Do I have any impact at port of entry with new immigration and travel rules due to past criminal record.


sri12

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I was arrested with Class A misdemeanor offence with charges of court supervision and penalty. After disposition of court supervision reached, case was dismissed and criminal charge qualified as petty offense. I traveled out of country and attended H1 visa interview. I was asked regarding past arrest record during visa interview and then got H1 visa stamped. While returning to US my H1 visa is cancelled during pre clearance. I was deported saying I'm ineligible for visa and need to apply for waiver by CBP officer who misunderstood my arrest as felony. I didn't carry certificate of disposition and supporting documents to say arrest wasn't felony but petty offense.

After returning back to home country, I spoke to immigration and criminal attorneys. I was told I am eligible for visa and don't require waiver. I again attended visa interview and explained about h1 visa cancellation and incident happened at pre clearance to visa officer and got H1 visa stamped. I didn't have any problem at port of entry second time and carried all the documents.

I need to travel out of country now. I am concerned with new immigration and travel rules. Could you let me know if I have any impact and do I need to carry any additional documents.

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  • 1 year later...
On 6/5/2017 at 7:29 PM, sri12 said:

I was arrested with Class A misdemeanor offence with charges of court supervision and penalty. After disposition of court supervision reached, case was dismissed and criminal charge qualified as petty offense. I traveled out of country and attended H1 visa interview. I was asked regarding past arrest record during visa interview and then got H1 visa stamped. While returning to US my H1 visa is cancelled during pre clearance. I was deported saying I'm ineligible for visa and need to apply for waiver by CBP officer who misunderstood my arrest as felony. I didn't carry certificate of disposition and supporting documents to say arrest wasn't felony but petty offense.

After returning back to home country, I spoke to immigration and criminal attorneys. I was told I am eligible for visa and don't require waiver. I again attended visa interview and explained about h1 visa cancellation and incident happened at pre clearance to visa officer and got H1 visa stamped. I didn't have any problem at port of entry second time and carried all the documents.

I need to travel out of country now. I am concerned with new immigration and travel rules. Could you let me know if I have any impact and do I need to carry any additional documents.

Hi,

 

i am in in similar situation, charged for misdemeanor falls under petty offense exception and planning to go for h1 stamping. Can you please your visa experience for stamping.

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17 hours ago, Noah Lott said:

Do not lie on your application about any arrest.....even if the crime committed did not rise to a CIMT, if you lie on the application form, you can expect a many week delay in visa approval/issuance because now the CO has NO reason to believe anything else you write or say, and the case could disappear for administrative processing, and that delay could be long....when applicants lied to me (when applying for an H1b; thus I could not refuse them under 214b for the most part), I instead set the case aside under 221g and launched a thorough investigation of the entire case, from start to finish....average completion time (some years ago) = 9 weeks. Think about that much delay, brought on only by yourself if you try to be clever. I did not care how many phone calls or letters I received about the case (most of which I did not even have to answer, and if some congressman or senator wrote, I only had to provide a response within 3 days; I did not have to expedite processing in any way, shape or form, and just write some standard blah blah letter telling said legislator that the case required additional processing, yaddy-yaddy and that was the end of that. 

Do not lie.

ok, thanks for info. Do you think single petty theft conviction bar me to get successful h1 stamping? 

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9 hours ago, Noah Lott said:

No, as long as it was indeed a one time   petty theft conviction, but do not lie about it, because your fingerprints will match the record that the CO can access to some degree. Lying about it cannot possibly help; it could only cause delays...so don't try to be clever..if the CO asks for details, provide them and do not try to blame someone else for whatever happened...because it is all too easy to put a case into administrative processing....which can last quite a while...

Ok, Thanks a lot for the information. 

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