TWA884

In most states juvenile records can be obtained only with a court order.

catdogcatdog

I went to the court and oddly enough there were no records. I have a certified letter from them stating they were unable to find any record so hopefully that’s good enough. I don’t know where else to check at this point. My appointment is scheduled for Friday.

EDIT: Had my interview. Was asked if I was arrested, said yes. Asked if I was convicted of anything ever, said no. Ran fingerprints, agent said nothing came back at all. Was approved immediately. Didn't even need the letter. Quick and easy. Guess I don't have anything on record.

Erik Jacobsen

Stumbled across this thread while doing some research for an upcoming NEXUS renewal and figured I'd contribute a datapoint.

- US citizen and resident with no arrests/convictions/misdemeanors/speeding tickets/parking tickets except for the below.
- Illegally arrested in 2002 in a (very) small town in a fly-over state.
- Challenged the arrest in court and the charges were withdrawn. (I'll add my one bit of editorializing here: Small-town and fly-over police seem to have a less than clear grasp of the law and seem surprised when someone challenges their actions in court. Yes, 15 year later, it still irks me. Ok, done now.)
- Applied for NEXUS in 2013 (11 years later) and was asked the "have you ever been arrested" question by both the Canadians and the US--NOTE: This was back when you not only did separate interviews, but did the US interview on the US side of the border... then went through customs to the other side, did your interview on the other side and then went back through customs to return.
- Answered truthfully (as you ALWAYS should) that I'd been arrested ~11 years prior, but it was an illegal arrest and charges had been withdrawn.
- Canadians asked what the nature of the arrest was, and when it didn't fall into the category of a Canadian Felony, they stopped caring.
- US CBP wanted ALL the details. When I told the officer the whole story, when was half laughing at me and half rolling his eyes. I think his exact comment was "That's what you get for visiting XX state. You couldn't pay me to go there!"
- I was approved and received my NEXUS card.
- No problems entering Canada or leaving the country.
- Entering the country I kept getting flagged for additional screening (the dreaded X) and having to go to an interview room. In every case I was asked about the arrest, I provided the same answers and was eventually cleared to re-enter the US.
- I kept asking why I was getting flagged and every time, I was told: "It's just random." or "You aren't eligible for Global Entry." (Yes, I'm aware I have NEXUS... but it comes with GE and they kept confusing them.)
- FINALLY, after about 6 months of this... to the point where I was pretty fed up... a very nice secondary screening CBP officer at YYZ told me the following (as close as I can remember): Even though you are eligible for GE based on your never having been convicted, if you are arrested then your fingerprints are in the national database and our access to the database only shows that they were taken, not anything that happened after. Usually, if you were never convicted you will get flagged for secondary screening the first two to three times you use GE, but after that you should not get flagged again except randomly. If you have been flagged more than three times in a row, then you need to apply for a "demotion" to have the flag overridden.
- I called the NEXUS office that had approved me and they had no idea what a "demotion" was. But, I explained the situation and they told me I had to mail my NEXUS card, passport, court certified proof of dismissal, and the full arrest records to them so that they could review the "evidence" and determine what to do. They would not give me a time-frame or an assurance as to when OR EVEN IF I would receive ANY of the documents back. "You'll just have to send them to me and wait and see." She further told me that she could legally refuse to return any of them. Finally, she told me that she had to see the physical originals of all of them before she could decide whether to submit them to Washington DC for review.
- I was unwilling to send all that info--especially my PASSPORT--without any assurance that it would ever be returned. So, I figured that I'd just happily keep my Entering Canada and my PRECheck privileges and not worry about expedited return to the US.
- I was flying through Seattle and my connection had a major delay. On a whim, I walked by the Trusted Traveler office there and there was no wait. I explained everything, including what the CBP agent I had spoken with over the phone had told me. The CBP agent was as <redacted>ing as I was over her demand I send them to her, personally and that I had to send my NEXUS Card, Passport, etc. He told me that "the rules" in "rare" cases like mine where the automated system failed was that a simple fax of the dismissal would suffice.
- He scanned my dismissal letter and electronically uploaded it. Typed a few things and then told me that I shouldn't have the secondary screening problem any more. Total time: ~10 min. Best 10 min I've ever spent because...
- I've used GE probably 30+ times since then and never once been flagged for secondary screening.

My takeaways:
- An arrest is not enough to get you denied GE/NEXUS BUT you have to be up front about it.
- Even after being approved, you may have difficulty re-entering the US. If that happens, after your third reentry... the system is supposed to automatically remove your flag. (I think what happens is that the CBP officers see a synopsis of your explanation given at your interview and they either check "this is what s/he told me" or "gave a different story" box on the computer screen. Assuming your explanation is consistent... as it should be, you're telling the truth!... then after three verifications you get automatically unflaged.)
- Sometimes the automated system doesn't work and to fix it, go in person to a trusted traveler office with certified documentation.

