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Travelling from the UK to the USA with a criminal record

Ok, here's my story / query. About 13 years ago, I was caught with a prostitute in my car, received a summons, to which I pleaded guilty by post and was fined around £200. It is my one transgression of the law and, as everyone said at the time, was completely out of character. I have since applied for jobs where a CRB check is required and it shows up on a CRB. (I currently work in one of those jobs, the other knocked me back.) At the time of the offence, I was employed in a role requiring a license, the eligibility for which included a clean criminal record. However, my license was not revoked, I managed to keep my job, career, wife, house and car, (not that I deserved it, the only thing I couldn't face losing was my wife, everything else was expendable) as everyone supported me as I was going through what was the lowest point of my life. As the name suggests, I am deeply ashamed of what I did and would never consider it now.
Later this year, my wife and I want to go to Vegas for a two week holiday. Although I realise that prostitution is illegal in Carson County (where Vegas is situated), 75% of counties in Nevada State allow brothels, with 8 of the 12 actually having active brothels (the other four counties permit it by law but have no brothels operating.)

Bearing this in mind, is there a case for claiming that my conviction should not preclude me from visiting the US, as what I did is actually legal in some States, so cannot be considered as being a crime of 'moral terpitude'? If so, should I go down the 'waiver' route and plead my case on arrival, or should I apply for a visa and make my case then? This is killing me. After a decade of rebuilding my life and marriage, my one mustake is back to haunt me again and, more importantly, dig up all the long-buried ill-feelings in our relationship.
 
It boils down to the same thing: you either fess up and put your trip in the hands of the Gods (or rather the morality of the officer who deals with your case) or you chance your arm and not declare it.

As has been explained, US customs are only ever likely to investigate your case is you arouse suspicion on entry.
 
Seeing as this thread has been bumped, I am going to post again what I posted in August because of the flurry of PMs I've had recently from randoms. Even if you send me a really, really nice PM, my advice isn't going to change and I can't be arsed to reply to each of you individually.

Look, this is all very simple. If you want to be turned back at immigration, declare on the ESTA. If you don't, don't. They really don't have the database from hell where they can cross reference every time you smoked a spliff.

You are the very last person I'm telling this to because after seven fucking years of people joining the boards to ask this question and for no other reason I have entirely lost patience. Read the sodding board. The answer is there. It's not going to change however much the nitty gritty details of your question do.
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Apropos of nothing this thread is 3rd in Google search results for the query "travelling to the US with a criminal record"!
 
TruXta said:
Apropos of nothing this thread is 3rd in Google search results for the query "travelling to the US with a criminal record"!
Click to expand...
Ahh that would explain it :facepalm: Incidentally, I didn't think you could PM people if you just joined the boards - thought it was restricted like access to the community forums? :confused:
 
I've been looking into my options a bit further. Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (US legislation) states the following:

"(A person) will not be ineligible for a visa if only one crime involving moral terpitude has been committed and if...

ii) the maximum penalty possible did not exceed imprisonment for 1 year and if convicted, sentence did not exceed six months."

So, if I go the honest route and apply for a visa, my circumstances suggest that, although I wont automatically get a visa, the time elapsed, lack of further conviction and the fact that the maximum penalty was a £1000 fine, I could successfully apply for a 'waiver of ineligibility'; a slow process and no doubt will cost more as I have to apply for Police Certificates and stuff but would offer a reassurance that I'm not going to get bounced at the border.

On the other hand, anecdotal evidence would suggest that it would just be easier to front it out with an ESTA.
 
My post is a tad different ive noticed people talking about boarding a plane ect .. but my problem is i live in england but i have family in canada. I am planning a trip in march where I am staying in canada for a month and takeing a road trip down to Arizona (America). I havnt had a problem getting into Canada before but I do have a criminal record which i thought would have been wiped off at 18 it was nothing major was a silly school girl fight when i was 13/14 but it ended in me getting arrested and i was on repromand which i thought was just a caution and wouldnt cause me any future problems only to find when i applied for a care job it did come up in my crb check (which didnt stop me getting the job). But it has made me very paranoid about my trip to Arizona. We will be entering by car from canada has anyone got any advice or information as I dont know anything about what they will ask or if they give you a chance to declare it like when boarding a plane. Your replies will be much appreciated x
 
what if you do have a criminal record for robbery or something but they say you dont have to mention it when looking for a job and its gona get clear when you turn 16
 
