Will this affect my N400 that I will be applying after a few years?

G

Girish_K

Registered Users (C)
I got a reckless driving ticket last year in Virginia and was asked to appear in the court a month later. Just 1 mile slower would have resulted in a simple speeding ticket.

Since I was worried about this too much, I decided to take legal advise from an experienced attorney in speeding tickets. FYI, I didn't get any other speeding ticket in the last 3 years prior to this one.

The attorney told me that this charge can be reduced to improper driving. And he advised me to take Online driving course.

On the day of court appearance, I met the attorney and told him that I am very scared. He told me that he is going to represent me in the court so the Judge wouldn't ask me anything.

Looks like my attorney had spoke to the public prosecutor already about reducing the charge. When the Judge read my name, my attorney appeared and said he is representing me and then the Judge asked the prosecutor whether he agrees to reduce the charge to 'Improper Driving'. He said ok, then the judge asked me to pay penalty $150 and read the new charge as 'Improper Driving'.

I didn't get any letter/document from the court, I just got the receipt for the penalty that I paid and court fees ($50).

By God's grace, after a few months, I got my GC approved.

Now I am worried about N-400 application. Will this charge/court appearance affect when I apply N-400 after a few years?

Even after reducing the charge to Improper Driving, Is it still as serious charge as 'Reckless driving'?
 
if i were you, i would wait for more years after the first offense i got if it were a reckless driving. at least, let time tell.
 
first one was a simple speeding ticket(2000). Second one was 'Reckless driving' (2004) then redueced to 'Improper Driving'.
 
Girish_K said:
first one was a simple speeding ticket(2000). Second one was 'Reckless driving' (2004) then redueced to 'Improper Driving'.
Click to expand...

were you convicted as "improper driving"?

sorry, i actually meant to wait for few more years for the ticket you got in 2004.

may be JohnnyCash could answer your question in details.
 
Girish K

There is nothing to worry since you were never found guilty on initial charge of ‘reckless driving’. Even though you were initially charged with a ‘reckless driving’, but the fact is the initial charge got amended later on to a lesser one of ‘improper driving’. Police or Prosecutors do amend charge all the times, sometimes they reduce to a lesser one, but other times they upgrade to serious ones. And once a charge is amended, the initial one doesn’t exist anymore being dropped out. So now you can never say to anyone that you were ever charged for a ‘reckless driving’ since that charge was already amended.

And having tickets for speeding and ‘improper driving’ won’t affect your citizenship application negatively, no matter how many of them you have. So obviously, you don’t need to worry on this. On your N-400, you should state that you were charged for ‘improper driving’. And you should also include an explanation letter on it that you were fined and you paid it. That is. Never ever mention about having charged on ‘reckless driving’. Bring the receipt of paying the fine to your interview to show the officer. You may also try to get some kind of court letter from Court clerk that your case got disposed. They can provide you upon request as it occurred only last year, otherwise mostly traffic cases in certain States drop out of system after certain years.

I hope people would understand how an attorney’s presence is important on serious charges. Attorneys are tending to make a deal with authorities in the best interest of their clients. You would have big problem if you had convicted for either DUI or reckless driving. Now, be careful, at least until you become a US citizen. Also, never get involved in a domestic violence with family; otherwise you would get deported without having any chance of relief. Try to stay away doing anything that would jeopardize your chances of becoming a US citizen in the future.

Good Luck.
 
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JohnnyCash,

Thank you for your response.

Your response made me happy. I was worried too much before contacting the attorney (after getting reckless driving ticket).

But after having a chat with my attorney, because of his kind words, after seeing his website about his earlier cases of similar (and even worse) cases and its outcome, I felt so confident that everything will become alright.

Thats what happened. I couldn't even imagine what would have happened without the attorney's presence. But he charged me a big amount though. Anyway thats fine as long as the result came out good.
 
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