Oh, and a humorous side note... I always travel with a pocket scanner for doing expense reports. The CBP office at SeaTac's scanner was constantly failing to scan the dismissal paperwork because the court printed it in light blue text on white paperwork. *facepalm* I let him use my computer to scan using my scanner the document and then email it to himself so he could then upload it. Scanners... never leave home without one!

I hope this helps some of you with questions. The real test for me will be the renewal I just submitted. Wish me luck!

catocony

I was arrested eons ago in college after a party breakup. I can't remember if the charge was disturbing the peace or what, since the cops didn't start arresting people until the 3rd complaint (and second visit). We spent a few hours in the drunk tank, then were released on PR. No fingerprints, no mugshots, nothing more than something about the size of a speeding ticket. We showed up in court the next month, the judge told us to get our heads out of our butts and if the cops come once and give a warning, shut down the party. Case dismissed, and the most that any of us (there were six of us who got arrested) ever thinks about it is the fact that one of us had to take a crap in the cell and had to use his socks for toilet paper. Then everyone else's socks since he was nervous about being arrested and went into full-on nervous stomach and spent most of four hours or so on the crapper.

Many people are in this boat. I've never had it come up on a basic background check before, but I always assumed those just did a basic criminal search (convictions and active warrants). I wonder how the GE guys handle those types of things? No prints or other evidence, no bail forms or anything, charges dismissed without no fuss.

TWA884

That sounds like an excessively prolonged detention rather than an arrest. A formal arrest involves a booking process which includes the taking of mugshots and fingerprints. The prints are then entered into statewide and nationwide databases. Based upon my experience as a lawyer who has handled numerous criminal cases, it would appear that the case may have been a prosecutor's reject and was not even filed. Folks regularly show up in court pursuant to a notice to appear after they were released from jail only to find their names on the list of cases that were not filed.

catocony

Who knows, it was a college town, so there was/is a lot of the usual. Drunk in public, noise violations, disturbing the peace, the occasional fist fight, things like that.

CMK10

Just report it on your application and I'm sure you'll be fine. Always assume they know about such things and just explain it to them like you did to us and there's a 99% chance it won't affect you.

Based on my experience as a lawyer this could easily be an arrest. Every jurisdiction does things differently, sometimes there are more formalities, sometimes there are less. If it's a college town it might very well be less.

BSBD

As Erik Jacobsen says above, if you are granted GE with a prior record, you will get the dreaded "X" for the first 6 months. Absent any new issues, it's supposed to be automatically removed (Demotion) after six months - mine was. If you still get it after 6 months (I was told it is time-based, not based on the number of reentries), you must visit a CBP office and ask for Demotion to be manually entered.

I was charged with failure to appear because a substitute judge wrote an incorrect date on the form I was given when I was granted a continuance for a DUI arrest. The charge was dismissed, and I was told it was removed from my record. When I went for my GE interview, they showed me that it was still there (along with the dismissal, fortunately).

OTOH, the DUI conviction (32 years ago) that the continuance was for, that I disclosed to CBP which resulted in an initial GE denial, did NOT show up. I was denied based on my disclosure, not on any actual conviction. A subsequent State criminal background check showed no convictions, and that was enough to get the CBP Ombudsman to grant GE

I recommend that anyone with distant-past convictions who is interested in GE should request a criminal background check prior to applying, just to see what is actually in your record. You might be surprised at what you (don't) find.

TWA884

From the Global Entry - processing time thread:

nsummy

This sounds like it may have been a city ordinance that you violated. In college we would get disorderly house tickets almost every time we had a party. They were expensive but akin to a parking ticket in the sense that they didn't get sent through the county or state court system. If you didn't get fingerprinted I think there is a good chance that this would not show up in any database.

rushjc

I think the theme of this thread is basically YMMV depending on details and definitely depending on the officer doing the interview. Here is my set of data points just to add to the pile.

I researched extensively here and elsewhere before applying for GE because I do have an arrest from less than 10 years ago, and while the charges were ultimately reduced and the case subsequently discharged, sealed from the public court index, and expunged from my record, the original charge was QUITE serious and would raise the eyebrows of even the most career-numbed CBP officer.

After reading this and other threads, I decided to apply anyhow since it's a covered benefit of my credit card so no cost to me. However, also because I read these threads and stories of people being surprised at their interview, I decided to do both federal (FBI Fingerprint check) and state checks on myself just to make sure they came back clean. I knew that law enforcement is still able to see things in most cases even if it is sealed/expunged for all other purposes, but if they came back clean for me that would mean it's very likely that the case disposition was correct in both the state and federal databases. They did indeed come back clean. ^^

My interview appointment was originally ~3 months out, but I used the suggested trick of logging into GOES and using the reschedule appointment feature to keep refreshing the calendar throughout the day. Within 2 hours of checking 4x/hr., I had an appointment in just 3 DAYS. SCORE! ^^

I was actually quite shocked at how easy it was because the CBP officer actually photographed and fingerprinted me right away and explained that this is how I will be identified *WHEN* I come into the country using Global Entry. Based on everything I read here, I assumed this would come at the end and only if I was approved. Well, apparently this officer had already decided I was approved before asking me any questions. @:-)@:-)

He just asked if I had ever used another name - No. Had I ever violated any customs laws in any country - No. Had I traveled to Canada or Mexico in the past 5 years - Yes. And then it came....have you ever been arrested - Yes (no further elaboration). He asked when that happened, I said I believed it was 2009 (I really didn't recall). He said how about 2010..or maybe the case was resolved in 2010? I said that's probably correct but that the case was discharged, sealed, and expunged...hopefully it shows that in your system. He said yes, he already knew everything he needed to know before asking.

