Brendan O'Callaghan

Hello, just an inquiry regarding entering under visa waiver and criminal
records. I have a drink driving conviction from 1989. I'm getting mixed
answers to my inquiries? US consular person suggested it shouldn't be a
problem, but no guarantee, others have said it would be!
Has anyone else experienced problems entering with such a relatively
minor offence from a long time ago? Should I tick yes on the I-94w to the
criminal record question? If no, do officials at point of entry have access
to such information? Am leaning towards ticking yes and taking my chances,
but I should have investigated earlier, then I could have applied for
visitors visa. But now its too late as I'am leaving in a weeks time.
Any advice helpful. Thanks......Bren

Ingo Pakleppa - see web site for email

It shouldn't be a problem. Do expect some extra questions, but I don't
expect that you'll have to worry about entering the USA.

On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 02:10:36 +0000, Brendan O'Callaghan wrote:

    > Hello, just an inquiry regarding entering under visa waiver and criminal
    > records. I have a drink driving conviction from 1989. I'm getting mixed
    > answers to my inquiries? US consular person suggested it shouldn't be a
    > problem, but no guarantee, others have said it would be!
    > Has anyone else experienced problems entering with such a
    > relatively
    > minor offence from a long time ago? Should I tick yes on the I-94w to
    > the criminal record question? If no, do officials at point of entry
    > have access to such information? Am leaning towards ticking yes and
    > taking my chances, but I should have investigated earlier, then I could
    > have applied for visitors visa. But now its too late as I'am leaving in
    > a weeks time.
    > Any advice helpful. Thanks......Bren

CalgaryAMC

Originally posted by Brendan O'Callaghan
    > Hello, just an
inquiry regarding entering under visa waiver and criminal
    > records. I
have a drink driving conviction from 1989. I'm getting mixed
    > answers
to my inquiries? US consular person suggested it shouldn't be a
problem, but no guarantee, others have said it would be!
    > Has
anyone else experienced problems entering with such a relatively
    > minor
offence from a long time ago? Should I tick yes on the I-94w to the
criminal record question? If no, do officials at point of entry have
access
    > to such information? Am leaning towards ticking yes and taking
my chances,
    > but I should have investigated earlier, then I could have
applied for
    > visitors visa. But now its too late as I'am leaving in a
weeks time.
    > Any advice helpful. Thanks......Bren


The reason that you have received inconsistent information is because
there does not appear to be any uniform agreement on whether or not
drunk driving is a crime involving moral turpitude.

However, you
cannot enter with the visa waiver if you select "yes" on any of the
items. If you intend to enter the United States on a visa waiver, then
you must select "no" on all of the questions on the I94W form.

If your
question is, what are the chances of the people at the POE finding out
about your drink driving charge if you haven't declared it: the answer
is they will not know unless you tell them. But that does not mean you
should do it. That's for you to figure out yourself.

Liz

Well at least YOU answered the critical question here which is, do the US
authorites have access to criminal record information in other countries? I
think not, but I don't know. Surely a categoric answer could be given by
some of the experts who frequent this NG.

Perhaps they have only limited access, for instance I am in Australia, we
are close allies with the yanks, perhaps there is a sharing arrangement in
respect of data which relates to terrorism and the like. Does anyone here,
perhaps the experts, have any idea at all of the data sharing arrangements
between the US and other countries?

Over to the experts;

Liz

L D Jones

Liz wrote:
    >
    > Well at least YOU answered the critical question here which is, do the US
    > authorites have access to criminal record information in other countries? I
    > think not, but I don't know. Surely a categoric answer could be given by
    > some of the experts who frequent this NG.

Surely only someone who works for one of agencies in the equation could
answer this with any certainty.

Liz

I don't think so, experts will have a much better but not necessarily
perfect idea of the situation, especially in such a fundamental area. On
the other hand, IMHO, if they have NO idea, then they simply aren't experts.
Lets see what they think...

