Traffic tickets and naturalization (threads merged)

A Traffic Ticket before Oath but not on record!!!

I am waiting for my OL. Meanwhile in August I took a vacation;rented a car. vacation and everything was fine. Yesterday I got a letter from car rental company that I had a traffic ticket while I had rented the car. I was never pulled over or given any ticket during that time. I called the that city police dept. I was told that I was driving at 42 mph on 35 mph zone and camera took the picture and ticket was sent to the owner of the car which was the car rental company. since the they already paid the ticket, i have no choice but to pay. The question is ticket was never issued to my name. No involvement of my name , driver license number or ss# withe the police. So technically I did not get the ticket. I don't know what I have to fill out in OL, because I haven't seen yet but I am expecting OL in next few days. If they ask, should I mention this incident? Any advice, experience, past thread?
 
The ticket goes to the Car Rentals name.
Its not in your record or you Lic so you are fine.

Usually camera tickets are tagged on the name the Vehicle is registered (AVIS, Enterprise etc)

And who knows what if the car rental made a mistake.

If you sign a ticket issued in your name, then you gotta report that.
(SO YOU ARE FINE)
 
ucheojo1 said:
The ticket goes to the Car Rentals name.
Its not in your record or you Lic so you are fine.

Usually camera tickets are tagged on the name the Vehicle is registered (AVIS, Enterprise etc)

And who knows what if the car rental made a mistake.

If you sign a ticket issued in your name, then you gotta report that.
(SO YOU ARE FINE)
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I'm confused... does speeding limit tickets matter unless it is 30 miles over the limit when you could be arrested.. DUI is same that you'll be arrested...

But simple speeding/parking tickets matter?
 
It won't affect your application but you have to disclose it, even for a simple traffic ticket, to be on the safe side.

This issue has been argued a lot in this forum.
 
hopeful44 said:
I am waiting for my OL. Meanwhile in August I took a vacation;rented a car. vacation and everything was fine. Yesterday I got a letter from car rental company that I had a traffic ticket while I had rented the car. I was never pulled over or given any ticket during that time. I called the that city police dept. I was told that I was driving at 42 mph on 35 mph zone and camera took the picture and ticket was sent to the owner of the car which was the car rental company. since the they already paid the ticket, i have no choice but to pay. The question is ticket was never issued to my name. No involvement of my name , driver license number or ss# withe the police. So technically I did not get the ticket. I don't know what I have to fill out in OL, because I haven't seen yet but I am expecting OL in next few days. If they ask, should I mention this incident? Any advice, experience, past thread?
Click to expand...

Do NOT disclose this ticket. As pointed out by ucheojo1, this ticket will never appear on your record. Your rental vehicle was clocked by a speed camera and the ticket was issued to the vehicle's registered owner (the rental company). There is no possible way for the local motor vehicle authority to place this ticket on ANYONE's record, as they have no way of knowing who was behind the wheel of the vehicle at the time the speed camera was activated. NYC has a similar procedure in place, except the cameras catch red light violators. A few years ago, I let my sister borrow my car and received a red light violation a few weeks later. I'll stress it again, these tickets are issued to the vehicle, NOT THE DRIVER. You submitted your payment to the rental company. Don't disclose it.
 
Traffic Violations

If you have had speeding tickets, you answer YES to have you ever been arrested, convicted or cited....questions. Correct?

Then you have to produce a court certified disposition, is this correct?

How many years of traffic violation court disposition certificates you submit along with application? Do you have to even do this or just have the documents in your possession when you go for an interview.

Say you may have easily lived in US for 10-15 yrs by the time you apply for citizenship, in those 10-15 yrs one may have 5-10 traffic violations, do they expect you to produce court disposition certificates for each one of the violations? Especially if have lived in various cities.

I live in a area where we have three towns in the vicinity and each of the town has their town court and I have speeding ticket from three different town courts in last five years, Do I need to obtain certificate from each of the town court? or State DMV can provide you summary of all traffic violation in the state? I'm sure many of us here may have traffic violations and paid fine in various town/city court. How did you guys file?
 
Pungiwalla,

Don't make your life complicated my friend. You ask 10 different people here on this forum, you will get 10 different answers. The solution to your questions and concerns are:

If you were not arrested, you simply don't report your speeding tickets on your N-400 form....PERIOD. I am sure it wasn't something serious like hit and run, drunk driving case or got caught doing reckless driving. I would keep it simple and not report it.....End of story.
 
I agree 100% with Atlanta Brother. All of my traffic violations were minor; therefore, I didn't report them. At my interview, the IO didn't ask if I've ever been cited, so I didn't bring them up either. At my oath, the IO who was conducting the ceremony stated multiple times that she doesn't want anyone to list traffic tickets on the back of their N-445, only arrests. At no point throughout the naturalization process have I mentioned anything about traffic tickets. I became a citizen with no issues.
 
I agree. I hope in the future N-400 instruction or application needs to be re-written/updated with wordings "if you have citiations that are dui/dwi or mor than 500 dollars fine, disclose and detail them."
 
