Retail Theft - Affecting I-751 rejection?

[danie115 0]

Greetings,

My wife received her temporary green card in November of 2007. We live in Illinois and today she was caught shoplifting and was cited under a local ordinance of "Retail theft". We have a court date in about 1 month. We were told because this was a first time offense this wouldn't be considered a misdemeanor but more of a "warning".

Does anyone know what that means, how this will affect our Removing of Conditions filing and how we should optimally handle our court date?

I am very nervous about this and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks!

danie115

[YuAndDan 153]

Removal of conditions has more to do with if the couple are in a bonafide marital relationship after 2 years or residency.

The shoptlifting may have an effect on filing an N-400 for citizenship./

Note: a CR-Green-Card is NOT a temp green-card, it just a permanent residency card that has conditions attached.

[danie115 0]

Removal of conditions has more to do with if the couple are in a bonafide marital relationship after 2 years or residency.

The shoptlifting may have an effect on filing an N-400 for citizenship./

Note: a CR-Green-Card is NOT a temp green-card, it just a permanent residency card that has conditions attached.

Thanks YuAndDan, for your quick reply.

My mistake, I meant a conditions attached green card.

The I-751 application requires a Criminial History in which it says the following which makes me a little nervous. Do you think the "local ordance" will have any bearing here?

Criminal History If you have ever been arrested or detained by any law enforcement officer for any reason, and no charges were filed, submit:

1. An original official statement by the arresting agency or applicable court order confirming that no charges were filed.

If you have ever been arrested or detained by any law enforcement officer for any reason, and charges were filed, or if charges were filed against you without an arrest, submit:

2. An original or court-certified copy of the complete arrest record and/or disposition for each incident, (e.g. dismissal order, conviction record, or acquittal order).

[YuAndDan 153]

Removal of conditions has more to do with if the couple are in a bonafide marital relationship after 2 years or residency.

The shoptlifting may have an effect on filing an N-400 for citizenship./

Note: a CR-Green-Card is NOT a temp green-card, it just a permanent residency card that has conditions attached.

Thanks YuAndDan, for your quick reply.

My mistake, I meant a conditions attached green card.

The I-751 application requires a Criminial History in which it says the following which makes me a little nervous. Do you think the "local ordance" will have any bearing here?

Criminal History If you have ever been arrested or detained by any law enforcement officer for any reason, and no charges were filed, submit:

1. An original official statement by the arresting agency or applicable court order confirming that no charges were filed.

If you have ever been arrested or detained by any law enforcement officer for any reason, and charges were filed, or if charges were filed against you without an arrest, submit:

2. An original or court-certified copy of the complete arrest record and/or disposition for each incident, (e.g. dismissal order, conviction record, or acquittal order).

You will need to comply with this. It it was a minor offense and was let off with a warning hopefully this will be taken into consideration by USCIS

Note LPR = LAWFUL Permanent Resident.

[danie115 0]

Note LPR = LAWFUL Permanent Resident.

I know. We just had one temporary lapse in judgement.

I'm not sure what the warning entails, any thoughts on what that could possibly mean?

Also I've been reading around it seems like it may be best to try to get this reduced to a disorderly conduct citing, any thoughts on this?

[danie115 0]

As an update to this:

We still haven't had our court date but it looks like the filing is a Municipal Code violation with the maximum penalty as follows:

A person convicted of a violation of any provision of this article shall be fined not less than thirty-five

dollars ($35.00) nor more than two hundred dollars ($200.00) for the initial conviction, and not less than two

hundred dollars ($200.00) nor more than seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00) for any subsequent conviction.

Later in the ordinance it says

A detention as permitted in this article does not constitute an arrest or an unlawful restraint, as defined

in Section 10-3 of Chapter 38 of the Illinois Revised Statutes, nor shall it render the merchant liable to the

persons so detained. (Ord. No. O-93-78, ' 1, 10-9-78)

Does this mean we do not have to report it on I751 application?

Thanks again for all of your help and consideration!

The offense itself has a definition of the following:

A person commits the offense of retail theft when he knowingly:

(1) Takes possession of, carries away, transfers or causes to be carried away or transferred, any

merchandise displayed, held, stored or offered for sale in a retail mercantile establishment

with the intention of retaining such merchandise or with the intention of depriving the

merchant permanently of the possession, use or benefit of such merchandise without paying

the full retail value of such merchandise; or

(2) Alters, transfers, or removes any label, price tag, marking, indicia of value or any other

markings which aid in determining value affixed to any merchandise displayed, held, stored

or offered for sale, in a retail mercantile establishment and attempts to purchase such

merchandise personally or in consort with another at less than the full retail value with the

intention of depriving the merchant of the full retail value of such merchandise; or

(3) Transfers any merchandise displayed, held, stored or offered for sale, in a retail mercantile

establishment from the container in or on which such merchandise is displayed to any other

container with the intention of depriving the merchant of the full retail value of such

merchandise; or

(4) Under-rings with the intention of depriving the merchant of the full retail value of the

merchandise; or

(5) Removes a shopping cart from the premises of a retail mercantile establishment without the

consent of the merchant given at the time of such removal with the intention of depriving the

merchant permanently of the possession, use or benefit of such cart.

(Ord. No. O-93-78, ' 1, 10-9-78)

[danie115 0]

On the I-751 form it says

NOTE: Unless a traffic incident was alcohol or drug related, you do not need to submit documentation for traffic fines and incidents that did not involve an actual arrest if the only penalty was a fine of less than $500.00 and or points on your driver's license.

because it says "incidents that did not involve an actual arrest if the only penalty was a fine of less than $500.00" does this mean our municipal code violation can be considered as one of these exceptions because the maximum fine is 200$ for first offense?

[Rosie74 0]

On the I-751 form it says

NOTE: Unless a traffic incident was alcohol or drug related, you do not need to submit documentation for traffic fines and incidents that did not involve an actual arrest if the only penalty was a fine of less than $500.00 and or points on your driver's license.

because it says "incidents that did not involve an actual arrest if the only penalty was a fine of less than $500.00" does this mean our municipal code violation can be considered as one of these exceptions because the maximum fine is 200$ for first offense?

The way I read it, that only applies to traffic violations, not to retail theft. I would report it, if I were you. Better to report it and let them judge than find out you had to to report it but you didn't.

Edited April 4, 2009 by Rosie74