Just need some advice

J

Jebba

Registered Users (C)
I gained my greencard on entry to the US from the UK on the 26th October 2009. About a week after entry, I was in the Downtown L.A area and I crossed the road, and then after a police officer pulled me officer pulled me over and said I commited two offences. She said I had J-walked and crossed at a red light and she would issue me a ticket for both. I was so annoyed because I have recently moved to the states and I didn't understand the road rules and kinda got caught up in thinking we can cross the roads like in London. The woman was so mega aggressive as well. Very unessecary for no reason. She issued me a ticket for each offence and said they need to be paid by 16th December. I've since returned to the UK because I have to sort out things back and forth between the UK and US for the moving process , and i'm paying the tickets ASAP because they haven't sent the fines to me yet. I'm wondering if this will affect my re-entry back into the United States and if they would remove my greencard from me over these two offences. I'm highly wouldne't think so but just need to make sure ;) ... any advice would be appreciated ;) :D
 
It's called jaywalking. It's a minor civil offense, along the lines of a speeding ticket or parking ticket, and it won't affect your reentry to the US unless you got arrested for it or you let the deadline pass without paying it or fighting it. Just keep a record of the payment so you can show it in case you need it if/when you apply for citizenship.

Next time you cross the road in the US, be aware of another traffic law that isn't there in the UK -- in most states, cars are allowed to turn right at a red light unless a sign at the specific spot says otherwise.
 
The problem with the tickets is that when she gave me the citation she could only take my name and date of birth and make me sign the citation but I had no other identification on me and I didn't have a permanent home address yet so I gave the address of the hotel I was staying at. She said that the ticket would be sent to that address. I've contacted the court house and the DMV and they couldne't find my name in their database so I'm not sure what to do ? Any advice would be appreciated !
 
Maybe they don't have any info for that ticket in their system; OR they have your wrong name and date of birth.

Check with the hotel if they got anything.

Did you confirm the court house which you contacted is the one responsible for sending out the tickets for that county?

To be on safe side, send a written request to the responsible office (maybe the court) to send you the copy of the ticket or any paper which tells you how much you owe. Explain where you got the citation (intersection/road name/city/county), date (and approximate time, if you remember) and your name/date of birth. Explain that you did not receive paper(s) related to the citation at the address (write the address) you provided at that time (before this confirm from the hotel if they received anything). Send this request as Certified Mail and with Return Receipt. Keep the copy of all documents.

If you get written answer, that they don't have any record, then you can't do much. But at least you will have the written proof that you tried to pay the ticket.

Do you remember how did you tell your date of birth, DDMMYYYY or MMDDYYYY or some other format? If you told the officer as DDMMYYYY, and your day of birth falls between 1-12, officer wrote this as it is, assuming you are telling as MMDDYYYY. If that is the case, call them again and request to search by your date of birth (and not by your name). So you would be telling your date of birth as DDMMYYYY, which would be searched as MMDDYYYY.


Hope this helps.
 
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Jebba said:
The problem with the tickets is that when she gave me the citation she could only take my name and date of birth and make me sign the citation but I had no other identification on me and I didn't have a permanent home address yet so I gave the address of the hotel I was staying at.
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That's odd. Normally when they write you a ticket and you and the officer are both personally there, they just hand it to you, they don't mail it. If they mail something it would be in addition to whatever they handed you, not instead of it.
 
In California, they give a copy of signed notice to appear. Then, a court sends an actual citation with a docket number and an amount of fine. If she did not give the OP a notice to appear, then it is quite odd indeed.
 
I'm just worried that if those tickets go unpaid I'll get to immigration at the airport in the US and they'll pull me up for it ... but I mean, a Jay walking ticket ???? honestly.. I don't want to jepordise my greencard as I've only just got it and plan to be back in the US next year permanently after things are sorted in the UK. I hope i'll be ok .. any advice in regards to that ?
 
König said:
In California, they give a copy of signed notice to appear. Then, a court sends an actual citation with a docket number and an amount of fine. If she did not give the OP a notice to appear, then it is quite odd indeed.
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She gave me a citation and said it was due by december 16th. She didn't say anything about it going to court but to pay by december 16th but I can't find ANYTHING on myself ! arghhhh :confused:
 
The officer didn't even give you one piece of paper with anything? She just wrote something down and kept it all to herself?
 
Jackolantern said:
The officer didn't even give you one piece of paper with anything? She just wrote something down and kept it all to herself?
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She did ... she gave me the citation but said that they will be sending my ticket cost to the hotel and I was like well i'm leaving to go home in less than a week. I called the hotel and nothing was sent there ... I've been calling and they can't find any record of my ticket ... by the way, can they even find me on record with just my name and DOB .... I had no identity on me what so ever so she couldne't even take my license or number or passport numbers or anything and I DONT live at the hotel I was staying at
 
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Doesn't the citation have an address telling you where to send payment? If yes, all you have to do is write a check or money order for the specified amount, and mail it together with the citation.

If it doesn't have the mailing address, it should at least have a unique number. The authorities should be able to find it in the system if you tell them that number ... unless it's really not in the system. And it is quite possible it's not in the system, because the authorities will often just discard tickets if the information written by the officer is insufficient or incorrect. If they still can't find it in the system after you've given them the ticket number, you can assume it's really not in the system (provided you've contacted the correct court/precinct/city/county that has jurisdiction over that ticket).
 
BUT will I have problems getting back in the US if this ticket goes unpaid ... I'm soooo worried :(
 
Jebba said:
BUT will I have problems getting back in the US if this ticket goes unpaid ... I'm soooo worried :(
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That's only if they issue an arrest warrant because of your failure to pay. But they don't normally do that for a minor ticket like this until it is at least a month (or several months or even years) beyond the due date. And without you providing official ID when you got the ticket, it's going to be hard or impossible for immigration to link it to you at the port of entry.
 
Jackolantern said:
That's only if they issue an arrest warrant because of your failure to pay. But they don't normally do that for a minor ticket like this until it is at least a month (or several months or even years) beyond the due date. And without you providing official ID when you got the ticket, it's going to be hard or impossible for immigration to link it to you at the port of entry.
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Well when we entered the US to validate the greencard process we gave the address of my aunts house because she was our sponsor, although we were staying at the hotel. I gave the officer my hotel address, so it wasn't my official address registered to my greencard ... I dunno if that helps
 
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