I had 3-4 speeding tickets in my 11 years of stay in US and I didn't report them in my N400 application. Even at the interview when I was asked about it, I said NO.I got approved with no issue.So it is upto you to report it or not.
 
raj157 said:
I had 3-4 speeding tickets in my 11 years of stay in US and I didn't report them in my N400 application. Even at the interview when I was asked about it, I said NO.I got approved with no issue.So it is upto you to report it or not.
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Did they ask for speeding tickets in interview? If so, did you ask why s/he is asking this?

Can someone share who declared it on N400????
 
Thanks everybody. Vorpal I was thinking same way as you suggested. May be I am over doing it, but since that particular car was rented by me so can that be traced back?
 
hopeful44 said:
Thanks everybody. Vorpal I was thinking same way as you suggested. May be I am over doing it, but since that particular car was rented by me so can that be traced back?
Click to expand...

There's no way it can be traced back to you. The ticket, which, by the way, carries no points (since the speed camera cannot determine who was behind the wheel), will not come back to haunt you at any point in life. Get it out of your mind and don't worry about it! :)
 
Reminds me of when I went to France a few years back and rented a car. As I drove on one of the main highways, they had a hidden camera that snapped pictures of all speeders (regardless of how much over the limit you were). As I passed the camera, it flashed..I never did hear anything of it again..nor did I ever receive a ticket from the car rental agency..mind you I was only going 10 mph over limit so they may have let it drop.
 
Bobsmyth said:
Reminds me of when I went to France a few years back and rented a car. As I drove on one of the main highways, they had a hidden camera that snapped pictures of all speeders (regardless of how much over the limit you were). As I passed the camera, it flashed..I never did hear anything of it again..nor did I ever receive a ticket from the car rental agency..mind you I was only going 10 mph over limit so they may have let it drop.
Click to expand...

Every time I think that the U.S. has serious "Big Brother" issues, I always come across considerably more extreme reports of similar activities in Europe. I guess liberties are being taken away all over the world.
 
Vorpal said:
Every time I think that the U.S. has serious "Big Brother" issues, I always come across considerably more extreme reports of similar activities in Europe. I guess liberties are being taken away all over the world.
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I hear London has cameras in the sky on almost every street corner..it may have reduced crime but it didn't prevent train bombings.
 
Bobsmyth said:
I hear London has cameras in the sky on almost every street corner..it may have reduced crime but it didn't prevent train bombings.
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That's exactly what I was thinking about when I made the previous post. Not only does London have cameras on every street corner, there are also cameras on every road and motorway.

We're straying a bit off topic, but what the hell, this is a traffic ticket thread, so it's somewhat relevant. The Northeastern U.S. has enacted a system called E-Z Pass (similar systems are also in place in other regions, but under different names). E-Z Pass provides subscribers with a tag (featuring the infamous RFID chip) that is placed inside the windshield of the holder's vehicle. It's linked to the holder's credit card or bank account and allows for cash-free transactions at toll plazas and certain parking facilities. Brilliant idea, considering the fact that just about every toll plaza around here has designated E-Z Pass lanes, which allows the holder to breeze through, instead of having to wait in line to pay the toll in cash. Of course, the ever-inventive legislators in NYS decided to introduce a bill a couple of years ago that would use the E-Z Pass to catch speeders. According to the bill, a designated checkpoint would read the RFID chip inside the E-Z Pass tag. Another checkpoint several miles down the road would read the chip again. The time taken by the tag holder to travel between the two checkpoints would then be used to determine the average speed of the tag holder's vehicle. If the speed exceeded the posted speed limit, a ticket would be mailed to the tag holder. Needless to say, this bill was killed very quickly and efficiently.
 
A some what similar situation

I have a similar situation. I have 2 speeding tickets, where the cops mde me pull over as "I was speeding Less than 25 mph above limit". Had to pay $126 fine, no-contest each time. I am planning to declare those events.
However, Last year we got a red-light running ticket in the mail, and it was directed to me as I was the owner of the vehicle. I am not sure if it was me or my wife driving at that time. The fine was about $76(If I remember it correctly) and I had an option to contest and say that I was not the driver at that time by submitting an affidavit . However I payed it without contesting, because of the hassle of having to travel to Atlanta etc. The letter had stated that this was strictly a civil monetary penalty and the incident was NON-CRIMINAL and it would not go in to my driving history nor would there be any points .
Do you consider this as a citation ?. I think it involved no-officer but simply a computer generated letter in the mail.

What should I do, go ahead and declare it ?. Then I have the extra burden of proving that I paid on time and will have to get all the documents to that effect. Also this would make alltogether 3 incidents in a 2 year period of time.

Please Advise as I am planning to submit my N400 petition by next week.
 
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At the interview they did not ask if I had any traffic tickets. They asked have you ever been arrested, convicted or cited for which I said 'NO'.But, if they asked about my traffic tickets I would have said 'YES'.
 
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