Good Moral Character Section

[Ayselin 0]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help me out a bit here.

On my I-485 application several years ago our lawyer had me check the yes box to the question "have you ever, in or outside of the US been arrested, cited, charged, indicted, fined or imprisoned for breaking or violating any law or ordinance excluding traffic violations?" due to an $100 open container ticket I had received a few years before (when I was young and stupid).

I am now filling out n-400 form without legal assistance (since I've found this site!) and have gotten to the Good Moral Character Section. I am trying to figure out how to best fill it out as the question there since they have changed slightly from the I-485.

# 16 on the n-400 says: Have you ever been arrested, cited, or detained by any law enforcement officer (including USCIS or former INS and military officers) for any reason. I assume I would say yes to this and give the same info I gave or the I-485 since they already have this info.

#17 on the n-400 asks have you ever been charged with committing a crime or offense. Would my $100 open container ticket fall into this category too, or does this only refer to more serious crimes and should I say no?

Thanks!

[HeatDeath 431]

Say yes. It's better to report something that they don't really care about than to say "No" and thereby gloss over something that might be material.

I had a traffic ticket that had a community service component to the sentence, so I reported it in full, and included all documentation. At the interview the IO said I needn't have bothered, but they fixed it.

Saying "No" when the answer is yes, particularly on a question that central to whether you qualify or not, might be material misrepresentation. So err on the side of honesty.

I'm pretty sure your open container charge is definitely an "offense", so in your shoes, I would definitely answer "Yes" there.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Agree with the above. I ticked yes to 16, 17 and 18 even though I only had a traffic citation. As I said to the IO in my interview, I wanted to be sure. She was fine with it and it wasn't an issue. She said it's better to be safe so was fine with me ticking yes.

**Edit - I will mention that by ticking that box (16) you WILL get a yellow letter asking for "proof of your arrest". This is because that question also includes the word arrest. In my interview the IO simply said something along the lines of "I see your traffic citation but that doesn't really count. We care more about criminal stuff so do you have any of that?" and I said no and could show her my citation because i had the original with me but she said "no thank you" and moved on.

Edited July 21, 2013 by VanessaTony

[HeatDeath 431]

Interesting. I did not get a yellow letter, despite ticking "Yes" on box 16.

What may have helped was I put the requested explanations of my answers to those questions in my cover letter (which concluded with a sincere apology and a plea for leniency in the determination of my moral character), and included my court-certified docket report and evidence of having completed the sentence and a copy of the citation and basically every single paper I accumulated through the whole process in my initial N-400 packet. There literally wasn't anything to bring to the interview that they didn't already have from me, by way of documentation.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Interesting. I did not get a yellow letter, despite ticking "Yes" on box 16.

What may have helped was I put the requested explanations of my answers to those questions in my cover letter (which concluded with a sincere apology and a plea for leniency in the determination of my moral character), and included my court-certified docket report and evidence of having completed the sentence and a copy of the citation and basically every single paper I accumulated through the whole process in my initial N-400 packet. There literally wasn't anything to bring to the interview that they didn't already have from me, by way of documentation.

It was probably an error on my local office's part. I explained the citation in the required section but I did NOT include anything about it. I didn't mention an arrest in the section so it was a bit weird but I do know that I freaked out so just FYI to the OP just in case