Traffic Violation question

[GC2C]

In January 2004, I got stopped by a police office for failure to stop at a Stop sign. He ticketed me. I went to the court, paid the fine of about $125.00 and also cleared a defensive driver course the certificate of which, I submitted to the court. So, this incident never went onto my driving record.

I "might" have some document about the above incident, but have to search for it.

Will the above incident be considered a "citation"?

Should I be concerned? Should I look for the document? Should I contact the court and obtain a clearance certificate or something?

Apart from the above, I have no other violations.

 

[namecheckvictim]

According to N-400 instruction it clearly states all traffic violation resulting under a 500 fine are not required to be disclosed, but on this forum here there are some people that are of the view that minor issues including but not limited to the choice of putting regular gas vs premium in the past should be disclosed in the name of honesty.
IMO follow the N-400 instructions and forget about getting confused with 10 different opinions you will get for this question.

 

[WBH]

According to N-400 instruction it clearly states all traffic violation resulting under a 500 fine are not required to be disclosed, but on this forum here there are some people that are of the view that minor issues including but not limited to the choice of putting regular gas vs premium in the past should be disclosed in the name of honesty.
IMO follow the N-400 instructions and forget about getting confused 10 different opinions you will get for this question.

Instruction say you do not need to provide documnetation if find is under $ 500 but does not say you do not need to dislcose it.

It is up to you to decide. If you say it does not matter, then I can say it does not matter either even if you do not disclose a fine of $501.

 

[namecheckvictim]

Instruction say you do not need to provide documnetation if find is under $ 500 but does not say you do not need to dislcose it.

It is up to you to decide. If you say it does not matter, then I can say it does not matter either even if you do not disclose a fine of $501.

I had a number of speeding tickets and other traffic violations and the highest fine I paid was $350, I did not disclosed any of them and mentioned them verbally in the interview and they decided they are not going to shoot me for it, I naturalized in 2010.

 

[Al Southner]

I had a number of speeding tickets and other traffic violations and the highest fine I paid was $350, I did not disclosed any of them and mentioned them verbally in the interview and they decided they are not going to shoot me for it, I naturalized in 2010.

N,

I am glad you were never shot, so that you can share your experiences with all of us. I know I was hard on you for all your traffic violations, I hope we can bury the past and toast to your naturalization and the freedom to rack up as many tickets as you want and be a scofflaw in NYC...lol!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[namecheckvictim]

Thanks Al for your kind words, being a lead footer yourself I'm glad you feel my pain lol, besides have you ever seen a one single driver respecting the 45MPH speed limit on the BQE in NYC if it's moving?
Maybe I need to invest in a powerful radar detector like the one you have to stop making the city hall richer by my driving indiscretions, any suggestions on a good one? Are you using one that is way ahead of it's time made by the folks in the Kennedy Space Center?

 

[WBH]

The bottomline is that it does not matter if you do not disclose anything that USCIS can not find
out or UCSIS think it is not worth finding out -- all these can include minor offense that locap police
do not even bother to do FP etc, crimes that occur outside USA, political organization outside USA,
previous marriage/divorce outside USA.

The only issue is that if later after citizenship something bad happens, if USCIS hate you, will USCIS bother to dig up something like that in order to acuse you of hiding a materiall fact and then use this to de-naturalize you.

I believe if USCIS want to denaturlize someone, they must have thse two reasons
(1) the person is really bad and USA wants to get rid of him (2) the person is not that bad,
USCIS need to set an example of zero -tolerance of not completely truthful in immigration
benefit application

 

[Vorpal]

The bottomline is that it does not matter if you do not disclose anything that USCIS can not find
out or UCSIS think it is not worth finding out -- all these can include minor offense that locap police
do not even bother to do FP etc, crimes that occur outside USA, political organization outside USA,
previous marriage/divorce outside USA.

The only issue is that if later after citizenship something bad happens, if USCIS hate you, will USCIS bother to dig up something like that in order to acuse you of hiding a materiall fact and then use this to de-naturalize you.

I believe if USCIS want to denaturlize someone, they must have thse two reasons
(1) the person is really bad and USA wants to get rid of him (2) the person is not that bad,
USCIS need to set an example of zero -tolerance of not completely truthful in immigration
benefit application

If the USCIS wanted to denaturalize someone so badly, they wouldn't use undisclosed traffic tickets for this, as they have a document posted on their website that clearly states that minor traffic tickets should not be disclosed.

 

[WBH]

If the USCIS wanted to denaturalize someone so badly, they wouldn't use undisclosed traffic tickets for this, as they have a document posted on their website that clearly states that minor traffic tickets should not be disclosed.

When in court, they can say our documents interprete N400 incorrectly and applicants should not depend on our interpretation.

 

[namecheckvictim]

The bottomline is that it does not matter if you do not disclose anything that USCIS can not find
out or UCSIS think it is not worth finding out -- all these can include minor offense that locap police
do not even bother to do FP etc, crimes that occur outside USA, political organization outside USA,
previous marriage/divorce outside USA.

