Traffic ticket 13 years ago - What evidence to provide

[arnab221 29]

I have EVER gotten 2 traffic tickets which are from 2006(speeding) and 2012(fix it - headlamps) and neither I nor the country courts where these occurred have any record of the disposal of these tickets. I have tried every mode of record checking online and found nothing.The San Diego Country Superior court where the speeding infraction took place says on its webpage that infractions are destroyed after 3 years which would mean my record was destroyed around 2009. As the speeding was a first offense and I opted for traffic school,  it never came to my driving record. My driving record is crystal clear and has nothing. 

 

While I am totally willing to mention these tickets in the "Have you EVER been cited ...." question , what proof do I provide to USCIS that these tickets were indeed disposed and how much would it cost me(time/effort) to get these proofs ? 

 

Will a court give me a certified copy of a statement saying that they have no record ?  Does anyone know how I could get one ? I wish I had kept copies of these tickets and payment receipts , but citizenship was never on my mind then. 

[xyz12345 260]

6 hours ago, arnab221 said:

I have EVER gotten 2 traffic tickets which are from 2006(speeding) and 2012(fix it - headlamps) and neither I nor the country courts where these occurred have any record of the disposal of these tickets. I have tried every mode of record checking online and found nothing.The San Diego Country Superior court where the speeding infraction took place says on its webpage that infractions are destroyed after 3 years which would mean my record was destroyed around 2009. As the speeding was a first offense and I opted for traffic school,  it never came to my driving record. My driving record is crystal clear and has nothing. 

 

While I am totally willing to mention these tickets in the "Have you EVER been cited ...." question , what proof do I provide to USCIS that these tickets were indeed disposed and how much would it cost me(time/effort) to get these proofs ? 

 

Will a court give me a certified copy of a statement saying that they have no record ?  Does anyone know how I could get one ? I wish I had kept copies of these tickets and payment receipts , but citizenship was never on my mind then. 

I was in the same boat when I applied for naturalization. I had my certified driving history and nothing else. I basically used the info on the driving history. For example,

 

Question: Why were you cited..?

Answer: I was cited for unlawful speed 41/35

 

Question: Outcome or disposition?

Answer: CONV-4.0 PTS. I paid the fine (less than $500);

another Answer: ADJ WITHHELD CLERK COURT.  I elected to attend traffic school to remove the points; paid fine (less than $500).

 

In FL, your traffic school record is in the driving history.

 

I didn't have receipts but I was ready to show my certified driving history to the IO and say that my drivers license hadn't been suspended or anything. The IO didn't even bring up my traffic citations.

 

You should be fine. Good luck!

 

[Mollie09 1,543]

2 hours ago, xyz12345 said:

I was in the same boat when I applied for naturalization. I had my certified driving history and nothing else. I basically used the info on the driving history. For example,

 

Question: Why were you cited..?

Answer: I was cited for unlawful speed 41/35

 

Question: Outcome or disposition?

Answer: CONV-4.0 PTS. I paid the fine (less than $500);

another Answer: ADJ WITHHELD CLERK COURT.  I elected to attend traffic school to remove the points; paid fine (less than $500).

 

In FL, your traffic school record is in the driving history.

 

I didn't have receipts but I was ready to show my certified driving history to the IO and say that my drivers license hadn't been suspended or anything. The IO didn't even bring up my traffic citations.

 

You should be fine. Good luck!

 

OP can't find records in his driving history, though.

[xyz12345 260]

22 minutes ago, Mollie09 said:

OP can't find records in his driving history, though.

it might not be the same for all states but your drivers license can be suspended for unpaid traffic tickets (acc to Google). If it's been suspended, i would assume that it will show up in your driving history. imo, having no record in your driving history is good especially if we're just talking about simple traffic violations.

[Mollie09 1,543]

7 minutes ago, xyz12345 said:

it might not be the same for all states but your drivers license can be suspended for unpaid traffic tickets (acc to Google). If it's been suspended, i would assume that it will show up in your driving history. imo, having no record in your driving history is good especially if we're just talking about simple traffic violations.

He paid the tickets, but still had no record of them to report on the N-400

[dilip 187]

10 hours ago, arnab221 said:

I have EVER gotten 2 traffic tickets which are from 2006(speeding) and 2012(fix it - headlamps) and neither I nor the country courts where these occurred have any record of the disposal of these tickets. I have tried every mode of record checking online and found nothing.The San Diego Country Superior court where the speeding infraction took place says on its webpage that infractions are destroyed after 3 years which would mean my record was destroyed around 2009. As the speeding was a first offense and I opted for traffic school,  it never came to my driving record. My driving record is crystal clear and has nothing. 

 

While I am totally willing to mention these tickets in the "Have you EVER been cited ...." question , what proof do I provide to USCIS that these tickets were indeed disposed and how much would it cost me(time/effort) to get these proofs ? 

 

Will a court give me a certified copy of a statement saying that they have no record ?  Does anyone know how I could get one ? I wish I had kept copies of these tickets and payment receipts , but citizenship was never on my mind then. 

[1] Obviously, need need to take the driving record. [2] You need to report those two indecent and explain on the form  what you said and amount fined  [3]  Did you pay any fines for those two events and how did you pay  ? 

[arnab221 29]

Driving History in WA typically goes back 5 years max even for DUI type of offense( see link below) , but other than its only 3 years .

 

https://www.dol.wa.gov/driverslicense/drivingrecfaq.html

 

My driving history is crystal clean and shows nothing whatsoever . I obviously paid the fines during that time else it would have reflected under payments / fees / reinstatements / endorsements.  I do not retain any records of the ticket in 2006 , it was 13 years ago.  

 

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2019 by arnab221

[kiwibean 48]

I had a speeding ticket of about the same age (actually, I paid the fine so it was considered to be plead down, to a broken taillight.  I have no idea how that works, but there you have it).

They quizzed me about it really hard during the interview, but accepted that I had no record of it.  I wasn't even a PR then, and didn't plan to stay in the US, so it was not at all on my radar to save things for that long!

[ponyo_rocks 7]

I had a fix-it ticket from over 10 years ago and a parking ticket. I said 'yes' to the cited question and gave an approximate date (I think they both occurred in the same year, so just gave 1/1/2006 as date). I also explained what happened in the explanation box - said I dont have evidence from that long ago, but paid a fine of around $40 (I remember because I thought it was too high!) in one case and paid some court fees and got my tail light checked by a cop after getting it fixed. 

 

I seriously doubt they will dwell on this, so explain to the best of your ability and move on. If you can get a clean DMV record to your interview, that should bolster your case (if at all you are asked!)