Liz

CalgaryAMC

Mundane criminal records are not attached to airline passenger
manifests. The USCIS does not request criminal checks on all passengers
from UK authorities, nor does the UK volunteer them.

The US and the UK
share information regarding high level targets such as suspected
terrorists. They are not sending each other lists of people with drink
driving convictions.

I am not an expert, but I will happily suggest
that on the whole these things go completely unnoticed until someone
does something like file for an immigration benefit such as an
adjustment of status.

Agresao

CalgaryAMC <member18489@british_expats.com> wrote in message news:<>...
    > Mundane criminal records are not attached to airline passenger
    > manifests. The USCIS does not request criminal checks on all passengers
    > from UK authorities, nor does the UK volunteer them.
    >
    > The US and the UK
    > share information regarding high level targets such as suspected
    > terrorists. They are not sending each other lists of people with drink
    > driving convictions.
    >
    > I am not an expert, but I will happily suggest
    > that on the whole these things go completely unnoticed until someone
    > does something like file for an immigration benefit such as an
    > adjustment of status.

I've seen this question posted many times on this newsgroup and it
basically boils down to: Can I be caught and sent back if I check "no"
on that box when instead I should be checking "yes"?

The answer is (aside of the fact that it's never OK to lie to an
immigration officer) that they most probably won't catch you and no,
those computers don't know everything about you. However if you have
the slightest desire to ever come and live here, that little lie will
come back and haunt you and put you into very undersirable situations.
Immagine the USCIS employee working on your AOS case saying "how come
your I-485 application says wou were arrested in '98 in your home
country for drunk driving, but in '99 when you came as a tourist you
answered "no" to that question...?"

CalgaryAMC

Originally posted by Agresao
    > CalgaryAMC
<member18489@british_expats.com> wrote in message
news:<>...
    > > Mundane
criminal records are not attached to airline passenger
    > >
manifests. The USCIS does not request criminal checks on all
passengers
    > > from UK authorities, nor does the UK volunteer
them.
    > >
    > > The US and the UK
    > > share
information regarding high level targets such as suspected
    > terrorists. They are not sending each other lists of people with
drink
    > > driving convictions.
    > >
    > > I
am not an expert, but I will happily suggest
    > > that on the
whole these things go completely unnoticed until someone
    > >
does something like file for an immigration benefit such as an
    > adjustment of status.
    >
    > I've seen this question posted
many times on this newsgroup and it
    > basically boils down to: Can I
be caught and sent back if I check "no"
    > on that box when instead I
should be checking "yes"?
    >
    > The answer is (aside of the fact that
it's never OK to lie to an
    > immigration officer) that they most
probably won't catch you and no,
    > those computers don't know
everything about you. However if you have
    > the slightest desire to
ever come and live here, that little lie will
    > come back and haunt
you and put you into very undersirable situations.
    > Immagine the
USCIS employee working on your AOS case saying "how come
    > your I-485
application says wou were arrested in '98 in your home
    > country for
drunk driving, but in '99 when you came as a tourist you
    > answered
"no" to that question...?"

Absolutely right.

Ingo Pakleppa - see web site for email

If you use that standard, then by definition there are no experts, or at
least none who would admit to being one. This is something that is
inherently unknowable because some aspects of any such cooperation would
likely be classified information.

That said, the level of information sharing will vary from one country to
the next. The USA has agreements with a number of countries about sharing
passport databases, for instance. So in theory they know if you are using
a passport whose serial number has been reported as stolen from these
countries.

There are international police organizations, but how much the USA is or
is not a part of the information sharing, I can't tell you.

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 20:07:39 +0800, Liz wrote:

    > I don't think so, experts will have a much better but not necessarily
    > perfect idea of the situation, especially in such a fundamental area.
    > On the other hand, IMHO, if they have NO idea, then they simply aren't
    > experts. Lets see what they think...
    >
    > Liz