N400 Passed and Traffic Ticket Experience

[KMENDLESS 9]

Thx for all the members in this forum. My visa journey is finally almost done. I would like to share some information at the end.

 

I finished the N400 interview under 3 years marriage rule in San Bernadino Filed office this morning. When I finished the interview, the online status was already changed to Oath Ceremony Notice was mailed. The officer said the ceremony probably would be happened in next month.

 

During the interview, I requested Name Changed. the officer only checked my GC, Passport and driver license. No other documents needed. 

 

I wanna talk about the popular question "Have you been cited by law enforcement". I DID NOT disclose my two traffic tickets in my application, when we reviewed the application, the officer also skipped this question, he just randomly picked up few questions from the form to ask me.  

 

I personally asked him "do we need to disclose the traffic on the form even not related with DUI OR DRUG." He asked me, so you have tickets? I said yes and he just briefly reviewed the documents that I brought and said it was a gray area and YES, NEED TO DISCLOSE.

 

Here is my suggestion: Since the traffic tickets wouldnt harm your application so better to put it on. You can just go to your district court to ask the clerk to run a name search, they could provide you a certificate that listing all your ticket records and if is was paid (This service is free in LA COURT). Or spend 2 dollars get an online driving record to show your record. I did both.

[jkstark 97]

You can always get a notice of disposition from the court that was handling your tickets that will show what the offense was, and what the outcome of the process was. 

 

The recommendation is solid - disclose everything.  Tickets under approximately $500-600 will have no bearing on the outcome, as per the agent reviewing my case, but they do need to be disclosed so as to prevent any complications later on...

[KMENDLESS 9]

Here is update: Passed interview on last Friday (04/12) and received oath ceremony letter on today (04/15).  the ceremony date would be on 04/23.

 

 

[POM 21]

Obtaining a Driver's abstract from your states DMV and bringing it to the interview will suffice for simple traffic citations but a court deposition is recommended if you have something more serious like aggravated unlicensed operation or reckless driving.

 

Congrats on completing your journey!

[Mike E 11,739]

When I did this in 2018, my only rational conclusion from the N400 instructions is that traffic tickets $500 and under don't have to be disclosed, and the correct answer to the N-400 questions about arrests and convictions is no.

 

If one answers yes, then one has to document the crimes in the N-400. And the instructions say, 

 

Quote

 

NOTE: You must submit documentation of traffic incidents if:

(1) The incident involved alcohol or drugs;
(2) The incident led to an arrest; or
(3) The incident seriously injured another person.

You do not need to submit documentation for traffic fines or incidents that did not involve an arrest or did not involve drugs or alcohol, if the only penalty was a fine of less than $500 or points on your driving record.

 

Handing out a traffic ticket isn't an arrest. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodriguez_v._United_States .

 

But if the USA wants to de-naturalize me over traffic tickets from 25+ years ago, that's ok. Plenty of other places will take me.