I-601 waiver info for london

[annasherwood 0]

I am the USC and my husband is english. We are DCF'ing through the embassy in London. My husband had a conviction for cannabis possession 12 years ago, and was fined. Now most people are telling us that although this has been stricken from his police record, we will be automatically denied his visa at his interview, and that we will have to file a waiver and hardship letter.

How much more time does this add onto the process of DCF??? and for such a minor offense so many years ago, is there a chance we won't get into america ever????

panic has set in...

thanks for any help

anna

[Boiler 45,537]

The Rehabilitation of Offendors Act does not apply to the US.

I do not remember seeing a case through London, you may be on the edge as far as a CIMT is concerned.

Can he substantiate how he has rehabilitated?

3 to 4 months?, London is relatively quick.

Also see www.immigrate2us.net.

[annasherwood 0]

The Rehabilitation of Offendors Act does not apply to the US.

I do not remember seeing a case through London, you may be on the edge as far as a CIMT is concerned.

Can he substantiate how he has rehabilitated?

3 to 4 months?, London is relatively quick.

Also see www.immigrate2us.net.

thanks for your reply, boiler; i'm not sure what you meant by "I do not remember seeing a case through London..."---surely they've had this situation come up before? is it possible we might not need to file a waiver?

and how would he show he's rehabilitated? he's never been arrested again, and could take a urine or blood test to prove he doesn't use cannabis any longer...

does the waiver add any additional time on the original 3-4 months processing time for a DCF??

thanks again for your help

anna

ps---i've been to that other site, but it seems to have a lot of difficulty loading at the moment...

Edited October 27, 2006 by annasherwood

[munchkins 0]

dont know if I am missing anything here, but are you sure that it has been stricken from his records?

Waivers can and do add a good many weeks on to the process, the embassy guideline for waivers is now between 12 - 15 weeks

[Boiler 45,537]

dont know if I am missing anything here, but are you sure that it has been stricken from his records?

Waivers can and do add a good many weeks on to the process, the embassy guideline for waivers is now between 12 - 15 weeks

It does not matter if it has been stricken from UK records.

I meant that I do not remember drug related waivers in London, the ones that I have seen have been elsewhere. Certinly on those showing that you had gone through whatever courses there to rehabilitate drug offendors was an issue.

[munchkins 0]

There was one not too long ago that was denied and it was so sad, all I meant was if it is not showing on the police record then surely there is nothing to worry about, if it is showing then I am sure it will mean a waiver

[annasherwood 0]

dont know if I am missing anything here, but are you sure that it has been stricken from his records?

Waivers can and do add a good many weeks on to the process, the embassy guideline for waivers is now between 12 - 15 weeks

It does not matter if it has been stricken from UK records.

I meant that I do not remember drug related waivers in London, the ones that I have seen have been elsewhere. Certinly on those showing that you had gone through whatever courses there to rehabilitate drug offendors was an issue.

is it possible, then, that we might not need a waiver for his conviction since we are DCF'ing through London?

anna

There was one not too long ago that was denied and it was so sad, all I meant was if it is not showing on the police record then surely there is nothing to worry about, if it is showing then I am sure it will mean a waiver

oh, dear God...was the waiver for something similar to our problem??? we have been told that the USA doesn't recognise the expunging of criminal records so we are almost obliged to tell them whether or not it appears on his record; apparently it would be much worse if we fail to mention it...

anna

[Boiler 45,537]

oh, dear God...was the waiver for something similar to our problem??? we have been told that the USA doesn't recognise the expunging of criminal records so we are almost obliged to tell them whether or not it appears on his record; apparently it would be much worse if we fail to mention it...

anna

Correct, except if you are under 18.

The one I remember was because they had him down for trafficking, I did not mention it as it is not comparable.

Edited October 27, 2006 by Boiler

[Baileyj96 0]

Well I've been searching for that section of the law but I cannot find it. grrrrrrrr I do remember reading that if it was a one time offence and under 30 grams it is waivable. But don't go by what I'm saying. I think there is more to it than that. I think It also would depend on how old he was when it happened. There is a lawyer on the other site (immigrate2us.net ...and yes it is running slow. they did some big update) who has a free chat on Wednesdays. She has the site posted over there and if there was any way you could go on wednesday she would probably answer your question with more details. Sometimes she will even post on a thread but not always.

If you do end up having to file (and I hope you don't) We filed our waiver on May6th 2006 and it was completed on October 13th 2006. It does fluctuate some but plan on 12 weeks at the minimum and about 20 at the maximum.

Good luck and best wishes to you.

