No one knows. It is a felony. border control now does crminal background check on alll noncitizens. What if the felony charge pop up?
US Citzenship with past felony charges
- Thread starter bdCricket
- Start date
No one knows. It is a felony. border control now does crminal background check on alll noncitizens. What if the felony charge pop up?
Sure they can. Maybe not in OP's case, but there are quite a few crimes that make one inadmissible.
I am surprised you do not know this. Most criminela offense related deportation happen to those who have already served their sentence.
In fact if you have not finished yoru sentence, they even do not deport
you so you can be get out of prison and be free in anotehr country.
Then the immigration laws here are a complete mess, it doesn't make any sense to me that only when you want to re-enter the country something like this happens, why not just process this person as soon as he committs the crime them knowing he is a US resident instead of a citizen. I have a few friends that had DUI's and other offences and have been able to re-enter with no problem so I guess -again- it is a case by case situation.
Because state police and state courts do not care about immigration law as USCIS does. and they are not required by law to inform USCIS of all crimes/offneses commited by noncitizens. They do not even bother to ask if offenders are citizens or not
The offense may not be serious enough. Or offense did not enter FBI database searchable by bortdher control.
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sanjoseaug20
Registered Users (C)
See this is the holy grail... A bigger issue for US is the illegal immigrants, supposed to be 12-20 million people. There are strong disincentives in South Western states on law enforcement to look into the immigration aspect. As a result, if a small crime (traffic, maybe others), they turn a blind eye to the immigration status. Whether it is right or wrong, I will not debate that. However, over time ... this leads to a pretty much dysfunctional system where law enforcement does only their job, CIS does their job and there do not talk to each other. You would have heard the story about a frog slowly boiling ... it starts small, but over a decade ... it is hard to believe how how things could happen in this fashion.
Al Southner
Registered Users (C)
A strict liability crime is one that does not require an intent to break the law. In simple terms for this case, cashing a fraudalent check is irrelevant in the interpretation of this law, what matters before the law is that you attempted to cash the check which was fraudalent...
It is the act which someone committed that resulted in the crime, not the ignorance of the fact that that act was illegal. How can you prove that you didn't know that the check was fraudalent? I can assure you that such a burden would be heavy and won't be met by the accused... Please enlighten me on how you will go about proving to the state that you didn't know the check was fraudalent? The OP is being misleading on the circumstance of this check, trying to help a friend or family member sound too convenient... I suspect he was expecting a cut of the proceeds as well, I see such scams almost daily clogging my inbox...First of all, thank you all for the suggestions and questions.
I dont want to go into the detail of how I got the checks as it is a LONG story. Bottom line is, I did not know the checks were bad checks. It was my sheer stupidity that I trusted my relative and tried to help him out
Anyway, the "deal" I said that my lawyer made with the prosecutor - I dont they did this in front of any Judge or not. What he told me that "Diversion Program" is like deferring my case (pardon my shortcomings on law knowledge) and during the program if I did not get anymore trouble, then they will drop the charges and dismiss my case, which they did. I have a notarized DISMISSAL copy from the court (am I making sense?)
I DID NOT plead guilty or sign any papers before I enrolled to the diversion program. Like I said earlier in my post that the only thing I had to say verbally that I agree with the police report when I was enrolling in my diversion program.
I have consulted with few Immigration lawyers and except for one, most of them told me to wait 5 more years to apply citizenship from the day my diversion was completed.
If I can visit my birth country and come back to USA with no problem, I have no problem waiting for 5 years. My GC renew year is 2014. That was my biggest question is whether I could get in the country or not.
Also somebody mentioned whether my wife application could have some effect because of my past. She is going to apply pretty soon. Do u guys think we should appoint a immigration lawyer for her application too?
Thanks again for all your comment. I will check back later this afternoon for your comments.
If what you wrote is correct (that you really never pleaded guilty to anything) then you are probably not deportable and not inadmissible. However, I'd strongly suggest that you double-check the facts regarding your criminal case with your criminal lawyer and then double-check that you are not deportable and not inadmissible with an immigration lawyer.
Even if you are indeed not deportable, I still think that you should not apply for naturalization until 5 years since the completion of your diversion program pass.
