How to disclose traffic tickets on N-400 and attaching proof of payment?

[letmein 0]

Part 10. Additional Questions
Question 16: Have you ever been arrested, cited or detained by any law enforcement officer...?

I have two traffic tickets and one parking ticket, all paid and under $100. There was no DUI or arrest. How should I fill up the details if I answered Yes to any of the questions 15 through 21?

I'm looking for sample wording. Should it be "traffic ticket paid" and then attach the proof of payment obtained through driving history? For one of the tickets, I went to court and as far as I remember I may have plead guily and simply paid the court processing fee. I can get the court doc for the payment as well.

For one of the traffic tickets, it was about failure to produce either registration or drivers license or insruance (don't remember which one was it, checked with the court even they don't know), I contacted the court and the ticket was dismissed and I had to pay the court processing fee meaning I was not guilty of what the ticket was for. I may have presented them the document at the court (and may not have them at ht time of receiving the ticket from police officer).

Should I be writing for this particular ticket "Ticket Dismissed, paid $30 court fee"? Little hesitant to say the word court.. it may imply that there were some sort ohearing or something?

Edited September 7, 2013 by letmein

[VanessaTony 3,567]

You don't need to attach proof. I had a traffic citation and ticked yes to 16, 17 and 18 (to err on the side of caution). I did not include any paperwork and received a yellow letter (a "bring this to your interview" letter) asking for arrest records etc (seeing 16 mentions arrest). I was asked if I had ever been arrested and I said no and offered to show he the citation and she didn't need to see it.

The court fee isn't relevant if it wasn't a "fine", so i would only write "dismissed" but if you're wary just write "Dismissed, $30 court costs" and that's it. Not a big deal.

[jkelly07 120]

if it was not over 500.00 dollars. and not DUI or drugs not to worry, at the interview bring the letter court dismissed with you,when the officer goes to the list 16.17 then you mention to the officer about the ticket was dismissed with cost of court fee.a lot of people get tickets just be sure to tell the officer when he gets to 16-17 don't lie about any thing you are under oath to tell the truth.you will be fine, good luck on your interview,

[letmein 0]

Thanks Vanessa and jkelly07!

I am thinking on the lines of entering following info:

Cited: Traffic Violation, Ticket Dismissed
Cited: Overspeeding , Fine paid $75
Cited: Parking at at no-Stop sign, Fine paid $75

I will check the "ever cited, arrested" question to Yes.

I know I probably don't need to disclose the parking ticket but what the heck at this point, might as well :-)

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Thanks Vanessa and jkelly07!

I am thinking on the lines of entering following info:

Cited: Traffic Violation, Ticket Dismissed

Cited: Overspeeding , Fine paid $75

Cited: Parking at at no-Stop sign, Fine paid $75

I will check the "ever cited, arrested" question to Yes.

I know I probably don't need to disclose the parking ticket but what the heck at this point, might as well :-)

I didn't even list what mine were for, and she didn't ask in the interview outside of "was it over X amount".

Mine simply said "traffic citation" in the box where it asks you to explain.

[letmein 0]

Yeah that makes sense! keep it simple. Yeah looks like of the offense is a minor traffic violation (no DUI, no arrest and no injury caused to anyone else) and the fine is unde $500, interviewer is not going to bother about it. I just wanted to list to the best of my knowledge so I'm not withholding anything.

Thank you for coming back and adding your response. Every little detail helps at this stage..My wife would argue I've gone nuts in preparing the whole N-400 application.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Yeah that makes sense! keep it simple. Yeah looks like of the offense is a minor traffic violation (no DUI, no arrest and no injury caused to anyone else) and the fine is unde $500, interviewer is not going to bother about it. I just wanted to list to the best of my knowledge so I'm not withholding anything.

Thank you for coming back and adding your response. Every little detail helps at this stage..My wife would argue I've gone nuts in preparing the whole N-400 application.

haha probably! but then its the last step and you want to be sure you get it right because the end reward is well worth it!

[letmein 0]

I don't have the date when the ticket was issued. I do have the print ouf of computer screen from the local town court from another state. It shows the ticket was dismissed and when the payment was made. It doesn't say when the ticket was issued. They said that it will take minimum two weeks to dig it up from archives (physically open boxes because the ticket was about 10 years old).
I don't want to hold up my N-400 waiting for them to get the exact date. I can estimate the year (from the date of payment) but won't be able to gess the month or day.

Should I write simply the year and no month and PDF makes it look like "00/00/YYYY" as opposed to "MM/DD/YYYY" where MM/DD is an actual date?

My ticket details on N-400 read like this on the form:

CITED - PARKING MM/DD/YYYY SomeTown,AnyState,USA FINE PAID, LESS THAN $500
CITED - TRAFFIC VIOLATION 00/00/YYYY SomeTown,AnyState,USA TICKET DISMISSED
CITED - TRAFFIC VIOLATION MM/DD/YYYY SomeTown,AnyState,USA FINE PAID, LESS THAN $500

One of the traffic violations was failure to present registration/driver's license and the other was speeding. I guess don't need to mention those details and generic "Traffic Violation" is good enough?

Any advise? does this look good?