Hello and as usual help if you don't mind

[Ranma 0]

Hello Everyone

My name is Luis, I came from Ecuador 4 years ago and i overstayed my J1 Visa, I'm currently living in Redondo Beach, CA with my fiancée, so far I've tried to abide by the law (expect the returning to my country bit). I used to take the bus to go from my apt to work all the time since i couldn't get a Driver's License but when the economy when to hell and i got laid off my last job, I wasn't able to find anything near where i lived so i had to look further away, ended up finding a nice job in Santa Monica and about a year ago I started driving (without a license), Long story short about a month ago I crashed my motorcycle on the freeway, I broke my right clavicle and right ankle and no one else was involved in the accident, CHP (California Highway Patrol) showed up and they gave me a ticket for driving without a license and impounded my motorcycle. Now I'm hiring a lawyer to show up in court (since i have a court appearance) to take care of that. Since I was in the ER and had to have General Anesthesia (There's always a chance you might not wake up from it). My Gf told me "What am I going to do with you" and i responded without even thinking "Marry Me", she said yes

and we are getting married in August 7th and after that i will start doing all my paperwork to adjust my status and obtain a Green Card. Now there comes a problem about my driving without a license ticket

I searched through all the forums and this is the closest i could find to my situation

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/189014-speeding-ticket-and-naturalization/

In summary my question is. Do I have to report this on my forms as a crime or not? I was never arrested only given a ticket, i denied the ambulance ride since it would have cost me about $1000 and my current health insurance doesn't cover that, So I just gritted my teeth walked up to the ambulance while they took my vitals, faked that nothing was wrong with my foot, just some scratches, but I was with the CHP officer for about an hour and walking back and forth from his car to the motorcycle. After that the Tow Truck Driver (Awesome guy, rides motorcycles as well) gave me a lift to the nearest gas station where my 2 friends called another friend with a car (We were all on bikes at the time) who took me to the hospital (under my network so it was around 30 minutes away from the crash site), so at the end I crashed at 9am and was going into the ER at around 1pm and then they told me i broke my right ankle and right clavicle. I'm still recovering from it, i only took 2 weeks of work and get to work thanks to my wonderful soon to be wife =D

Hope this was a funny introduction and excuse me for the great length of this post

Mods feel free to move this topic if it's in the wrong section ( I expanded a lot in these post to make my intro much better )

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Here's the link for my other topic

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/261338-expired-j1-visa-driving-without-a-license-ticket/

[belluco86 3]

I can't tell you for sure but I think the bigger of your problems is not only the fact that you got a ticket for driving without a license, I think the biggest problem was that you arrived in a J1 visa which as you will find out you will not be able to adjust status unless you go back to Ecuador and live there for 2 years. You can check on your passport if you have the 2 year ban or not. If you do you can try get a waiver which can be difficult at times. If you go to www.state.gov and read about the possible waiver and restrictions with the J1 visa. For regular cases i would recommend filing yourself, but i would get help from a lawyer. good luck

[Ranma 0]

I can't tell you for sure but I think the bigger of your problems is not only the fact that you got a ticket for driving without a license, I think the biggest problem was that you arrived in a J1 visa which as you will find out you will not be able to adjust status unless you go back to Ecuador and live there for 2 years. You can check on your passport if you have the 2 year ban or not. If you do you can try get a waiver which can be difficult at times. If you go to www.state.gov and read about the possible waiver and restrictions with the J1 visa. For regular cases i would recommend filing yourself, but i would get help from a lawyer. good luck

Thanks for the help, I checked on my papers and i'm not subject to the 2 year ban so it should make changing my status easier since i won't require the waiver