony letter couple days ago. and in the letter they ask me if i got arrested before. and the answer is YES, will i get denied for my u.s citizenship? what can i do to get approve?
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If you don't answer yes and then they find out about the arrest before the oath, they will surely deny you, and possibly deport you. Or if they find out after the oath, they can revoke your citizenship and deport you for lying.

If you can't get the case resolved (with or without guilt) before the oath ceremony, they will delay your oath until it is resolved. Then once the case is resolved they will decide whether to grant or deny you citizenship based on the result of the case.
 
brewerFan said:
You should answer Yes and get a lawyer.

Your citizenship applicattion may still be approved, if this is your first CIMT.

See http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=291571
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That person is different (http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=291571). His incidence was in 2002, out of 5 year statutory period.
But now for the OP of this thread, the incidence just occuured right after the interview and before the oath

There are always two issues involved. One is eligibility for citizenship. One
is eligibility of keeping green card
 
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I'm not being negative here since I don't know the full details of the case, but rather just being pragmatic.

As everyone knows, a fundamental requirement of becoming a US citizen is that the applicant has to essentially be a "good" person - not perfect, but not a deadbeat either. It is easy to see how the USCIS could view someone who committed theft in the middle of their citizenship process as not being a particularly good person. Therefore, it would not be surprising if they denied citizenship as a result. Luckily (for the OP) statutory periods do exist to allow forgiveness for people who have improved their behavior. Of course, it could be that the details of this case are such that the crime was truly petty, and would be seen as such by most people, in which case a good lawyer is a must to convince the USCIS of this.

As others have said, all the OP can do is be honest and retain a lawyer - preferably one with knowledge of both criminal and immigration law.
 
Don't waste your time here ;) Look for a good lawyer. Chances are your naturalization will be at least on hold until your arrest is cleared. A good lawyer might help you navigate the court in a way that it affects your naturalization chances as little as possible. I don't want to be judgmental, but what were you thinking? In particular while you still hadn't taken the oath and you should have behaved like a Saint. It's kind of difficult now to hope for an easy way out that allows you to take the oath at the scheduled date, that's something you should have thought earlier if taking the oath in time was very important. Anyway, as I said, I don't want to be judgmental, get a good lawyer and see if at least you can still keep your chances alive.
 
If you disclose this you will not be given the citizenship but will most probably have a chance of reapplying after some time. You can live here on GC ( I am assuming they won't deport you for the theft but that is not guaranteed) ,but if you hide it you will commit another crime. Even though chances of them finding that out are almost zero but if they found out, you will surely be deported. So,as everyone else said,get a lawyer, Don't go to oath without a good lawyer
 
jimgreener said:
Even though chances of them finding that out are almost zero but if they found out, you will surely be deported.
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I wouldn't say the chances of them finding out after the fact is almost zero. It's a known fact they perform random checks on applications to catch fraud and I wouldn't be surprised if they run another cursory check after oath to flag any criminals.
 
Bobsmyth said:
I wouldn't say the chances of them finding out after the fact is almost zero. It's a known fact they perform random checks on applications to catch fraud and I wouldn't be surprised if they run another cursory check after oath to flag any criminals.
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Many petty offense may not enter FBI records. I personally believe such a chance is very small. But
if one hide it, one will not have a peace of mind, He is always worry he will be caught one day.
Life will be like that of a fugitive.

I am not sure if the OP is innocent and is just wrongly acused. I can not
imagine anyone after all these naturalization process plus previous green
card process still intentionally make such an offense in such a critical period
between the intervew and oath. Anyone at this point should fully realize
consequences of such deeds. It is not like some offense for which offender
do not even know it is illegal to do such as one can be arrested for gambling
becaus ehe does not know playing a poker game for money is iigeal in his state.
Neither is it like the other kind of offense like reckless speeding when one is not aware
he is driving that fast. But theft is different. We all know theft is a crime and it is morally
wrong from ancient times in all cultures.

Sometimes we better be careful when shopping. Always check twice when checking out.
You don't want this to happen. You have 30 items in yoru shopping cart and paid for 29 items
but forgot one. Then you push your shopping out out of the supermarket and that
one unpaid item alert the store.
 
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Bobsmyth said:
Petty theft has been found to be a CIMT in the past, so I doubt such offenses wouldn't show up on any follow up searches.
.
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Local police might be too lazy to report to FBI.
The OP is only cited but arrested so he may not be fingerprinted.

I once read news that FBI complained 40% of report from local police
were not usables.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if USCIS has access to search police records that involve arrests without readable fingerprints.
 
Bobsmyth said:
I wouldn't be surprised if USCIS has access to search police records that involve arrests without readable fingerprints.
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They have access. But I doubt they bother to look up all local police records
unless they are particularly interested in one single person. There are hundreds
of counties and thousand of township police police departments nationwide.
So for general background check, they can only search FBI records not
local police records.

It is something like satellite surveilance. The sallellite can have a clear
view of anyone's backyard but they need to point at one particular
persons's backyard.

I remmeber sometimes ago a congressmen did some lewd act in restroom
and was arrested by the cop. He quickly plead quilty and hope it never get anyone's
attention. But someone found out. But he is a politicans and it is certain many of his polictical
opponents always use a magnifier to look up dirts. If he is an oridnary person,
maybe his secrete would just stay with the local police of jurisdiction where
he commiited that offense forever
 
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I wasn't referring to patriot act type of surveillance.
I was referring to USCIS name check process that already automatically scans for police records. The FBI arrest database is not the only database they search during the name search process. IBIS search is name based, so any record (regardless of fingerprint record or not) that matches the name will create a hit.
 
Bobsmyth said:
I was referring to USCIS name check process that already automatically scans for police records. The FBI arrest database is not the only database they search during the name search process. IBIS search is name based, so any record (regardless of fingerprint record or not) that matches the name will create a hit.
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This can not explain why many PRs with criminal records could renew their GC,
travel out of USA and come back but only got into trouble when applying for
citizenship when they disclosed their past offense.
 
There's a difference between being inadmissible and deportable. The PR who commits a non deportable crime may still renew their GC, but only becomes inadmissible when they attempt to reenter the country later on.
 
WBH said:
This can not explain why many PRs with criminal records could renew their GC,
travel out of USA and come back but only got into trouble when applying for citizenship when they disclosed their past offense.
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They don't do the FBI name check for green card renewals or when you arrive at the port of entry. You also aren't required to submit court records for green card renewal. So even if they see an offense on your record, they don't always know if it is a deportable offense just by seeing summary data on a computer screen.

For lesser crimes that aren't obvious felonies like murder or rape, it is often necessary to look at the specific details of the case including the maximum possible sentence before making a determination of deportability; if all they see is "theft" or "simple assault" they don't know enough to deport you or reject your renewal without further time-intensive investigation, so people with those marks on their record can still renew their green cards and don't run into trouble until naturalization when the IOs actually take the time to dig into the details of each crime.
 
Jackolantern said:
You also aren't required to submit court records for green card renewal.
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I heard one is required to submit court records for GC renewal. It is just that there is no such questionaire one need to answr
lkike "have you ever been ...?". So one does not have dillema to disclose or not disclose.
But if their fingerprinting come back with something, you needd to bring court documents for an explanation,
 
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