Has Anyone Applied For A Us Visa Because They Have Been Arrested In The Past?

Robert5988

alanrowell wrote:

Mention conviction to most people & they would associate it with a court appearance not a speeding fine.

Alanrowell
That may be so - and you obviously thought so - but if you are correct in that assumption then "most people" are wrong.

Look at Insurance Company proposal forms. 'Have you any convictions in the last 5 years?' Would you suggest you put "no" if you had speeding and other offences.

Before the introduction of the fixed penalty fine, all offences were dealt with by a court - speeding, parking etc (I know of someone fined 5 shillings for riding a bike with no lights) and you were convicted.

If you currently plead not guilty to a parking or speeding offence(or even riding a bike with no lights) you can go to court and are convicted if your plea fails.

Are you suggesting these need a Visa?

donnie_darko_3

I had mentioned before that i had been arrested ok time to confess i was charged with theft got a conditional discharge (1985) did not declare it on my visa waiver but got in. Lucky maybe?

Baz_Bee_2

donnie_darko wrote:

I had mentioned before that i had been arrested ok time to confess i was charged with theft got a conditional discharge (1985) did not declare it on my visa waiver but got in. Lucky maybe?

The Visa Waiver Form asks for your passport number but apart from that it does not ask for your home address or any other similar information. Your Passport does not contain your home address. The Passport Application Form only requires your current home address, not previous addresses. You do not have to divulge when applying for a Passport any convictions and/or charges you may have. So if you have moved address since being arrested or being convicted I am not sure how the US Authorities would be able to associate you with being an undesirable anyway from the information that they may have available?

I consider that those who have been turned away have probably caused the problem themselves by doing or saying something that has aroused suspicion. In my view unless you let the US Immigration people know that you should not be travelling on the Visa Waiver programme then the chances of being sent back are negligible unless you are a suspected terrorist. To make an association the Passport Office would need to feed all the data from an application form in to the Police National Computer and/or the Courts' systems to check whether the applicant had a record and/or been charged at anytime. They would also, in order to ensure its accuracy, have to have all your information regarding previous addresses, etc. They do not have this information, and in any case if they were doing this I am sure we would know about it. The Passport Office IT sytems are bad enough trying to just deal with Passport Applications let alone getting them to talk to every other UK Agencies IT systems that may hold appropriate and relevant data on you.

So, I would say that from the information available to them there is not a cat in hells chance of the US Immigration Service being able to know anything about you unless they have the information themselves, our security services have clandetinely provided it, or you have let it slip. Of course, you may also just be plain unlucky and they will send you back regardless just because they do not like your name, the way you are dressed, what you are reading or the Officer concerned has had a bad day and just does not like you.

My experience of most US systems is that they are as inefficient, or may be even more so than ours ,and the people working with them are are no better. Put our systems with their systems and they have little to no chance of getting any info about you. This is all just scare tactics to worry people in to divulging their information. Because of course, once you have given it to them they have you in their system and your are stuffed for the future. So keep stoom and tell them nothing.

bj-sailaway

Wow, Baz_Bee!!! You are of course stating what we all suspect, but how can we be so sure. What if we haven't moved address? Others have stated that the US has access to the National Police computer system, therefore they would have access to our records surely? I can't see how they would get our details but there is always still that fear! Which, yes, you are right, they prey on!

Would really like to hear comments from anyone who has been questioned at the airport. Someone said they were questioned when travelling to be married, but got let in, how did they get your details?

JayS_3

I'm worried about this too.

I have not been arrested or have any convictions or, indeed, anything; but on two separate occasions on arriving in America (pre 9/11) I was asked if I had ever been to Jamica.

I assume they have on their computer records someone with my name/date of birth etc with a problem that would stop them getting in to America.

However, with their heightened security and restrictions, and the fact we holidayed in Jamaica two years ago, I think I may be singled out at the airport. I would hate to be interrogated and sent home, spoiling the rest of the holiday for the family who, presumably, would be able to enter and holiday.

My husband thinks we should apply for a visa over here to clear this up before we travel, does anyone else have any suggestions?

Regards,
JayS

Baz_Bee_2

bj-sailaway wrote:

Wow, Baz_Bee!!! You are of course stating what we all suspect, but how can we be so sure. What if we haven't moved address? Others have stated that the US has access to the National Police computer system, therefore they would have access to our records surely? I can't see how they would get our details but there is always still that fear! Which, yes, you are right, they prey on!

Would really like to hear comments from anyone who has been questioned at the airport. Someone said they were questioned when travelling to be married, but got let in, how did they get your details?

Perhaps someone should ask the Police/Home Office/Foreign Office what information upon individuals is made avaialble to foreign governments/agencies.

Surely this should now be provided under the Freedom of Information Act

alanrowell

Others have stated that the US has access to the National Police computer system

They have been given information by the UK government, so whilst they don't have direct access to the information, they do know what is on it.

Baz_Bee_2

alanrowell wrote:

They have been given information by the UK government, so whilst they don't have direct access to the information, they do know what is on it.

Perhaps you can give us some information as to where we can find coroboration of this? I do not believe that they have been given access to this information, although they have been given certain access rights to infornmation held by Interpol!

alanrowell

A couple of years ago the the US Embassy in London accidently mentioned that the US / UK did have an agreement, this seems to be only indirect reference to it I can find.

I did however find several references from EU websites to an EU wide proposal for sharing of all criminal database information with the US.

Point is people have been turned back - even for offences that happened in their youth, so it does seem virtually certain that the US can view some of the information.

Baz_Bee_2

alanrowell wrote:

A couple of years ago the the US Embassy in London accidently mentioned that the US / UK did have an agreement, this seems to be only indirect reference to it I can find.

I did however find several references from EU websites to an EU wide proposal for sharing of all criminal database information with the US.

Point is people have been turned back - even for offences that happened in their youth, so it does seem virtually certain that the US can view some of the information.

I think this probably comes from the same source that suggested Iraq had weapons of mass destruction ready to be set upon us within a few minutes.

Very few, if any, people have been sent back for minor/trivial offenses unless they fall within the definition of “moral turpitude” (http://www.uslegalforms.com/lawdigest/legal-definitions.php/US/US-MORAL_TURPITUDE.htm). Those that have will generally have been unlucky or caused the suspicion themselves because of waht they say or the way that they act/behave or will have been flagged on a computer often because they share a name or something similar to a known/suspected person that the US is worried about.