Two CIMT crimes well over 10 years ago...SOL or is there a chance?

[crosstheborder 0]

I've been reading here quite a bunch and you lot are amazing.  I just registered to ask after synthesizing all of the information I can get my hands on here.

 

Up front, let me say that we are engaging the services of a lawyer but finding a qualified one who is available in our area has been difficult.  We are in the jurisdiction of the Seattle field office.

 

My spouse has been a green card holder/permanent resident for, oh...a long time.  Over two decades, since a young age.  I am a US citizen but Spouse has been a permanent resident since before we met.  Now, we're thinking on naturalization and have hit what seems to be a huge pot hole.  Prior to our being married, Spouse was given a deferred sentence (in a southern state, not the one where we have lived for some time) for the state felony crime of credit card abuse.  I presume that the circumstances surrounding the charge and sentence are not important (e.g. what happened and why Spouse was also taken advantage of); the important part is that it is a "conviction" for USCIS purposes.  Fast forward some years and Spouse was charged and plead guilty to a 2nd level misdemeanor crime of theft over $50.  Again, circumstances and all (were it me, I would have gone to trial or had my attorney push harder for a lesser charge plea on the basis of other information but, not my business), and this really is a conviction.

 

It has been quite some time...8 or 10 years since the most recent incident.  However, both of these are, so far as I can tell, crimes involving moral turpitude (CIMT?).  My layperson reading of the relevant law is that Spouse is outside the "good moral character" timeframe but USCIS can consider the entire time Spouse has been a LPR because of the two crimes.  Also, since both are CIMT, Spouse also appears to be deportable on that basis...so raising a hand and asking to be naturalized seems fraught with peril.

 

Spouse has been a person of good moral character since the last incident (and, I maintain, before, but that's not for any of us to decide, now is it?) and has done things like started a small business and done small charity work and all that.  I don't know if these things would help but I figure they can't hurt.

 

So, I put it to you, denizens of Visajourney: is there a chance for Spouse to be naturalized?

 

Thank you.

[Boiler 45,693]

I am going to guess a Lawyer will tell him to keep low and not to travel outside the US.

[broppy 204]

2 hours ago, Boiler said:

I am going to guess a Lawyer will tell him to keep low and not to travel outside the US.

A good lawyer will charge $$$ and find a path to naturalization - a mediocre one will charge $$$ and offer hope. In the mean time, keep low and don't travel outside the US.