US Immigration from Australia

I'm so happy to have found this site.. and have a bit of a predicament.

I'm currently at NVC Stage, Trying to fill out DS260 and the criminal history questions have me stumpted on how to answer it.

I'm not proud of my past.. and in no way am i trying to hide it or deny it but here goes:

I have 3 prior DUI traffic violations

1. 1996 - Low Range - Nil Conviction Recorded, $500 fine and 3 month license suspension
2. 1999 - High Range - Nil Conviction Recorded, $1000 fine and 1 year license suspension
3. 2003 - Low Range - Nil Conviction Recorded, $700 fine and 1 year license suspension

Note: No Other Aggravating Factors Involved, e.g. dangerous, reckless driving etc

My issue here is:

• No Convictions recorded - so no i have never been convicted of a crime but HAVE BEEN TO COURT
• Traffic Violations in Australia, ARE NOT or WERE NOT at that time treated as Criminal, theyfore are recorded by the RTA against your driver licence
• Because NO Conviction, my criminal history checks are all coming back clean, with nothing to disclose
• The RTA have no records of the event, only 2 reciepts of payments for the fines assocuated with the 1999 and 2003 violations and no record of what-so-ever of the 1996 one

Additionally, Here, LAW's state:

1. After 10 years from Date of last violation, all records are removed/deleated/destroyed, provided no reoffence has occurred (which it hasnt) and
2. Once records are removed, a person is NOT legally required under State, Federal and Commonwealth Law to disclose any information or event admit to having any violation to anyone including police officers and/or government departments
3. State, Federal and Commonwealth Laws state that it is an offence for anyone to try to or to access records of any violation of this type that may still exist

I've checked with the courts that I attended (Local Magistrates):

1. They have no court documents for any of the abovementioned violations, and two are as if they never occured, nothing there
2. They found the 2003 offence listed on a register of court appearance, but no other details about the hearing/outcomes etc
3. They have told me via email, that the courts delete and/or destroy all court records of this type after 12 years - in accordance with legislation guidlines

So after noting all the above, I'm pretty sure I have to tick yes to going to court, but the part where I am have is problems is uploading/obtaining relevant court documents. there litrally are none. I've requested from the court that they provide me with a certified letter saying all court records associated with any traffic violations prior to 2008 have been destroyed in accordance with document disposal legislation, but they have declined to provide this to me, so all I have is an email from the courts registra saying they dont have any records on file by the courts older than 12 years.

What to do next? I cant provide the court documents or a certified letter from the courts... its not on any of by background checks, records are sealed/destroyed by the government, if i upload a statement to NVC saying this, I'm almost curtain it will create an RFE for documentation that I just cant provide

Basically, if I was migrating to Canada, I wouldnt have to even mention these under commonwealth law which applies to both them and us.. But the US is still requesting this information? or is the have you ever attended court/fined etc specific to Criminal Offences Only?

Hi there,

I am an E3 visa holder looking at applying for an adjustment of status through marriage here in the next couple of months. I was wondering if anyone knows whether or not the form I-508 needs to be filed with the AOS package? I have read different accounts of people not filing it in the beginning and having to fill it out in triplicate at their interview and people filing it with their AOS package just to cover bases. Also, I am not sure what filing in triplicate means?

Thank you to anyone that can give me any advice on this matter (and please feel to move this content to a better suited forum)

Hi All

This is probably not a new thing but we were wondering if we should opt for married but filing separately? We got married in September and looking at the residency test my husband have not been in the country for more than 183 days. Does this mean he does not have to declare any income for US taxation purposes although we will be filing as a married couple but separately - not sure how this will affect the AOS process so any advice is most welcome.

Thank you

I am a US Citizen and my husband an Australian Citizen and we are living in Sydney. Our i130 was approved and the National Visa Centre has contacted us to continue with the process. I'm wondering how long we have until the i130 or our process "expires"? My husband just took a promotion at work here in Sydney and so we don't want to move over for at least a year, maybe a few years but I don't want to start the process over again because the i130 took a year to be approved. Thank you so much for your help!

My partner and I went to get our passport photos taken and the person doing it said that the background has been coming out bright. It came out bright in ours I m wondering if this would be an issue and if we should do it again somewhere else? I can upload it if you want to see how bright it is.