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Jackolantern
Registered Users (C)
If the government is going to charge you with cashing a fraudulent check, the burden of proof is on them to show beyond reasonable doubt that it was fraudulent, not on you to show that it wasn't. And fraud requires intent. If you truly had no fraudulent intent with cashing the check, it would be easy to poke holes in the prosecutor's arguments. So I am not convinced the OP is truly innocent here; I would expect an innocent person to put up a much bigger fight. There is probably much more to the story ... the first red flag is that he was cashing checks payable to a relative and not himself.A strict liability crime is one that does not require an intent to break the law. In simple terms for this case, cashing a fraudalent check is irrelevant in the interpretation of this law, what matters before the law is that you attempted to cash the check which was fraudalent...
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If the diversionary program never led to an admission of guilt (or no contest) on your part, then the charges would not count as a conviction for immigration purposes and you would be fine to apply today. If you're not sure if there was ever a plea entered (ex: by you signing paper),contact your lawyer first to confirm.
http://www.murthy.com/news/n_convic.html
If in fact the charges were dismissed and no plea of guilt was ever entered, then they would not count as a conviction for immigration purposes. In such a case there is no expectation or requirement to have to wait 5 years after the diversionary program to apply.
Even for serious convictions, the earliest you could apply is 5 years after the conviction, not 5 years after finishing a sentence (based on applying under 5 year rule).
Checks were payable to me not to my relative. Its easy to point somebody as guilty than innocent in this world.
Like somebody mentioned earlier, I really cannot prove that I did not have any intention of defrauding the bank (even tho I asked the teller before cashing the check to make sure the check was good, and she said yes) and circumstances were against me, e.g. the relative doesn't live in US and he was doing business with somebody here, so the guy sent me the checks. It was sheer stupidity that I did not think hard enough, thus paying the price now.
I'd appreciate if some one could point me to a thread or link where people like me had similar problem and could visit different countries and came back without any problem. Thanks!
Jackolantern
Registered Users (C)
Now you're showing that there is more to the story, like I suspected ... it wasn't a simple case of attempting to cash a check for which there were insufficient funds or the account was closed. You got a check from "some guy" who did not owe you money or otherwise have a reason to write a check payable to you, a guy who was probably involved in some other criminal dealings and the checks probably weren't even based on his own account. There may be other facts when taken together with the circumstances that would lead the police or a jury to believe that you were either directly involved in the fraud yourself, or that you chose to ignore various facts indicative of fraud when you participated in the transaction.
Anyway, it seems like this may not be a conviction for immigration purposes (depending on what you admitted by agreeing with the police report), or it may not be a deportable offense. If you showed the lawyers the police report and they agree that your agreement with the police report does not constitute admitting guilt, you might even be able to appeal successfully instead of waiting 5 years after the incident.
I mentioned earlier in my post that It was a LONG story.
Thanks for your suggestion. In the police report, it doesn't mention that I admitted of defrauding or pleaded guilty. So if what u said is true, then I should contact a good lawyer and go from there.
Is there any good way to find a good/experienced immigration lawyer? Googling it obviously wont tell me who's good or not. Is there website or can I call somebody in Missouri to find a good reference? Thanks again for all your help.
Search for a good peer rated one at martindale.dot.com. You want a lawyer who is good at handling post conviction aspects of immigration law. Most of them should give you a free or low cost initial consultation. Good Luck.
If I can visit my birth country and come back to USA with no problem, I have no problem waiting for 5 years. My GC renew year is 2014. That was my biggest question is whether I could get in the country or not.
I have been in and out of country with prostitution charges happened back in 2006 & taken a diversion programme in california.
Only recently when i returned at sfo customs/border people asked me to go through secondary inspection where they asked me in detail about the case & let me go, My wife recently become citizen with no issue & i have my n400 interview schedule for the month end.
I have been in and out of country with prostitution charges happened back in 2006 & taken a diversion programme in california.
Only recently when i returned at sfo customs/border people asked me to go through secondary inspection where they asked me in detail about the case & let me go, My wife recently become citizen with no issue & i have my n400 interview schedule for the month end.
Thanks for the info Deeps0. I have sent u a PM. can u please check?