I want to share my naturalization experience with criminal record, hopefully it can help future applicants.
I had 2 convictions, one for receiving stolen goods and another for a DUI, both occurred outside of the 5 year statutory period. I submitted a certified copies of the court disposition and evidence of completion of sentence, which was court certified that I paid fine for receiving stolen goods & court certified that I completed of probation requirements for DUI (I never really understood what was meant by arrest records and did not submit any, even the police told me that uscis only needed court disposition, what relevance is the officers statement if u were already convicted).
I also did not register for selective service as I was unaware, I submitted the docs for that, I was also doing a name change.
On my interview date, I arrived early but noticed that candidates that arrived later were being called before me, eventually my name was called. My IO walked me to the room and as soon as I sat down, she said she wasn't going to make a decision today in a nasty tone, I was immediately depressed, but I decided to be pleasant thru the rest of the interview. My IO was quite tough on the name change section and asked a few questions to make sure I was still married to my wife, but to my surprise she did not ask much per my past criminal record, she just asked for the court disposition n completion records I submitted. She actually moved on to the next questions before I gave her the copies. The rest of the interview went really smooth. She later apologized if she was a little rude earlier and explained that the reason I couldn't be sworn in today was because the name change had to go through the federal courts and she was tough cos it had to be precise. Why didn't she just say that earlier and I would have cancelled the name change.
Anyway all is well that ends well. One week later my case was in-line for oath scheduling, one month later I was sworn in as a US citizen.
My journey took 10 years, but if you stay persistent and stop making stupid mistakes like receiving stolen goods or drinking and driving, then you can attain your goal of becoming a US citizen.
I had 2 convictions, one for receiving stolen goods and another for a DUI, both occurred outside of the 5 year statutory period. I submitted a certified copies of the court disposition and evidence of completion of sentence, which was court certified that I paid fine for receiving stolen goods & court certified that I completed of probation requirements for DUI (I never really understood what was meant by arrest records and did not submit any, even the police told me that uscis only needed court disposition, what relevance is the officers statement if u were already convicted).
I also did not register for selective service as I was unaware, I submitted the docs for that, I was also doing a name change.
On my interview date, I arrived early but noticed that candidates that arrived later were being called before me, eventually my name was called. My IO walked me to the room and as soon as I sat down, she said she wasn't going to make a decision today in a nasty tone, I was immediately depressed, but I decided to be pleasant thru the rest of the interview. My IO was quite tough on the name change section and asked a few questions to make sure I was still married to my wife, but to my surprise she did not ask much per my past criminal record, she just asked for the court disposition n completion records I submitted. She actually moved on to the next questions before I gave her the copies. The rest of the interview went really smooth. She later apologized if she was a little rude earlier and explained that the reason I couldn't be sworn in today was because the name change had to go through the federal courts and she was tough cos it had to be precise. Why didn't she just say that earlier and I would have cancelled the name change.
Anyway all is well that ends well. One week later my case was in-line for oath scheduling, one month later I was sworn in as a US citizen.
My journey took 10 years, but if you stay persistent and stop making stupid mistakes like receiving stolen goods or drinking and driving, then you can attain your goal of becoming a US citizen.