Impact of driving citation on naturalization?

[AmericanWannabe]

I think not.

Why not? The form does not say "excluding
traffic violation committed outside the USA".

The trouble is if we do report, we will
have a trouble getting court documents.
In many countries we came from, the
system is not even that complete.
The fine can be done in thsi way, soem cops
stop you and force you to give him some money
and no receipt is issued

 

[ashutanu1]

Impact of driving citation on naturalization

I have had a few traffic violations and have wasted over 45 of the 90 day period before my citizenship application was due figuring out how and what to do about them. The answers are unfortunately blowing in the wind, and range across the spectrum. Logically, speeding cannot be considered "a crime of moral turpitude", it is more a question of negligence or at best, stupidity. However, logic may not be the greatest attribute of the USCIS. On the other hand, immigration lawyers seem to think that the sky will fall unless you go through them, although how they can use your couple of thousand dollars in legal fees to keep it from falling is not very clear either.

The USCIS website enumerates the items offenses/actions that if committed in the last 5 years would automatically eliminate the possibility of good moral character. You can read it at http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/natz/general.htm. I will put in the excerpt here just for everyone's benefit.

Generally, an applicant must show that he or she has been a person of good moral character for the statutory period (typically five years or three years if married to a U.S. citizen or one year for Armed Forces expedite) prior to filing for naturalization. The Service is not limited to the statutory period in determining whether an applicant has established good moral character. An applicant is permanently barred from naturalization if he or she has ever been convicted of murder. An applicant is also permanently barred from naturalization if he or she has been convicted of an aggravated felony as defined in section 101(a)(43) of the Act on or after November 29, 1990. A person also cannot be found to be a person of good moral character if during the last five years he or she:

has committed and been convicted of one or more crimes involving moral turpitude
has committed and been convicted of 2 or more offenses for which the total sentence imposed was 5 years or more
has committed and been convicted of any controlled substance law, except for a single offense of simple possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana
has been confined to a penal institution during the statutory period, as a result of a conviction, for an aggregate period of 180 days or more
has committed and been convicted of two or more gambling offenses
is or has earned his or her principal income from illegal gambling
is or has been involved in prostitution or commercialized vice
is or has been involved in smuggling illegal aliens into the United States
is or has been a habitual drunkard
is practicing or has practiced polygamy
has willfully failed or refused to support dependents
has given false testimony, under oath, in order to receive a benefit under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
An applicant must disclose all relevant facts to the Service, including his or her entire criminal history, regardless of whether the criminal history disqualifies the applicant under the enumerated provisions.

Thanks & regards,

AC

 

[AmericanWannabe]

No, it doesn't. But, is the foreign ticket a citation in the US sense?
Other countries have different legal systems, and what is a traffic citation here may not have been one in another country.

That is irrelevent. You do not apply USA standard to past incidents outside USA. Even if you do, what about speeding tickets outside USA? The standard is the same here.

As I said, even in USA, some traffic violation are completely decriminalized
as in Massachessets, I don't think you need to report them if they were
in MA. So to report traffic violation in foreign countries or not,
it depends upon whether are are criminal offense or not in that country.

But in pratical terms, I think forget about traffic violation in foreign countries
(maybe Canada is an exception if it shared the driver license record with USA).


What if one is convicted for spying for USA in a foreign country? should he
report it to USCIS? I think of course But I believe that may help yoru case.

I think this "getting the court documents" is overblown. I listed my speeding tickets on my N-400, but I don't have the court documents and I don't think it is necessary to get court documents for speeding tickets from 8 years ago (that's when I got my last ticket...)

But in other threads, someone say his received a request from USCIS
asking him to provide documents for his traffic violations.

 

[bullleo]

Can you title those 10 states.

There are 10 states (Massachuseets, Florida, Oregon, etc) whch have completed de-criminalize ordinary traffic offenses. Ordinary
traffic vliolations are considered a civil matter between you
and the state government and are dealt in civil trial courts.

So you don't have to disclose your traffic violations made
in these states.

Hi, AmericanWannabe,
Can you examplify those 10 those states or URL? Or can you give me the URL of the related immigration law?
I got a ticket of careless driving(not reckless driving) in NJ.

Thanks a lot.

 

[baikal3]

Traffic ticket records

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I will certainly be in quite a bit of a soup if USCIS ever asks me for the documents related to my traffic tickets. I had three of these: one around September 1996 (red light), one in July 1998 (speeding) and one in March 2000 (stop sign).
I have not had any traffic tickets since then.

The trouble is, I never kept those records and I moved several times since then, including a move abroad for a year (1997-98) and then a move from NJ to a different state, namely to Illinois in 2000.
I got all three of these tickets while having a NJ drivers licence, but only the last ticket was in NJ itself. The first was in New York and the second in Iowa.

I can't even find a copy of my old NJ drivers licence or a record of the number of that licence. Without it I can't request a copy of my driving record from NJ (I checked), which by now would probably show clean anyway.
I am kicking myself now, but I have also thrown away almost all of the bank and credit card statements from the 1990s (plus the bank accounts I was using then have been closed quite a while ago).


So I don't see how I could recover any records of those tickets if I need to. The only exception may be the 2000 ticket (not making a complete stop at a stop sign, New Jersey). I did go to court and contest that ticket.
The prosecutor offered me a deal to plead down to a non-moving violation (parking a car in the middle of the street -), which I did. As a result I did have to pay a court fee but was told that the ticket will not go into my NJ driving history.

I imagine that if I physically travel to NJ and visit that particular court, they may be able to give me a record related to that 2000 ticket.


I do understand that according to the letter of the law I would be required to report these tickets if I file N-400.

JoeF says that one should worry about being asked for records of the tickets only if and when the USCIS actually does ask for them. I have to say that I don't agree, especially since in my case I don't see how I could possibly recover such records.


Also, I feel that USCIS in most cases uses the rule of "buraucratic balance" when dealing with such issues. Namely, if some box that could be viewed as a "red flag" is checked in the application (such as having been arrested or gotten a ticket), it has to be "balanced" by having some documentary evidence explaining it before the application can proceed. So I am fairly sure that if someone does indicate having received a traffic ticket on an N-400 form, then USCIS will want to see some documentary evidence as to how the case was resolved.

I'd like to be wrong about this and if someone has experiences of the opposite nature, please share them.

 

[bullleo]

Please help! can you name those 10 states?

Quote:
Originally Posted by AmericanWannabe
There are 10 states (Massachuseets, Florida, Oregon, etc) whch have completed de-criminalize ordinary traffic offenses. Ordinary
traffic vliolations are considered a civil matter between you
and the state government and are dealt in civil trial courts.

So you don't have to disclose your traffic violations made
in these states.


Hi, JeoF and Gurus,
Can you name those 10 those states or URL? Or can you give me the URL of the related immigration law?
I got a ticket of careless driving(not reckless driving) in NJ.

Thanks a lot. :