Driving on revoked registration after buying a new car

[dassy004 18]

Hope someone can clear this up for me. Back in 2016, I was cited for driving with revoked registration, insurance and no valid registration. I went to court and the driving without insurance and no valid registration were both dropped after I showed the judge my insurance from my previous car. What happened was on that day, I had just purchased the car and seller did not tell me the licensed plate on the car was revoked and allowed me to drive off with it. I got pulled over and the officer told me the licensed plate was revoked but I explained the situation and he let me go. I went to court and was placed on a 12 month court supervision after pleading guilty which is a class A misdemeanor in Illinois. After 12 months, which is this past Marched, the case was dismissed. My question now is, will this affect my naturalization application? I'm planning to apply based on the 3 yr rules and have been putting all necessary document together. I consulted with an attorney who advised that driving with revoked registration does not fall under moral turpitude. Is that true? please someone help me

[randomstairs 303]

This is not a CIMT, trust your attorney on that. Other than having to disclose the charges and to provide the documentation, it should not affect your naturalization at all. That said, having your case dismissed after pleading guilty does usually count as conviction for immigration purposes. But, again, this kind of misdemeanor should not affect your naturalization.   

[geowrian 22,337]

There's 2 separate aspects here...

 

The misdemeaner in itself is NOT considered a CIMT. It can be a CIMT when combined with certain other offenses (i.e. a DUI), but is not one in itself.

 

Can the IO determine that it violates the Good Moral Character (GMC) requirement? Yes. That said, they do seem to look at the details of the case pretty closely for naturalization, so if your explanation checks out then you may be fine.

 

[randomstairs 303]

9 minutes ago, geowrian said:

There's 2 separate aspects here...

 

The misdemeaner in itself is NOT considered a CIMT. It can be a CIMT when combined with certain other offenses (i.e. a DUI), but is not one in itself.

 

Can the IO determine that it violates the Good Moral Character (GMC) requirement? Yes. That said, they do seem to look at the details of the case pretty closely for naturalization, so if your explanation checks out then you may be fine.

 

It's not CIMT (from the description). Whether it violates GMC at all will depend on when they file for naturalization (if it's 5 years after the incident, there will be no consequences). But even if they file earlier, I think there is a good chance of getting approved.

[dassy004 18]

1 hour ago, randomstairs said:

This is not a CIMT, trust your attorney on that. Other than having to disclose the charges and to provide the documentation, it should not affect your naturalization at all. That said, having your case dismissed after pleading guilty does usually count as conviction for immigration purposes. But, again, this kind of misdemeanor should not affect your naturalization.   

So, do you think I should answer yes where it ask "Have you EVER been convicted of a crime or offense?"

[dassy004 18]

45 minutes ago, randomstairs said:

It's not CIMT (from the description). Whether it violates GMC at all will depend on when they file for naturalization (if it's 5 years after the incident, there will be no consequences). But even if they file earlier, I think there is a good chance of getting approved.

I am planning on filing by Friday. I have started filing out the application online and just gathering all required document to upload. It just bothers me it might not be approved because of the charge. I did plead guilty initially, and was placed on court supervision, after completing it the judged entered a no plea and supervision was terminated and cased dismissed.

[randomstairs 303]

1 hour ago, dassy004 said:

I am planning on filing by Friday. I have started filing out the application online and just gathering all required document to upload. It just bothers me it might not be approved because of the charge. I did plead guilty initially, and was placed on court supervision, after completing it the judged entered a no plea and supervision was terminated and cased dismissed.

You have a good chance of approval but unfortunately there is still some risk. Did you have an attorney for the criminal case? Pleading guilty is about the same as conviction for USCIS, so while the fact that the case was dismissed helps, it probably shouldn't be your main focus. For cases like this you should never plea guilty unless it's a clear-cut and you know it. Anyways, the crime was not CIMT and you're no longer in any kind of supervision or probation so I think you'll pass.

