Naturalization Denial due to Uncertified Copies of Arrest Reports, Court Dispositions and Probation

L

llc82llc

Registered Users (C)
Hello Everyone,

The naturalization process has been extremely terrible for me.

I have had 3 previous arrests in the past and all of them were expunged through court disposition over 5 years ago.
I had a conviction for:
1. misdemeanor for possess of more than 1 oz of marijuana
2. misdemeanor for being on the beach after hours
3. misdemeanor for domestic violence

During the naturalization interview, the examiner advised me that the exam was a pass. But she needs 120 days to review my previous criminal cases. Which at that time, I brought all my paper work with including the certified copies of the court expungement letters.

After about 30 days, they mailed a letter to me during December 09, asking for certified copies of all criminal records, arrest records, court dispungement letters. So I went to the court and police station requesting for these information. However, the court and police station advised that they destroy all records on file after 5 years. So I had both the court and the police station get a signed letter for me stating that all information is not found.

I wrote a letter back to immigration office along with those 2 letters from the court and police station stating that the queries do not exist anymore in their database. I just received a letter back today from immigration stating that the denied my naturalization due to the fact that I did not include a criminal history record from California Department of Justice as well as the certified copies of my complete arrest reports, court dispositions and probation reports. They even stated that the documents I sent were not certified copies.

In addition,they wrote the following to me:
"Your failure to comply with the service's request has resulted in your failure to establish good moral character during the prescribed five year statutory period. Therefore you are not eligible to the benefit sought.
Thus you do not meet the requirements for naturlization as provided for in Section 316(a) of the Act and you are not eligible under any other section of law. Therefore, your application for naturlization must be and is hereby denied. No appeal lies from this decision. However, in accordance with 8 C.F.R. 336.2, you may request a hearing before an immigration officer within 30 days of the date of this notice."

What they wrote is not clear.
Are they allowing me to appeal this denial? What exactly is a hearing for?
The examiner has all the certified copies of the dismissals already. But she is saying that she needs it for the 1st case which is the marijuana charge. What should I do? Should I hire another attorney to deal with this problem again?

The attorney that went with me for the exam, I do not trust him anymore. He did not do anything for me. Just sat there and that's it.

When I received this denial letter, I immediately went to get a Live Scan for it to be sent to the Department of Justice because I think that department is the only place that has my records now. What should I do? Have only 30 days left.

Any advise would be very helpful.

Sincerely,

E
 
Were you arrested in california and then you failed to include the arrest on your application?If thats the case then they a reason to deny you for lack of good moral character. You also have 3 convictions, they might be more than 5 years old but they deserve all the right to use those against you even 20 years from now. You must get a competent attorney, surely one is hard to come by because the majority of them care more about money than they care about you. Search for the best attorney!!
 
The court disposition is always there, the arrest report is the one hard to get,you really need a lawyer to help you ,they need to see if you might have a chance on appeal,the marihuana might be the issue here ,were you sentenced???suspended sentence on the 3 charges??or what you mention expungmet,,ther are no expungment for immigration purposes,,,the dv charge was it felony reduced to misdemeanor???what was it 242 or 273.5
good luck.
 
Conviction for possestion of marijuna more than 1 oz may be deportable as specified in INA 237. Unless one really get into deportation proceeding and get it canceled or wavered, one can be permanently barred from citizenship.
 
Playmaker,

I was arrested in California. I did mention about the arrests on my application. The one they need additional information for is the marijuana case. They are not even asking for the other 2 cases at all.
They need a certified copy of the expungement, arrest report, and live scan from me.
The court and police station does not have any records at all. So I went to live scan yesterday to get my fingerprints taken to get a criminal report back from the Department of Justice.
 
With the marijuana, I was not sentenced to jail at all. It was a misdemeanor to begin with. Guess my attorney for that case did a good job. For all 3 charges, they happened on different times. All 3 cases, I was placed on probation and they ended over 5 years ago. I had already filed the expungement for these cases. The immigration office now wants more details about the marijuana case. They are not asking info on the being on beach late hours or the domestic violence.
Personally I feel like if I could get them the proof, I have a big chance of getting the citizenship. The proof is the expungement records certified and also arrest records and criminal records from the live scan.
I will be calling an attorney tomorrow. However, don't want to get ripped off. The court and police station said they have no records of my previous charges at all because they purge records after 5 years!
So the immigration officer said my expungement letter, arrest records I gave him prior are not certified. So they will not work.

Would an attorney be able to get a certified letter for me? Will the live scan show that the criminal records are expunged>
 
llc82llc said:
With the marijuana, I was not sentenced to jail at all.
Click to expand...

If you were convicted it does not matter if you were sentenced or not. For Marijuna conviction, it does not even matter how long the theoiretical maximum senetnces is. the INA say CIMT need 1 year sentenced to be deportable but in case of Marijina, INA 237 just say conviction is deportable. The exception is a simgle posssesion of less < 30 mg. 1 oz is 29 mg, basically same as 30 MG.

