Traffic ticket not reported -- interview approaching

L

lahanos

Registered Users (C)
I had a minor speeding ticket on Fall of '93. It was so minor that it didn't even effect my insurance primeium. I paid the fine and that was the end of it. Since it was so minor I kind of goofed of and didn't put it on my N400 when I filed it last summer. Now that I am reading the posts here, I see people are mentioning. My interview is in a few days and now I started to wonder if this will cause any problems. Any ideas? Suggestions? Should I just tell the interviewer this is the situation before he/she starts the interview?
 
lahanos said:
I had a minor speeding ticket on Fall of '93. It was so minor that it didn't even effect my insurance primeium. I paid the fine and that was the end of it. Since it was so minor I kind of goofed of and didn't put it on my N400 when I filed it last summer. Now that I am reading the posts here, I see people are mentioning. My interview is in a few days and now I started to wonder if this will cause any problems. Any ideas? Suggestions? Should I just tell the interviewer this is the situation before he/she starts the interview?
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Hi,
I am in exactly same situation as yours.
Can you please mention your DO ?
I am planning to tell the interview the truth that I forgot to mention it.
But tell only if asked for . If you have time, you can go to the court where you paid the fine and tell them to give you a report. But some courts take 10 days...:(:(

In any case can you please..please post your experience of the interview. and what is your District Office ? ( city of interview)

Thanks
 
Hi, my DO is San Francisco. When I got the ticket I was living in New Mexico. Since then, I lived in 2 different states and changed my license at least 2 times.

I didn't pay the fine at court. The officer gave an envelope with the ticket, and I mailed my check.
 
Call the county PD or the sheriff's office , they will have records. Dont go to your interview without any records. Also mention the ticket at the interview or else it might haunt you later on
 
Why sheriff's office? Shouldn't I get it from DMV? I heard that it takes over a week, and my interview is this week.
 
Rahul Kumar said:
Dont go to your interview without any records. Also mention the ticket at the interview or else it might haunt you later on
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My personal experience was different. I had a couple of traffic tickets 9 and 12 years ago, and did not realize until after filing the application that minor traffic violations are to be disclosed in the N-400 form.

Since it was a while back in another state and I could not even recall the county name, I did not get any records. So I just mentioned these tickets during the interview. The officer was not interested at all, she just repeated the question "Have you ever been cited [etc]..." adding ""excluding traffic violations".

You mileage might vary, of course, but in my opinion, if there is no way to get any records, I would just disclose the truth and let the officer decide what to do with it. In the worst case they would not make a decision until you send them some additional information. In my book it not enough to be paranoid about it.
 
DMV record will give you your driving record/history. It will not say for instance if you paid your fine or if you were arrested/convicted/tried etc etc... Getting a certified court deposition is the best. Howeve like GeneM mentioned in most cases (but not in places like Seattle DO) they will be satisfied with a photo copy of the ticket/DMV record or some other form of proof.

If everything else is in order a traffic ticket (non DUI, non reckless) should pass
 
lahanos said:
Why sheriff's office? Shouldn't I get it from DMV? I heard that it takes over a week, and my interview is this week.
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Ask the clerk of the court to fax you the report.

Good luck in the interview,

Yalag
 
Rahul Kumar said:
Call the county PD or the sheriff's office , they will have records. Dont go to your interview without any records. Also mention the ticket at the interview or else it might haunt you later on
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It depends on your county court. In my case the court told it will take 10 days and they only mail out the report. The ridiculous part is I have to fill out a form ("Open records...something..")to request those records and they DO NOT fax out that form. I have no way to physically go and pick up that form. I live in Dallas and the court is in Houston.
I called one another court in Houston and they told they can print any record in their custody right away.

Try out your luck with your court...:)
 
Rahul,

Why Seattle DO in particular? What would they need to convince them that all tickets are cleared? Have you heard of any specific cases from the seattle DO?

I do have copies of my certificates from the traffic school that I took for both tickets...plus a letter from the court ( a letter written and signed by the court clerk) saying that I dont have any outstanding citations. My tickets were simple moving violations.

Thanks.




Rahul Kumar said:
DMV record will give you your driving record/history. It will not say for instance if you paid your fine or if you were arrested/convicted/tried etc etc... Getting a certified court deposition is the best. Howeve like GeneM mentioned in most cases (but not in places like Seattle DO) they will be satisfied with a photo copy of the ticket/DMV record or some other form of proof.

If everything else is in order a traffic ticket (non DUI, non reckless) should pass
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Photo Camera Tickets

Are the tickets received in the mail, that are captured thru a red-light camera or speeding camera also considered as "cited by a law enforcement officer"?

I have received 2 tickets like this in the past 3 years. Both when my wife was driving the car :) , but the car is registered in my name. I just went ahead and paid the fines. No points or anything. One was for speeding 10 miles over speed limit captured by a camera and one was a red light camera.

I answered "No" to the question on the application because when I called USCIS, they said those kind of tickets are not implied by the question and I should answer "No" to the question.

I checked my driving record and nothing shows up there.

So, Should I disclose these during my interview?

Rahul, others please answer
 
Hapless,

Seattle DO is very fussy and goes by the book. There are many cases where citizenship is denied for having more than a few speeding tickets, applying a week early, fishing more than you are allowed etc. You must go ultra-prepared when dealing with this DO.
 
shareef aadmi,

I think you are correct by checking "No". Even for the strictest examiner, you can argue that the tickets were issued to your wife and not you. I think that you dont get points for such enforcements, right ?

In the Washington DC area I hear there are many such cameras....
 
Rahul,

Why Seattle DO in particular? What would they need to convince them that all tickets are cleared? Have you heard of any specific cases from the seattle DO?

