robear

Aesop, Did you guys do anything extra to try and explain yourself? Did you include an extra document that attempts to show you are reformed and no longer involved in any sort of criminality? Did you get a lawyer to help you? Thanks! Robear & Moss

Aesop, Thank you for chiming in - this is the type of encouraging story we really need, lol. I actually found out I have 3 charges from back in the day when I was under 20 - 1 possession of alcohol by a minor and 2 cannabis charges, all from year 2000 or before. The instructions for the i-129f really appear to say 'if you have 3 or more drug\alcohol charges, you are screwed.' and it has been very discouraging to be going through these efforts under such uncertainty. It appears the drug\alcohol nature of my charges could matter in a way that other charges do not - but If you dont mind, what does 'duo disposition' mean? Thank you for your very encouraging reply and have a great day!

Mam, Thank you for your advice and input. We are carefully considering which visa to apply for and your reminder was useful in again reaffirming to us that we need to decide carefully what path we take. By 'relatively poor' I mean money is tight, but I am fully prepared to allocate some funds to this pursuit - either from savings or with a loan if the amount is too high for us to pay outright. Thank you again for your input and have a great day!

Thank you for the ongoing information. As an update I was able to go to the Cook County Court Clerk's website and use the web chat to talk with someone there. They were able to look up my records with my Name, DOB and Drivers License number. They were able to provide me the case numbers for my cases, the dates, the specific charges and also a link to a PDF form to request information for each case. The PDF has a checkbox for requesting certified copies. I have not yet done the form, but will update the thread again when I have with a summary of what it entailed for future users of the site. Have a great day Edward and Jaycel.

Edward, What process did you have to go through to get the appropriate information? Were you able to just go on a county court website and download the records? Did you have to petition the court and get anything personally written? Thanks!

If you have no criminal history you have nothing to disclose so it becomes a moot point.

It is unclear if we are 'being asked' in the initial application or what stage it might be asked at, but we certainly want to do everything correctly and throw ourselves on the mercy of the process. We will have been together around a year when we apply and will have met 3 times for a total of 5-8 months together in person out of the last year. More specifically, so far it has been 9 months and I visited for a month, then she visited for the 3 months the regular tourist visa allowed. We are considering the K1 over CR1 because it will allow her to most likely be here within 7-12 months as where the CR1 looks like it could take 12 to 24 months before she can be here. Her being able to work here immediately isnt that important to us. If my criminal record makes the CR1 more likely to be a smooth process, potentially because it appears they do a background check freeing me from having to dig up these records myself from the large and likely difficult Cook County Chicago court system we are considering it also and could get married when I next visit her in October or November of this year. Thank you for taking the time to help us and best of luck on your own efforts.

Ed & Jay, Thank you for taking the time to help us clarify our requirements. As of now I am very intimidated by the process of digging up these records from Chicago Cook County where I lived in high school, but will be doing my best to go through the process starting on the upcoming Monday. Some initial research has resulted in a lot of uncertainty. One of my arrests happened while I was a minor and the other was such a small offense I am anticipating it being impossible to get the records easily. I am imagining I will be up against a very indifferent and difficult court system with the Chicago courts. Doing it without a lawyer and significant uncertainty is looking harder and harder. Additionally I now feel compelled to try and explain myself in a sort of narrative letter to the USCIS examiners, but am unsure how to do so properly as none of the general guides or YouTube videos explain how to do so, again making me feel pressure to get a potentially expensive lawyer. Hearing from some people who had similar petty charges and anything it impacted them would really put our minds at ease. Thank you again and good luck on your efforts if you are still going through the process and congratulations if you suceeded! Robear & Moss

Hey! Thank you for the input. This would be great news for us, but it seems to conflict with information we have seen on various immigration lawyer websites, and especially in the google AI auto-summaries to queries about this topic. We are currently under the impression that I need to: Disclose any criminal record even if its sealed or expunged Attempt to dig up any court records related - and... If i cannot get the records get letters from the county court and have a county clerk sign them which explain that I cannot get these records. Is that incorrect? Perhaps this only applies to the foreign fiancé, not the US citizen partitioner? My fiancé has no criminal record at all. Do you happen to know where I could find documentation referencing this topic from UCIS or other relevant agencies? Thank you for the input!

Hi! My Fiancé [New Zealand] and I [USA petitioner] are beginning our Visa Journey to bring her from New Zealand to USA. We have done a lot of research and have figured out most of the process and begun gathering information and creating our K1 application but we have one potentially serious problem which it has proven difficult to get specific information about handling, namely my old drug charges from over 25 years ago when I was in high school. These drug charges are the following: 1) (1997) Possession of Controlled Substance, Marijuana under 28 grams 2) (1998)Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (Pot Pipe). I have not yet been able to dig up the court records for these charges, but my memory is that both charges were expunged after attending 'drug school', a short 3 day out-patient drug education program. I have not been in any trouble at all since then and have had a respectable career. I can get things like letters of recommendation from scientists, engineers, law enforcement personnel and others from my personal network if this can help us. We want to try and file our own K1 application because we are relatively poor and like to DIY when possible. We are also considering the CR1 visa application process instead if it is less likely to result in these old charges being an issue, but we want to be together as soon as possible and currently believe the K1 process will be faster. If required I will take a loan to hire an immigration lawyer. Can anyone help us with stories of how they overcame similar petty offenses long in the past or potentially advice on finding more specific information or leads for a lawyer that would be experienced in such matters? Thanks so much for any help, advice or leads anyone here can offer and the best of luck on your own visa journeys! Robear & Moss