Do you report a 'minor in consumption'?

[Lucie12345 0]

My husband went to college in America, and while he was here, when he was 20, was cited with a minor in consumption.

When we were filling out the I-485, it asks have you "been arrested, cited, charged, indicted, fined or imprisoned for breaking or violating any law or ordinance, excluding traffic violations?"

He was fined, so we checked yes, but then when we were looking at the documentation to include from the general filing instructions, we couldn't find anything that applied, because it only asked for evidence from arrests, detainments, or convictions.

He doesn't have any documentation of the incident, doesn't know who fined him or how to get this information.

Does anyone have any advice? Thanks!

Edited May 7, 2008 by Lucie12345

[lynie 0]

I don't really have a concrete answer for you, but we were in a similar situation. Hubby was arrested when he was 14 for stealing a bathing suit. No charges were filed, and his record has since been purged. We couldn't get a record of the purge (a purge is a purge according to the RCMP in Canada - it's GONE) - and we couldn't get anything from the court saying the charges were dropped since charges were never filed. What we did was attach a statement to the I-485 saying exactly what happened, and why we couldn't get any documentation. Hubby signed the statement and we had it notarized (not that a notary really means anything, but I work with notaries and we figured it couldn't hurt).

The honest answer to the question the form asks, in both our instances, is yes - so I would answer yes. And if there's no documentation you can obtain from the local police, just explain in an attachment to the form what your situation is. But maybe someone else has a better answer...

Good luck!

[pj1959us 0]

We ran into this situation when adjusting Dawn's status because she received a citation shortly after she got here.

We included all the documents we could (the citation, proof of payment, email from the clerk showing the incident closed) but still received an RFE. We ended up contacting the clerk's office; she tried to tell us there was nothing else to provide. After a bit of extra prompting, we were able to get a letter from the city attorney on their letterhead explaining he held the position of prosecuting for the city and that there were no court documents, etc to provide because the incident was closed after the fine was paid, etc. After sending that it seemed to satisfy them and her AOS was processed shortly after receiving the letter.

Hope that helps,

PJ