my USC wife has some (minor) criminal record

M

minoo

Registered Users (C)
I just got married to a USC. She has some minor criminal records dating from a few years ago when she was younger (and stupid!!!), but no warrant of any sort.

Is the FBI (or any sort of) background-check made by USCIS performed only on the immigrant (me) or do they also do it on the petitioner (USC)?
 
her legal issues WILL affect you. first, make sure you know ALL about it every single details as you may be asked in details this on the interview. its better to tell them upfront and provide criminal RAP sheet of whatever it is she did. I've seen cases on hold if this what she did may have anything to do with fraud, like counterthief of money, ext, there will be a greater risk she comit immigration fraud.
 
Concerned4us said:
Her legal issues will not affect you.
Click to expand...

can you elaborate? do you know if they do or DO NOT run a background check on the USC? and if they don't (or do), can yo tell me what makes you support this claim? it's indeed critical for me and will dictate my behavior during the interview. Either we mention it upfront, as suggested by JFK12, or just skip the subject if not asked anything about that....

please help!
 
JFK12 said:
her legal issues WILL affect you. first, make sure you know ALL about it every single details as you may be asked in details this on the interview. its better to tell them upfront and provide criminal RAP sheet of whatever it is she did. I've seen cases on hold if this what she did may have anything to do with fraud, like counterthief of money, ext, there will be a greater risk she comit immigration fraud.
Click to expand...

i understand, but i have a question for you though: i see nowhere. neither on form i-130 nor i-864 a paragraph where the petitioner is asked to state if he/she is a convicted 'felon' or has 'criminal' (misdemeanor) records. So how would the USCIS know anything about her past in the first place? I mean, why would they hold a case if they have no clue about the USC's background? (unless of course, that's something mentioned unitalerally by the applicant during the interview).

do they systematically run a background check ALSO on the USC petitioner? I thought there was just an FBI Check on the immigrant (me), not the USC. If you think or witnessed otherwise, can you tell me why?

in the case of my wife, she had an alcohoolic father who beat her, so once she did fight back and he called the cops and pressed charges against her in order to kick her out of the house, as he obviously couldn't support her anyway. This unfortunately shows in her records as an 'assault'. And also once after she got kicked out of her house, she used a check from her mom because she was broke and this unfortunately shows as 'ID theft' in her records. And she got caught also once with a bag of pot. She did 3 months of prison waiting for the trial because she didn't have enough money to be bailed out. But then wasn't sentenced for additional jail time. She is not considered as a 'felon', all these issues where misdemeanors.

what do you think? do these kind of records show up as soon as they enter a SSN in the database and come up as a red flag automatically in their system?

if that's the case, does that mean someone with a 'criminal' (misdemeanor) background can never marry a foreigner and petition for him/her? is there a text or article supporting this?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
They do run checks on the USC petitioner, but it is mainly to check for crimes that would indicate the USC is likely to abuse the immigrant spouse or children.

Your girlfriend's troubles don't fall into that category. But her record could bias an interviewer into thinking she might be committing immigration fraud, so you need to be well-prepared for the interview with all the documents they might ask for, and be on the same page when it comes to answering questions about your relationship and each other.
 
minoo said:
do they systematically run a background check ALSO on the USC petitioner?
Click to expand...

They do run a background check on the petitioner. The purpose of this is to see if there are past criminal behavior that corroborates evidence for a sham marriage. I don't think anyone can authoritatively argue either that it will or wont affect your petition (you will be better off consulting an attorney on this). But, you can be guaranteed that the IO will know about your history when you go for your interview, so be very prepared.
 
thank you guys, you've been very helpful. I guess indeed it might raise a red flag for the IO who will put our case under additional scrutiny. will report here how it went...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top