Baileyj

[munchkins 0]

You are right there Boiler and I think before Anna gets herself into a complete tizzwaz about this, she check out the immigrate2us site as Bailey says, and does some research, just in case

[mary&tom 0]

There was one not too long ago that was denied and it was so sad, all I meant was if it is not showing on the police record then surely there is nothing to worry about, if it is showing then I am sure it will mean a waiver

oh, dear God...was the waiver for something similar to our problem??? we have been told that the USA doesn't recognise the expunging of criminal records so we are almost obliged to tell them whether or not it appears on his record; apparently it would be much worse if we fail to mention it...

anna

That would be us. We didn't know if it would be on the police report or not as it happened 9 years ago and he only received a £100 fine. Well it was on the report and to our horror it was not listed as possession... it was listed as "exporting" because he was in a car in Swansea waiting for the ferry to Ireland. Nevermind that it was not even his stuff... it belonged to the car owner. He allowed the court lawyer to intimidate him into pleading guilty and now we have paid for that in a big way. The folks at the London embassy were sympathetic to our situation and decided the case should be treated as personal possession. They let us file the waiver and recommended highly that it be granted. Anyone who meets Tom can see the sort of man he is. I think our biggest mistake was not including character references. We were led to believe that filing the waiver was basically a formality and it would be approved as long as we filled out the paperwork and wrote our letters.

One of the embassy workers even called us a few days after our denial wanting Tom to do some electrical work for her. She was surprised and sorry to hear we had been denied. So... an embassy worker was willing to allow Tom to enter her home but DHS deemed him unacceptable to enter the US. I expect I will always be bitter about that. We will make a life here and we will be happy with each other. But I will never forgive DHS for forcing me to leave my children, my grandchildren, all my friends... everything I have ever known for all my life.

I am suffering from culture shock at the moment... there are more differences than one might think between the USA and the UK...particularly since we are in the London area (Gravesend) and I was always a small town girl. I am also very lonely... I have no idea how to make friends here... people are nice and they are friendly but who do I go to lunch with? Who do I have over for tea? Tom has worked long hours since my arrival because problems with NHS changes have left them short handed. He works for Guys hospital. He is working 7 days in a row this week... 96 hours total plus two hours commute each day... that doesnt leave much. I am very lonely. I don't get bored.. there are always things to do.. things that I am interested in, but I miss him and I have no one else to do things with.

Mary

p.s. what Baily said is correct... a one time offence of simple possession under 30 grams is waiverable. Our case should have been treated as such as that is what he pled guilty to but unfortunately no official record was ever made of that fact by the court. The embassy official advised him to express remorse in his letter but that was a bit difficult as he didnt actually do the crime so what he expressed remorse about was the fact that he had entered the USA three times on the visa waiver program (not knowing he shouldnt .. not knowing that the Rehabilitation of Offenders act did not apply). I guess he should have expressed remorse over his choice of friends.. the guy who was stupid enough to have something in the car (for personal use) when approaching customs! Sometimes I wonder if the personal description on the police report hurt us... at the time he had a pony tail and earrings... I wonder if that image stereotyped him. At the time he was playing in a band part time although his profession was still electrician.

I wonder how you prove hardship when you are already living in the UK. You can't exactly say that moving here would be impossible. Maybe you would have to outline what hardships you are experiencing because of being here? And of course you can prove it would be extreme hardship for you to go back to the states without your husband.

I am hoping that one day we can at least get some kind of waiver allowing us to visit the states. As it stands at the moment, Tom can never enter the USA again... which effectively means I will never see "home" again. Flying is so traumatic... I will never do it again alone. I feel lucky to have gotten here in one piece.

well that was a long PS! LOL

guess I might as well include the link to a very long post that I once made that tells the story of what happened that day in Swansea more in detail... for anyone that wants to know more...

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...st&p=462887

[munchkins 0]

Mary

so very very nice to see you here again - how did your wedding go, have you posted any pics anywhere.

I am sorry to see that you are lonely, it must be terribly hard for you with Tom working such long hours, can you not do any voluntary work in your area, with kids or older people, something to get you out and about.

it was rotten what happened to you and Tom and I understand you completely, it must have been devastating to leave all your children and grandchildren, my heart goes out to you being a grandmother myself.

We have had to file a waiver for Alan but I was granted mine but as you say we DID have plenty of character references from the business community of which Alan is a part and one was from a local councillor and one from a Doctor so I hope they stand in good stead. We also had a letter explaining why Alan was like he was and how regretful of the offences he is and how he has shown he is now an upstanding member of the community and has never offended in the past 28 years. Plus the fact that for the cimt Alan was only 17 but unfortunately there were a couple of others, nothing serious but it then became mulitple convictions and all these happened over 28 - 35 years ago as Alan is now 52 early 53.