DeeplyAshamed said:
Ok, here's my story / query. About 13 years ago, I was caught with a prostitute in my car, received a summons, to which I pleaded guilty by post and was fined around £200. It is my one transgression of the law and, as everyone said at the time, was completely out of character. I have since applied for jobs where a CRB check is required and it shows up on a CRB. (I currently work in one of those jobs, the other knocked me back.) At the time of the offence, I was employed in a role requiring a license, the eligibility for which included a clean criminal record. However, my license was not revoked, I managed to keep my job, career, wife, house and car, (not that I deserved it, the only thing I couldn't face losing was my wife, everything else was expendable) as everyone supported me as I was going through what was the lowest point of my life. As the name suggests, I am deeply ashamed of what I did and would never consider it now.
Later this year, my wife and I want to go to Vegas for a two week holiday. Although I realise that prostitution is illegal in Carson County (where Vegas is situated), 75% of counties in Nevada State allow brothels, with 8 of the 12 actually having active brothels (the other four counties permit it by law but have no brothels operating.)

Bearing this in mind, is there a case for claiming that my conviction should not preclude me from visiting the US, as what I did is actually legal in some States, so cannot be considered as being a crime of 'moral terpitude'? If so, should I go down the 'waiver' route and plead my case on arrival, or should I apply for a visa and make my case then? This is killing me. After a decade of rebuilding my life and marriage, my one mustake is back to haunt me again and, more importantly, dig up all the long-buried ill-feelings in our relationship.
Click to expand...

Please let us know how you get on
 
ImaChild15 said:
what if you do have a criminal record for robbery or something but they say you dont have to mention it when looking for a job and its gona get clear when you turn 16
Click to expand...

US immigration does not recognise the rehabilitation of offenders thing, a conviction is never unspent as far as they are concerned.
 
yeh - whatever you say on twitter, say nothing which will imply you will in any way, shape or form might harbour any intent to injure the united states, even to the level of not walking on the grass in the wilderness
 
Hi , i wonder if anyone can help.

Im looking to visit the US at some point but when i was in my early twenties (some twenty years ago ) , i was arrested for cashing my own cheques without funds whilst backpacking through Australia . I was arrested and held in remand for six months whilst the case came to court whereupon i was found guilty and deported . On returning i stayed in a flat where the electricity was being effectively stolen , i was given a warning by the police and fingerprints taken.
From my understanding of "moral turpitude " both of these are examples of that. Do i have any chance of getting a visa for access to the US ?
 
n.pty said:
Hi , i wonder if anyone can help.

Im looking to visit the US at some point but when i was in my early twenties (some twenty years ago ) , i was arrested for cashing my own cheques without funds whilst backpacking through Australia . I was arrested and held in remand for six months whilst the case came to court whereupon i was found guilty and deported . On returning i stayed in a flat where the electricity was being effectively stolen , i was given a warning by the police and fingerprints taken.
From my understanding of "moral turpitude " both of these are examples of that. Do i have any chance of getting a visa for access to the US ?
Click to expand...

You havent read the thread have you? Keep ya fuckimng mouth shut and no one will ever know. Apply for a visa on the otherhand and disclose the information and they will know!
 
Last time I went to the USA I worked out they had no clue whether I was currently employed or not, or what my job was likely to be. The chances of them knowing about youthful endeavours in foreign climes are pretty much zero.
 
n.pty said:
Hi , i wonder if anyone can help.

Im looking to visit the US at some point but when i was in my early twenties (some twenty years ago ) , i was arrested for cashing my own cheques without funds whilst backpacking through Australia . I was arrested and held in remand for six months whilst the case came to court whereupon i was found guilty and deported . On returning i stayed in a flat where the electricity was being effectively stolen , i was given a warning by the police and fingerprints taken.
From my understanding of "moral turpitude " both of these are examples of that. Do i have any chance of getting a visa for access to the US ?
Click to expand...


I wish it was as simple as simply keeping my mouth shut now , but unfortunately a few years back i applied for a visa and admitted to moral turpitude (stupid i know ) , i was advised to apply for a visa. Will the fact it was so long ago and i have a clean bill of "moral health " make a difference now or is the fact they dont recognise the rehabilitation of offenders act make my planned trip a non starter?

Thanks for your posts already.
 
