Questioned at the US border

H

hclife

Registered Users (C)
I'm in the process of completing N400 and I'm at the "arrested / offense" part. I was involved in an incident when we crossed the Canadian-US border 3 months ago. I lied to the officer of my marital status. I was asked why I did it and explained that I did not think being married in another country would be valid in the US. I apoligized for it and the officer explained being married from any country is recognized here. He said I'm forgiven this time and just let me cross.

My questions are:
1. On the question, "have you ever commited a crime or offense for which you are not arrested?" Do I answer yes? Is this considered an offense?

2. On the question, "have you ever been arrested, cited or detained by any law enforcement officer (including USCIS or former INS and military officer) for any reason?" Would my case be considered a citation?

3.On the question, "have you ever lied to any US government official to gain entry or admission into the United States?" Does this mean I should answer YES even if I did not lie to gain entry? I lied about my marital status but I did not lie to gain entry or admission because I'm a legal permanent resident.

Thanks
 
You would answer "no" all those questions as you weren't arrested and didn't lie to gain entry. It was an honest mistake on your part. Don't worry about it.
 
I would have to agree too but only 66.66%. I differ on Q3. The OP did lie to the POE officer. The only intention of lying, regardless of the lie itself, at a POE is to gain entry or make the entry easier. There just isn't a second reason to lie. Ignorance of civil laws is not a defence in my opinion. The lie was caught. In other words, even the POE officer knew that the entry applicant had lied to him. So in my interpretation and opinion, Q3 needs to be answered yes.
 
But the so called "lie" wasn't a determinating factor in whether to grant him admission or not. For example, if you conceal that you have were arrested in your home country for drug smuggling and CBP finds out about it , that would have been lying to gain entry since a criminal record is a determinating factor in deciding whether to letting someone enter the US. Another example would be claiming to be a US citizen when you're not, or lying about your immigration status in the US.
 
Two factors are involved for this question: It must be a lie, and it must have been for the purpose of gaining entry to the US.

For the first part, one can make arguments on both sides ... it may have been a misunderstanding, it may have been a deliberate lie. The officer was satisfied that it was the first, so one should not take it upon oneself to self-incriminate by calling it the second.

The second part about being married is not relevant to the eligibility of a permanent resident entering the US, so I don't see how it can be construed as lying to gain entry to the US. Perhaps one could stretch the imagination to determine it is lying to gain entry, but in such a scenario with solid arguments to the contrary one should not self-incriminate by calling it that.
 
Thanks for all your insights. I forgot to add that the officer was typing stuff in his computer. I was asked to get out of the car and instructed to go into their facility where there were counters. When it was my turn, that's when he questioned me about why I lied to the officer outside. Then he was typing stuff in the computer. He was typing like 10-15 minutes, before he returned my passport and greencard.

How would you identify an offense or citation? This is what I'm afraid of, that if I answered NO to all, would the "report" (assuming it was a report he was typing into the computer) be at my records and it will be considered an offense or citation without getting charged or arrested?

About the lying, I lied of my marital status but not to gain entry. Would being married or single matter if you're legally allowed to enter the US?
 
I would still answer "no" to that question since you'll have a chance to clear it up at interview. Although there's a record of the incident on file, it will show you didn't lie in order gain entry.
 
hclife said:
Thanks for all your insights. I forgot to add that the officer was typing stuff in his computer. I was asked to get out of the car and instructed to go into their facility where there were counters. When it was my turn, that's when he questioned me about why I lied to the officer outside. Then he was typing stuff in the computer. He was typing like 10-15 minutes, before he returned my passport and greencard.

How would you identify an offense or citation? This is what I'm afraid of, that if I answered NO to all, would the "report" (assuming it was a report he was typing into the computer) be at my records and it will be considered an offense or citation without getting charged or arrested?

About the lying, I lied of my marital status but not to gain entry. Would being married or single matter if you're legally allowed to enter the US?
Click to expand...
I don't believe that you have anything to worry about. I don't believe that you fraudulently misrepresented yourself at the border (at worst, you perhaps innocently misrepresented yourself at the border). The "report" he typed into his computer is just that, and not a citation. If you were cited then you would have been handed a piece of paper indicating that you were cited with an offense and there would have been a warning statement, a fine to pay or a court date. Since I assume you were not handed anything like this, then I don't believe that you were cited with anything.

I think you're totally in the clear, and if for any reason this comes up at the interview (if they catch it on the IBIS check) and the IO wants to talk about it, just explain that you crossed the border and were sent to secondary inspection (this is the technical term for it) to answer additional questions about your marriage...in other words, tell the truth, since this is in fact what happened!


To answer your question, your maritial status has nothing to do with eligibility to enter the US. Sometimes, border guards ask questions that they already know the answer to - your age, where you were born, what you do for a living etc. to see if they can trip you up a bit. If they can, then they use that as an excuse to go to secondary.

For future reference, the most common questions I have encountered when crossing back to the US are:

How long were you outside the US?
What was the purpose of your visit to country X?
Where were you born?
Where do you work?
Where are you going today? (get asked this one a lot at the land crossings from Mexico - the answer is to my home city in Orange County)
What are you bringing back / do you have anything to declare?
How long have you been a citizen / LPR of the US?
 
My wife and I have gotten this a few times, "how are you both related?"

She has kept her maiden name and thus upon seeing our passports, we sometimes get asked. Once an officer in his early 60s asked us this question. When we replied "husband and wife", he gave us a big smile and goes "that is exactly what I wanted to hear" :)


yummyk said:
How long were you outside the US?
What was the purpose of your visit to country X?
Where were you born?
Where do you work?
Where are you going today? (get asked this one a lot at the land crossings from Mexico - the answer is to my home city in Orange County)
What are you bringing back / do you have anything to declare?
How long have you been a citizen / LPR of the US?
Click to expand...
 
Triple Citizen said:
My wife and I have gotten this a few times, "how are you both related?"

She has kept her maiden name and thus upon seeing our passports, we sometimes get asked. Once an officer in his early 60s asked us this question. When we replied "husband and wife", he gave us a big smile and goes "that is exactly what I wanted to hear" :)
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's another good one they're fond of asking. Also got asked once how long we'd been married.

BTW, I used my passport card last weekend for the first time at the Mexican border (land crossing with California). At first I was a bit hesitant since I have heard stories of people here in CA that have tried to use it and been accused of using a false ID. At any rate, it was no problem at all and clearly the CBP guys have been briefed on this new form of ID (as one would certainly hope and expect!) since he didn't even bat an eyelid. Since so few Americans are going to Mexico these days, because of both the poor economy here and the huge spike in drug-related violence there, he did question me on what the purpose of my trip to Mexico was. I didn't bat an eyelid and simply answered the question honestly. He scanned my pass card and we were done. I used to take note of when they scanned my Green Card...now I could care less what they do. Scan it twice for all I care!
 
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