He then handed me the paper with the KTN, explained how the entry process works, congratulated me on approval, shook my hand, and sent me on my way. Approval confirmed in GOES by the time I hit the parking lot.

I came prepared for everything from minimal explanation to full re-litigation of the facts of the case to its resolution given the seriousness of the charge that went with the arrest. I had paperwork ready if asked. Absolutely none of that was needed...not even minimal explanation.

Again, YMMV, but for anyone who is on the fence about applying I would just say that if your case resolution is correct in the state/federal databases, you might just be approved as painlessly as I was this week. It is worth the time and cost to investigate yourself in advance though if there's any doubt. For me, it gave me peace of mind going into the interview to know that as far as FBI/State databases were concerned, I was clean.

Happy flying! ^^^^^^

1KChinito

Thank you for sharing. Excellent advise.

Newbie2FT

As part of the change from GOES to TTP, CBP has added some more guidance about which past police interactions require additional documentation at interviews.

They now state that the act of being fingerprinted is the dividing line. (This conflicts with some on-the-ground reports, IIRC, from applicants who were only cited and not fingerprinted, but were asked for disposition paperwork.)

More discussion on the changes is here:

Significant changes in GE, NEXUS, SENTRI application procedures with new TTP site

wallop

Good Morning Ladies and Gents

I have been a lurker and its my first post, I am hoping if someone can give me advice.

Recently I have been involved in a horrible situation, Me and my girlfriend was visiting the states, One morning we was arguing in our hotel room, someone called the police and I was taken to the station and arrested for Domestic assault and battery! Which was absolute nonsense as this was a verbal argument, in which she was doing most of the shouting. Anyway a few months passed I was scheduled for a pre trail conference to which my presence was waived as i am a UK citizen, I still attended this court date as i wanted to clear my name. Upon arrival it was clear the DA wanted to push the case as she want to explore CCTV 911 recordings witnesses and injuries, all of which there wasn't any. They tried to offer me a plea deal for a lessor charge, which I rejected because i am not guilty of anything so my attorney scheduled the case for trial.

My trial was a few weeks ago, I turned up and the DA told the judge she wasn't ready for trial and the case was dismissed immediately. for months of my life put on hold, a massive financial burden and this was over within about 30 seconds. (the past few months has been a punishment in itself.)

I must state, I pleaded not guilty, the case was dismissed outright, with no follow up or anything.

Here is my problem.

I am a captain for an international airline where we fly to the states at least 4/5 months per month. Every time i arrive to the states I now have to go to secondary inspection. its starting to become a massive issue, to the point i might have to give up my career. I could understand if I did anything wrong but we had a argument and thats as good as it got.

To try and mitigate this issue, I have applied for global entry, is it likely I will be rejected? This is the first time I have been arrested, i stated on the application I was arrested, the case was dismissed and I have the paperwork to support this.

Long shot: If I was accepted would this potentially stop me from going to secondary inspection?

Also, has anyone got any advice on how i could try and get the flag removed from my visa so I could continue to go through immigration as normal? I currently hold a C1/D and B1/B2 visa.

Any help/advice would be gratefully appreciated. I'm literally desperate and fighting for my career.

Regards

pa3lsvt

My situation exactly - trumped up false DV charges filed by a detective eager to "arrest a bad guy" without getting to the bottom of the situation. The DA pushed for a plea deal, I demanded a trial, and the DA withdrew the charges at the last minute before trial.

I was approved for Global Entry, and subsequently NEXUS. I was asked about the charges by an agent during both processes and my answer was, "I was charged with assault and related charges, but they were all eventually dropped."

All CBP needed was documentation that the charges were dropped, and they could see 5 of the 6 (dropped at trial, just like yours) in the computer records.

My last charge was dropped at the preliminary hearing, and that wasn't in the records for interviewing agent so I had to get a copy of that docket from the court before I could be approved. I was approved less than 5 minutes after faxing the docket over and would have been approved at the interview if I had that paperwork in hand.

Just make sure you have a printed copy of the court docket(s) that show the disposition (nolle prosequi perhaps) of all charges and you are good to go.

P.S. On my application, I checked "NO" when asked if I was convicted of any crime. The charges showed up when the criminal records check was performed, of course, but nobody ever had any issue with my application's answers. The concern by the agencies was documenting the dismissal of the charges, as any open charges are disqualifying events for GE. Dismissed charges are not disqualifying events.