There are thousands of people arrested every day in the UK. In 2006 alone some 1.5 MILLION people were arrested in the UK (see here http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/arrests-for-recorded-crime-england-and-wales.pdf) some guilty some not, those proven innocent are treated in the same way as those found guilty - harsh. The 1.5 million figure does not include Scotland and Northern Ireland, every arrest results in either no admission to the US or difficult admission to the US. If you really do want to visit the USA and you have been arrested then you will need to apply for a visa, you will need an ACPO police certificate to show your arrest details (look up ACPO in a search engine), the US embassy will want to see this. Then it's down to waiting for a decision, don't book your holiday until you know you can go. If you are denied a visa then someone in the US visa office has decided you are a risk to the US or / and its people. And it does not end there, because if you have a visa you stand a greater chance of drawing attention to yourself on arriving at the port of entry, the final decision as to whether you can take your holiday in the US or not is down to one person at the gate. It’s not black and white, it’s not cut and dry, it’s down to a few disparate individuals making decisions. The monsters that want to hurt the USA for no good reason are not likely to send people with records of arrest to the US, they are more likely to send fanatics with clean slates, they’re evil, not stupid. Don’t continue to let this hurt you, research the whole of the rest of the world, and find new and exciting places outside of America.
 
n.pty said:
I wish it was as simple as simply keeping my mouth shut now , but unfortunately a few years back i applied for a visa and admitted to moral turpitude ...
Click to expand...

When you applied for the visa you would have sent them your passport.

When you got your passport back, what did they say?

If there is a stamp in your passport (usually says something like "US Embassy Application Recieved .... (Date)" and no visa, you'll have a problem.
 
Jason West said:
There are thousands of people arrested every day in the UK. In 2006 alone some 1.5 MILLION people were arrested in the UK (see here http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/arrests-for-recorded-crime-england-and-wales.pdf) some guilty some not, those proven innocent are treated in the same way as those found guilty - harsh. The 1.5 million figure does not include Scotland and Northern Ireland, every arrest results in either no admission to the US or difficult admission to the US. If you really do want to visit the USA and you have been arrested then you will need to apply for a visa, you will need an ACPO police certificate to show your arrest details (look up ACPO in a search engine), the US embassy will want to see this. Then it's down to waiting for a decision, don't book your holiday until you know you can go. If you are denied a visa then someone in the US visa office has decided you are a risk to the US or / and its people. And it does not end there, because if you have a visa you stand a greater chance of drawing attention to yourself on arriving at the port of entry, the final decision as to whether you can take your holiday in the US or not is down to one person at the gate. It’s not black and white, it’s not cut and dry, it’s down to a few disparate individuals making decisions. The monsters that want to hurt the USA for no good reason are not likely to send people with records of arrest to the US, they are more likely to send fanatics with clean slates, they’re evil, not stupid. Don’t continue to let this hurt you, forget them, they’re becoming as fanatical as the people they’re trying to protect themselves from, research the whole of the rest of the world, and find new and exciting places outside of America.
Click to expand...
Or alternatively, you could just lie. Given that the US don't have access to the millions and millions of records of people who have ever been arrested in the UK.

But thanks for drawing everyone's attention to 'the monsters who want to hurt the US for no good reason' :hmm:
 
Jason West said:
There are thousands of people arrested every day in the UK. In 2006 alone some 1.5 MILLION people were arrested in the UK (see here http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/arrests-for-recorded-crime-england-and-wales.pdf) some guilty some not, those proven innocent are treated in the same way as those found guilty - harsh. The 1.5 million figure does not include Scotland and Northern Ireland, every arrest results in either no admission to the US or difficult admission to the US. If you really do want to visit the USA and you have been arrested then you will need to apply for a visa, you will need an ACPO police certificate to show your arrest details (look up ACPO in a search engine), the US embassy will want to see this. Then it's down to waiting for a decision, don't book your holiday until you know you can go. If you are denied a visa then someone in the US visa office has decided you are a risk to the US or / and its people. And it does not end there, because if you have a visa you stand a greater chance of drawing attention to yourself on arriving at the port of entry, the final decision as to whether you can take your holiday in the US or not is down to one person at the gate. It’s not black and white, it’s not cut and dry, it’s down to a few disparate individuals making decisions. The monsters that want to hurt the USA for no good reason are not likely to send people with records of arrest to the US, they are more likely to send fanatics with clean slates, they’re evil, not stupid. Don’t continue to let this hurt you, forget them, they’re becoming as fanatical as the people they’re trying to protect themselves from, research the whole of the rest of the world, and find new and exciting places outside of America.
Click to expand...

Do you work for the US embassy per chance??

I
 
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