Somtimes it really makes you wonder about this immigration and dhs when you see so many fraudsters and criminals getting in with seemingly no problems at all>

Mary I wish you and Tom well and sincerely hope that you do have a wonderful life together which I am sure you will and I hope that you soon make lots of friends, it's early days yet, it will happen.

Take care

Val

[annasherwood 0]

There was one not too long ago that was denied and it was so sad, all I meant was if it is not showing on the police record then surely there is nothing to worry about, if it is showing then I am sure it will mean a waiver

oh, dear God...was the waiver for something similar to our problem??? we have been told that the USA doesn't recognise the expunging of criminal records so we are almost obliged to tell them whether or not it appears on his record; apparently it would be much worse if we fail to mention it...

anna

That would be us. We didn't know if it would be on the police report or not as it happened 9 years ago and he only received a £100 fine. Well it was on the report and to our horror it was not listed as possession... it was listed as "exporting" because he was in a car in Swansea waiting for the ferry to Ireland. Nevermind that it was not even his stuff... it belonged to the car owner. He allowed the court lawyer to intimidate him into pleading guilty and now we have paid for that in a big way. The folks at the London embassy were sympathetic to our situation and decided the case should be treated as personal possession. They let us file the waiver and recommended highly that it be granted. Anyone who meets Tom can see the sort of man he is. I think our biggest mistake was not including character references. We were led to believe that filing the waiver was basically a formality and it would be approved as long as we filled out the paperwork and wrote our letters.

One of the embassy workers even called us a few days after our denial wanting Tom to do some electrical work for her. She was surprised and sorry to hear we had been denied. So... an embassy worker was willing to allow Tom to enter her home but DHS deemed him unacceptable to enter the US. I expect I will always be bitter about that. We will make a life here and we will be happy with each other. But I will never forgive DHS for forcing me to leave my children, my grandchildren, all my friends... everything I have ever known for all my life.

I am suffering from culture shock at the moment... there are more differences than one might think between the USA and the UK...particularly since we are in the London area (Gravesend) and I was always a small town girl. I am also very lonely... I have no idea how to make friends here... people are nice and they are friendly but who do I go to lunch with? Who do I have over for tea? Tom has worked long hours since my arrival because problems with NHS changes have left them short handed. He works for Guys hospital. He is working 7 days in a row this week... 96 hours total plus two hours commute each day... that doesnt leave much. I am very lonely. I don't get bored.. there are always things to do.. things that I am interested in, but I miss him and I have no one else to do things with.

Mary

p.s. what Baily said is correct... a one time offence of simple possession under 30 grams is waiverable. Our case should have been treated as such as that is what he pled guilty to but unfortunately no official record was ever made of that fact by the court. The embassy official advised him to express remorse in his letter but that was a bit difficult as he didnt actually do the crime so what he expressed remorse about was the fact that he had entered the USA three times on the visa waiver program (not knowing he shouldnt .. not knowing that the Rehabilitation of Offenders act did not apply). I guess he should have expressed remorse over his choice of friends.. the guy who was stupid enough to have something in the car (for personal use) when approaching customs! Sometimes I wonder if the personal description on the police report hurt us... at the time he had a pony tail and earrings... I wonder if that image stereotyped him. At the time he was playing in a band part time although his profession was still electrician.

I wonder how you prove hardship when you are already living in the UK. You can't exactly say that moving here would be impossible. Maybe you would have to outline what hardships you are experiencing because of being here? And of course you can prove it would be extreme hardship for you to go back to the states without your husband.

I am hoping that one day we can at least get some kind of waiver allowing us to visit the states. As it stands at the moment, Tom can never enter the USA again... which effectively means I will never see "home" again. Flying is so traumatic... I will never do it again alone. I feel lucky to have gotten here in one piece.

well that was a long PS! LOL

guess I might as well include the link to a very long post that I once made that tells the story of what happened that day in Swansea more in detail... for anyone that wants to know more...

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...st&p=462887

oh, mary...i read you post yesterday but was so moved that i couldn't reply...i am so sorry about what you are going through; i have lived in the UK for 6 years, and can understand a great deal of what you are saying...that is why i want to go home so badly, and i hope that one stupid teenaged activity on the part of my now-upstanding husband isn't going to hold us back...

thank you so much for sharing what must be a terribly painful time for you, and for taking the time to write and reply to me...i do appreciate it a great deal...

anna