The only issue is that if later after citizenship something bad happens, if USCIS hate you, will USCIS bother to dig up something like that in order to acuse you of hiding a materiall fact and then use this to de-naturalize you.

I believe if USCIS want to denaturlize someone, they must have thse two reasons
(1) the person is really bad and USA wants to get rid of him (2) the person is not that bad,
USCIS need to set an example of zero -tolerance of not completely truthful in immigration
benefit application

If they just want to get rid of you they WILL dig up something, trust me undisclosed traffic tickets will not be one of them, check this out, this is a real one, a immigrant was charged with overstating his income on his Mortgage loan application and on credit cards application and was charged with Defrauding a US financial institution, we all know there is a whole bunch of people who do that but do they ever get charged with something like this?
If they don't like you and want you out, undisclosed traffic tickets are the last thing a federal judge will agree to be the basis to denaturalize a person.

 

[Al Southner]

Thanks Al for your kind words, being a lead footer yourself I'm glad you feel my pain lol, besides have you ever seen a one single driver respecting the 45MPH speed limit on the BQE in NYC if it's moving?
Maybe I need to invest in a powerful radar detector like the one you have to stop making the city hall richer by my driving indiscretions, any suggestions on a good one? Are you using one that is way ahead of it's time made by the folks in the Kennedy Space Center?

Name,

I agree, I think a powerful radar is our protection against overzealous police officers and counties bent on ripping us of our money. I don't see the reason to sell to the general public a 500hp car, and expect us to pull it only on 180 hp, are you kidding me? Yes, I am a steady footer....lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Radar's are not legal in NYC, correct? I don't remember as I drive up there quite often and I use my radar regularly, never had a problem. I enjoy busting the NJ Turnpike police, I was once caught there doing 110mph about 7 years ago, it was the first and last time dude, I now know when and where to find them. NYC doesn't need your money, I am certain if they catch all the rodents and stew them, and feed them to the prisoner's in Rikers Island, they will save money on food as opposed to feeding those thieves, and recoup it by tickets.

 

[Al Southner]

When in court, they can say our documents interprete N400 incorrectly and applicants should not depend on our interpretation.

WBH,

There is a general counsel in the DOJ who is responsible for looking at court cases challenging USCIS administrative laws. As such, your assertion that USCIS can claim their own documentation interpretation is different from that of an applicant, that wouldn't pass the B.S test. There is no self-respecting lawyer who is going to go before a judge and say that, he will look like a buffoon. N400 applicants can't rely on serendipitous acts of interpretation from USCIS, but on something that is meant to make the process easy. I am concerned that you seem a bit obsessed with de-naturalizing people, a very unhealthy issue in my view... If you can find a boatload of case law to support your de-naturalization theory on a failure to disclose a traffic violations, then I am certain I will support your stance.

 

[WBH]

WBH,

There is a general counsel in the DOJ who is responsible for looking at court cases challenging USCIS administrative laws. As such, your assertion that USCIS can claim their own documentation interpretation is different from that of an applicant, that wouldn't pass the B.S test. There is no self-respecting lawyer who is going to go before a judge and say that, he will look like a buffoon. N400 applicants can't rely on serendipitous acts of interpretation from USCIS, but on something that is meant to make the process easy. I am concerned that you seem a bit obsessed with de-naturalizing people, a very unhealthy issue in my view... If you can find a boatload of case law to support your de-naturalization theory on a failure to disclose a traffic violations, then I am certain I will support your stance.

This is not a practical matter but I still suggest applicants dislcose traffic violations since it does not make any differences (The irony is If it make differences, then you should disclose it).

The same logic applies that when you are not willing to bears arm for USA, will you request for a difference version of oath or simply just go ahead with standard version. For most of us, there is
no chance that you will be required to bear arms anyway - Even if draft is re-invoked, it is still just applies to those who are under 26.

 

[Vorpal]

When in court, they can say our documents interprete N400 incorrectly and applicants should not depend on our interpretation.

In which case, the judge will laugh in their face and toss them out of the court.

 

[Vorpal]

Radar's are not legal in NYC, correct?

Nope, perfectly legal. In NYC, however, it's the parking cops you have to worry about. THey'll ticket you for anything, regardless of whether you're actually committing a violation or not.

 

[jayoa]

Nope, perfectly legal. In NYC, however, it's the parking cops you have to worry about. THey'll ticket you for anything, regardless of whether you're actually committing a violation or not.

They must be really trying to balance the budget on the backs of drivers and the citizens in general. Typical tickets I know of were $105 a year or two ago. I used to live there but could no longer stand the congestion and hectic lifestyle anywhere you go so I moved.

 

[GC2C]

Thanks everyone for your valuable inputs.

I did not find the original documents ( guess I did not think at that time that all such are so important to retain!). However, I do have my driving record document from the DMV dated 2 months after the incident, but all is clean as a whistle. All over such, it says: "no record found". I guess I should be fine.