Jury duty and citizenship

G

galaxy3

Registered Users (C)
Hi

I have a question. What happens when a person lives overseas (after obtaining citizenship through naturalization process) and called for jury duty. Is there anyway one can get exempt for being away and thus not be considered for jury duty? How may times one can get exempt ?
 
You don't have to register with the jury board of the county where you live in. When you move in a new state, county or part of the town the authorities will know about this indirectly (from your DMV record, tax record and/or your voter registration). Since you don't have to register specifically for jury duty, you don't have to un-register when you leave. A jury summons send to 'you' would be returned because you would not live at whatever address anymore.
If you want you could call the court dept that is responsibile for the jury setup. I am sure they would appreciate to update your information in their database.

Alex
 
JoeF, that would work if you receive the summons and maybe plan to move overseas within the requested jury time frame. If you already live overseas though there is no communication between the jury board of e.g. the county you lived in previously and person who lives then outside the U.S.

I think Galaxy was asking if there is something he/she has to do to inform authorities about not being available for jury duty. I don't think that any action would be required by law.

Alex
 
I think Galaxy was asking if there is something he/she has to do to inform authorities about not being available for jury duty. I don't think that any action would be required by law.

Yes, my intent was this. So, based on explantion it appears to me jury court may send one a summon (assuming you are available and if one's name get picked up) and later when they do not receive any response they assume that you not being there! Sounds bit non-convincing. I mean there could be many ways they may not receive response back (lost mail, person intentionally holding it up, out of town etc). I heard from my american collegue that one may able to get exemptions no more than 3 times. But not sure, how this will playout if one is living abroad permanently.
 
If the jury board sends your summons to non-exiting address (you are not living at that address) then this summons will be returned. If the mail is not returned the board assumes that you received it and you will receive a reminder ... same game. Now you could argue that all their letters just disappear and never get to be returned ... unlikely - however, maybe police would knock at the door of that person at some point and find out the person died, moved, is laying in a coma in the hospital. Either way, in any case it would very easy to clear this situation up once it would be brought to your attention. There is no official registering/unregistering process you could follow. But you could contact your local board when you move ... it's just one phone call. Or you write a registered letter. That may be overkill but if it makes you feel better/safer then I don't see anybody else complaining.

Alex
 
Since USCIS sent me a letter of "Oath Ceremony Descheduled by INS"** I believe is only fair that I won't be called for jury duty :D :D :D


**I was wondering, why are they still calling themselves INS???
 
JoeF said:
A bit off-topic, but I was talking with some recruiter earlier this week, and he asked me if I would need H1 sponsorship. I really loved to say "no, I'm a US citizen" :)
Click to expand...
It is time to take a course on accent reduction.
 
Only if it is also offered to US-citizens born and raised in Mississippi and Alabama. Personally I think there is nothing wrong with an 'accent' ... it is just natural when you speak two, three or more languages. Alex
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top