USCIS take controlled substance conviction very serious. I am surprized your lawyers did not wanr you. Of course you can not blame him for doing nothing during theinterview. During interview, lawyers can only be observers. That is why it is usually recommended in case of needing lawyer, hiring lawyer
to write a legal memo is enough and it is usually a wate of money to bring lawyers to an interview that is only last 10 or 20 minutes.


(i) Conviction.-Any alien who at any time after admission has been convicted of a violation of (or a conspiracy or attempt to violate) any law or regulation of a State, the United States, or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802)), other than a single offense involving possession for one's own use of 30 grams or less of marijuana, is deportable.



http://www.uscis.gov/propub/DocView/slbid/1/2/65?hilite=


In INA237 , there are at least three types of offense convictions of which are deportable without duration of sentence (maximum possible or actuall) as precondition. They are controlled substance, domestic violence, and certain type of firearm/weapon offense. You said you were convicted of domestic violence and marijunna posesstion. You may have two deportable offense. It will be luckly if you don't get a notice to ppear for deportation process.
 
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llc82llc said:
Personally I feel like if I could get them the proof, I have a big chance of getting the citizenship.
Click to expand...

If you give them proof, and it shows the marijuana amount was over 30g, you have a big chance of getting deported.

Right now they only know the amount was over 1 oz, and 1 oz is 28.4g, so they don't know if yours is over or under 30g until they get additional information.
 
Jackolantern said:
If you give them proof, and it shows the marijuana amount was over 30g, you have a big chance of getting deported.

Right now they only know the amount was over 1 oz, and 1 oz is 28.4g, so they don't know if yours is over or under 30g until they get additional information.
Click to expand...

What if the court record just say it was over 1 oz.? I think the intent of law is just 1 oz and they rounded off to 30 mg.
 
I really need help here. I just received the initial interview letter but I'm in cold feet. I got arrested in oct, 2006 for 3 charges:
massage w/o license
massage the opposite sex
massage the private part of opposite sex

I then entered into the deferred prosecution program. In Nov, 2007, all those charges are dismissed. In June, 2009, I got all those records expunged. My interview date is in late March and I just realized there is a 5 year wait before I can apply for citizhenship. I'm really worried right now. I don't know if I should go to the interview because I have a bad feeling that they will deny me since it's only been 2 years since the case was dismissed. Can you guys tell me what is the chance of my application being denied or approved? If I get denied, will I face possible deportation? Is it too late to withdraw my application now?

Time is running out, please help me. I really appreciate it.
 
jen1008 said:
I really need help here. I just received the initial interview letter but I'm in cold feet. I got arrested in oct, 2006 for 3 charges:
massage w/o license
massage the opposite sex
massage the private part of opposite sex
Click to expand...

You already opened another thread on this. One thread is enough..
 
Thanks,
The court and police station said they have destroyed everything.
If I hire an attorney to go with me to the hearing, prior to the hearing, will the attorney be able to get the certified copies of my criminal records, arrest records, and court dispungement letters from a government agency? Where could he get the records from? Department of Justice?
I am just worried what would happen now the records are destroyed. If there is a central agency that has all these records where the attorney can retreive, it might be a Win for me with the naturalization.
 
In order to appeal, you would have to file n-336 within 30 days of denial. As part of the appeal you would have to demonstrate that the original records were destroyed and no longer available (if that is the case), and as such do not preclude you from demonstrating GMC. Also, as USCIS requested, you would have to submit a criminal background check from the California Department of Justice (if you haven't already done so).

Note: Domestic violence and drug possession charges can have serious consequences to your immigration status. Seek the advice of a competent immigration lawyer specialized in criminal law to determine how your charges may affect you.
 
Hello Bobsmyth,

I tried to demonstrate that everything was destroyed, but they need certified copies form the court and police station. I had signatures from both places. But the immigration said they are not qualified as they are not certified. Do I need to have an attorney retrieve such materials in order to be certified copies?
Lastly, how do I know if an immigraiton with criminal background is a qualified candidate. They all ask for money upfront before any consultations.
 
llc82llc said:
Hello Bobsmyth,

I tried to demonstrate that everything was destroyed, but they need certified copies form the court and police station. I had signatures from both places. But the immigration said they are not qualified as they are not certified. Do I need to have an attorney retrieve such materials in order to be certified copies?
Lastly, how do I know if an immigraiton with criminal background is a qualified candidate. They all ask for money upfront before any consultations.
Click to expand...
Some states have a centralized archive of old records. Did you ask the police and courts if destroyed records are kept at such a centralized archive?

http://www.aila.org/ is a good reference site for immigration lawyers. You can request from a lawyer if they are specialized in criminal law without them having to ask for money upfront.
 
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