Please help me in filling out part 12 of N-400

[americano11 0]

Hey there,

I have a DUI and a few traffic tickets. I have never been in prison or jailed. All my tickets are dismissed and my DUI was expunged. Do I still need to say 'yes' to questions 22-27. I am mostly concerned here with question 25

Have you ever been convicted of a crime or offense? ... yes or no?

 

Then there is the last column of the table. "Outcome or disposition of the arrest, citation, or detention....)"

For my traffic tickets I know I have to write "dismissed" as that is what happend. I am unsure however about my DUI... should it be expunged or dismissed? 

 

[IowacityGuy 152]

you definitely answer that Yes! Because expunged means nothing when it comes to immigration. Expunged means its taken off from your court record but its not taken off from you criminal record and when you go for finger printing it will show up. Also, please send your court document along with your application. Its very important you say truth. when I applied for my CR1 visa and my past record showed up even though its was expunged. 

 

Reference to your question " Have your ever been convicted of  a crime or offense?" You have to answer yes and provide explanation what was your outcome of the case.

 

Speeding tickets not going to do anything to your case but DUI will be an issue.. not trying to scare you off or anything but if you not going to be truthfull that can create even more trouble. Please! be truthful on your application. Just trying to save you from more trouble. Because DUI issue is fixable and its not a bar on citizenship. but if you try to lie and don't mention that can deny your application and will on your record.. 

Edited January 5, 2018 by abhatia315
forgot to add more information

[Going through 5,671]

To add to the advice above, make sure to get more than one copy of the certified court documents related to the DUI case and bring the 2nd one to your interview (even though you submitted one with your application).

 

Whether court cases are dismissed/expunged/sealed/withdrawn----the question on the application is "have you EVER"....so to be truthful, you must answer yes.  If you answer no, and it comes up during your interview (and it will come up), you are setting yourself up for willful misrepresentation of facts---which can lead to a denial on the N400, whereas the single charge itself would not.

 

In other words---disclosing it on your application truthfully, may cause a tiny bit of grief during your interview.

Not disclosing it----it becomes a HUGE deal when they find out about it.

 

I had a charge in another country from over 20 years ago---case was sealed, charge withdrawn, and records destroyed.  If you look at my timeline under the blue link "Naturalization Interview---read my experience", you'll see it was the very first thing the IO brought up as soon as I sat down.

Edited January 5, 2018 by Going through