I just went to the citizenship interview.

Question

i past the civics test and questions, but he asked me if i had ever been arrested and i said yes i was, he asked when and why, so i told him in 2001 for drunk in public, and i handed him the paper work for my arrest, he looked at it and put it away. then he also mentioned that i had an arrest in 1993 when i was a minor (15 years of age) i said yes and he asked me for the paper work but for that one i did not have, because its been so long. both are mister minerss.

so he asked me to get the info for the arrest ,and handed me a sheet of paper that had the info to go to the court office that i had gotten arrested in 1993 for vandalisim. so my question is does this mean that i dont qualify to become a citizen , or do they just need the info for the arrest. thanks

Answer 1

I was in the same boat my fiend, dont fret.  You're from the UK i imagine?  doesnt matter.  Email me for more info if you want.  But I had 2 arrests in hte UK.  One for drunk in public, but luckily it never showed in any police records but my next one did.  I was arrested for carrying a replica handgun on tottenham court road, they sealed the road off and me and my mate were ambushed as we came out of a pub by armed police.  well, amazingly enough i received a police caution for this, but the caution stated arrested for threatening behaviour.  I had to tell the citizenship officer what happened.  You know what he said?  He thought it stupid that i could get arrest for this when no one was arrested for the danish mohammed cartoon demos outside the danish embassy in london!  BUT, he wanted a signed notarised copy from the british cops, something which would take months.  So he went away to speak to his supervisor, my heart sank, i was so close, i could hear him keep repeating, "so i dont need it authorised"  his supivisor kept saying no and he kept repeating it.  It drove me mad as to why he would keep asking her, "she said no for gods sake" i thought!!  Well he came back, shook his head and said "i cant belive she doesnt want itauthorised."  Then he said " do you want to have your citizenship ceremony today"?  In a few hours I became a US citizen.  It was a crazy afternoon.

But my long answer is this, it was 1993, it wanst a felony, have you ever been arrested in the USA?  if not then you will become a US citizen.  This is just red tape.  Your citizenship forms will list the offences that will get you barred from citizenship, terrorism, murder, prostitution, drugs offences etc.

The home office if it is in the UK will have a copy of this arrest, but why didnt you get this info before hand?  I had to gather all my arrest info, and when i saw that my first offence wasnt on any police record I didnt declare it as officially it doesnt exist.  Why make trouble for yourself.  So 1993 they should in the Home office have your records, if not then get a letter from the home office that the records were deleted and then tell immigration your case.  dont worry, this is nothing.  you just gotta play the waiting game

Answer 2

He already knew about the other arrest so I don't know why he did that. Plus you were a minor. Usually those are sealed once you become an adult but I was born here. I'm not a foreigner so maybe that is different when you are. Good luck though, I am glad to see someone get citizenship the right way.

Answer 3

He's probably just doing a complete back ground check, don't worry yourself over it.  Worrying will not change the outcome.

Answer 4

Joe, I don't know what to say but the INS is getting tough because white trash America is putting pressure on Congress because of issues with tomatoes and jalapenos. My wife is from Guadalajara and  we have gone thru h**l trying to explain to INS that we are really married. Just because she lives in antother state and has some prostution  arrests these Govt people wont let up. America is make up of peoples from other countries. What is the friggin problem!