I do have copies of my certificates from the traffic school that I took for both tickets...plus a letter from the court ( a letter written and signed by the court clerk) saying that I dont have any outstanding citations. My tickets were simple moving violations.

Thanks.
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Here is my analysis. Each ticket you get and you pay fine, only that particular court has a record of it. So if you got a no outstanding citations from one court....it does not mean that you have no outstanding citations on "your record". It only shows that there is no outstanding record for you in "That particular" court.

Going by this, is it practically impossible to go and request a letter from all courts...
For e.g within the greater houston area , there are about 12-15 cities. If you get cited by a city police, you pay the fine in a municipal court in that city. If you get cited by a county constable you pay in one of the courts of that precinct. If you get cited by a state trooper, you pay in the jurisdiction of the trooper....for eg going from Dallas to Houston...a trooper cites you on the freeway...you pay ticket (mostly by mail ) to the jursdiction within the state where the trooper catches you.....

So what do you do if you dont exactly remember who ( which city police...county constable...sheriff....state trooper...) citied you....a few years back.....Do you go to each and every court in your state to see if they have a record on you.....

And all these municipal courts...justice of peace courts...precinct courts.....county courts......DONT HAVE access to each other's records.....the clerk of each court is the custodian of the records.....

Sooooooo...summing up....I think traffic tickets should not cause much problem....as long as it did not result in being arrested...or fingerprinted.......( that is if the immigration interviewing officer thinks as rationally as I am thinking....:) and we all paid for the fingerprinting and name checks......;) so they would catch us if they want to.....they would not "depend" on us to "disclose" any citations...arrests..or probation......

I so hope I am right....and my app does not get delayed...:):):)

Anyway guys....my interview day is approaching and i have the unreported tickets...and will let you know....how rational my officer was..:)
 
No Points

Yes Rahul you are correct, you do not get any points and yes there are hundreds of these cameras in the DC and Baltimore metro and suburban areas.
 
shareef_aadmi said:
Yes Rahul you are correct, you do not get any points and yes there are hundreds of these cameras in the DC and Baltimore metro and suburban areas.
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And the moral is:

Drive carefully, :rolleyes:

Yalag
 
OK, so I had my interview (at San Francisco DO) this afternoon and want to share my experience. Overall, the interview went very smooth. The officer was very friendly. The interview was in his office. Because I forgot to write down my speeding ticket from 1993 on the application, I was very nervous going into the interview. We went over the my application. When we came to the part where it asks "Have you ever been arrested, cites, detained....", I told him that I once got a traffic ticket in 93, but forgot to put it down. He asked me what kind of ticket it was. I told him it was for speeding. Then he said it was OK, as long as it wasn't reckless driving or DUI/DWI. When we finished going over my application, he then told me to write down a sentence, then, hand me a page with 8-10 questions on it. I wrote down the answers, then he told me that I passed the test/interview and congratulated me. He told me that I should receive an oat letter in about 4 to 6 weeks and handed me the US passport application form, if I wanted to apply right after the oat ceremony.

Since I was very scrared/stressed before the interview, I can say I was almost shocked that how easy it was and how well it went.

I wish everyone on this board best of luck and thanks for allo your suggestions/guidance!
 
I called the help line yesterday regarding traffic ticket and if you have to declare it on the application for citizenship. I was told that you do not have to declare trafic tickets, hope this helps.
 
lahanos said:
OK, so I had my interview (at San Francisco DO) this afternoon and want to share my experience. Overall, the interview went very smooth. The officer was very friendly. The interview was in his office. Because I forgot to write down my speeding ticket from 1993 on the application, I was very nervous going into the interview. We went over the my application. When we came to the part where it asks "Have you ever been arrested, cites, detained....", I told him that I once got a traffic ticket in 93, but forgot to put it down. He asked me what kind of ticket it was. I told him it was for speeding. Then he said it was OK, as long as it wasn't reckless driving or DUI/DWI. When we finished going over my application, he then told me to write down a sentence, then, hand me a page with 8-10 questions on it. I wrote down the answers, then he told me that I passed the test/interview and congratulated me. He told me that I should receive an oat letter in about 4 to 6 weeks and handed me the US passport application form, if I wanted to apply right after the oat ceremony.

Since I was very scrared/stressed before the interview, I can say I was almost shocked that how easy it was and how well it went.

I wish everyone on this board best of luck and thanks for allo your suggestions/guidance!
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Hi Lahanos,

Thanks a ton...My iv is today and your experience has relieved me a lot..
I will come back and post my experience tonite.
 
Hi guys,

just came back from interview.
reached Dallas DO about 30 minutes before the appointment letter time. Deposited the appointment letter in a mail box.
Was called in about 5 minutes after my scehduled time.
Officer was nice and friendly. She saw my GC, Passport and DL. Then make me took oath. she went over my application. When it came to the "ever arrested cited detained..." I told her I have a traffic ticket which I forgot to mention on my app. She ask me when and where was the ticket and what was the offense. I replied it was about 4-5 years ago and was a non-injury...nonDUI...changing lanes citation.
She told its OK..
Asked about 7 questions from history and civics.
My DL had my older Houston address. She asked why did I not change address on DL.
I told I do not know how long we will stay at this address....
Asked if I had filed taxes regularly....yes
Next she congratulated me for having passed the interview and asked me if I want to take the oath on 2nd week of March...that was the nearest date.....
I told yes so she printed me out an oath letter...:):):)
I am happy....and had a very pleasant experience...
Before my interview when I was waiting...I asked a few people who came out from the interview about their experience... One guy told that they did not mention anything about oath for him and told him they will send him case update via mail. The other person , she passed but again no oath letter..
and they told one another lady to come back again with some additional documentation.....So I was pretty scared before the interview....

good luck to everyone in Dallas DO.
 
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