[dassy004 18]

36 minutes ago, randomstairs said:

You have a good chance of approval but unfortunately there is still some risk. Did you have an attorney for the criminal case? Pleading guilty is about the same as conviction for USCIS, so while the fact that the case was dismissed helps, it probably shouldn't be your main focus. For cases like this you should never plea guilty unless it's a clear-cut and you know it. Anyways, the crime was not CIMT and you're no longer in any kind of supervision or probation so I think you'll pass.

I had an attorney who helped me. The agreement was to try and get the seller to reinstate the registration but the seller I guess sells alot of cars and the licensed plate was from one of the cars he bought and sold, so he just took it off and put it on the one I purchased. I contacted him and he said there was nothing he could do and at that point I had no choice as it was to take the court supersion and have case dismissed or to be covicted anyways and it stays on my record.

[javadown2 308]

12 hours ago, dassy004 said:

Hope someone can clear this up for me. Back in 2016, I was cited for driving with revoked registration, insurance and no valid registration. I went to court and the driving without insurance and no valid registration were both dropped after I showed the judge my insurance from my previous car. What happened was on that day, I had just purchased the car and seller did not tell me the licensed plate on the car was revoked and allowed me to drive off with it. I got pulled over and the officer told me the licensed plate was revoked but I explained the situation and he let me go. I went to court and was placed on a 12 month court supervision after pleading guilty which is a class A misdemeanor in Illinois. After 12 months, which is this past Marched, the case was dismissed. My question now is, will this affect my naturalization application? I'm planning to apply based on the 3 yr rules and have been putting all necessary document together. I consulted with an attorney who advised that driving with revoked registration does not fall under moral turpitude. Is that true? please someone help me

I'm not even sure why the court  put you on 12 months of supervision if what you told the officer was true? But if it's been 12 months and your cleared then this should not be a problem.

[randomstairs 303]

10 hours ago, dassy004 said:

So, do you think I should answer yes where it ask "Have you EVER been convicted of a crime or offense?"

For this particular one you can probably answer "no" if you were never convicted. Although you were punished (court supervision) and you did plead guilty so if that's the question you'll answer "yes". Were you arrested? You were probably at least detained. This is a low lever crime and not CIMT so, as others suggested, you may be fine. Just be forthcoming. 

[dassy004 18]

1 hour ago, javadown2 said:

I'm not even sure why the court  put you on 12 months of supervision if what you told the officer was true? But if it's been 12 months and your cleared then this should not be a problem.

I was surprised that they did. I figured since the other 2 charges were dismissed, that the judge wanted to watch me I guess

[javadown2 308]

1 minute ago, dassy004 said:

I was surprised that they did. I figured since the other 2 charges were dismissed, that the judge wanted to watch me I guess

yeah, sorry to hear that...but it's done now so no worries. Really the police officer who pulled you over should have never written you a ticket, if you showed proof that you just bought the car. 

[dassy004 18]

5 minutes ago, javadown2 said:

yeah, sorry to hear that...but it's done now so no worries. Really the police officer who pulled you over should have never written you a ticket, if you showed proof that you just bought the car. 

I know right. I pleaded but he still went ahead to give me 3 tickets.

[CarlHamilton 252]

11 minutes ago, dassy004 said:

I know right. I pleaded but he still went ahead to give me 3 tickets.

I would recommend against re-litigating the incident at your interview.  You had an opportunity to "tell it to the judge" and the results are in your court documents.  Just stick to those and don't take an adversarial approach towards law enforcement if you want to prove good moral character.

[Loren Y 2,755]

You should consider yourself lucky honestly. I don't know about illinois, but here in Nevada that would be a fictitious plate charge and a felony. I've bought cars and as a side note you are better off without a license plate on the vehicle. The worse case scenario then is a minor mistomeanor for " failure to display registration" basically a fix it ticket, go register the vehicle go to court and it's dismissed. I think the officer was cutting you some slack, but sounds like the judge wasn't very friendly. You also may be able to go to the clerk of courts and pull your criminal history summary. That will list any and all charges, and their final outcome. It's the same info USCIS would get if they pull your records. 

Edited April 19, 2018 by Loren Y