Hi northpark,
Thanks for your question!
Google Answers cannot give you strict legal advice, as seen in the
disclaimer at the bottom of the page. However, I will do my best to
help you with advice on your situation.
If you have not received the summons by mail yet, you should wait
another few weeks (in case the city had a backlog) and then call the
NYPD/City of New York (there should be a number or address on the back
of your ticket) to confirm whether or not your summons has been
mailed. While it might be tempting to just ignore the non-mailed
summons and hope that it was never actually issued, the consequences
for ignoring a summons are higher than the penalties for the actual
summons. Ignoring a summons will result in a warrant being issued for
your arrest, and that would cause many more problems for you beyond
the original citation. Ignoring the summons could result in the
following:
http://www.queensdefense.com/outofstatesum.htm
"On the other hand, if you ignore a pink summons, a Warrant will issue
for your arrest. Now does this mean that the SWAT team will be
blasting down your door in California the next day? Not very likely.
First, if you endure background checks for employment, you may
discover that your boss is told that you have a warrant for some
offense in New York City and that you must clear it up.
Second, if you ever visit New York City, and if you have any
interaction with the police (including traffic ticket) a warrant check
will reveal your warrant and could turn a simple speeding ticket into
a night in jail.
Third, if you travel by airplane internationally, it is possible that
the warrant will appear as you attempt to reenter the country and it
could cause you considerable grief, although ultimately it would
probably be resolved."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The most important question-- how will this affect your visa application?
First of all, a US employer will be sponsoring you for the H1B visa.
That employer might choose to conduct a background check, in which
case this citation could come up. (I explain later why this is
probably not a worry.) In addition, if the US deems that your area of
employment is of "national security interest," the US government could
decide to conduct a background check on you and this violation could
come up. This is decided by a consulate official. (If a background
check is ordered, it would add two months to your wait time for your
visa.) However, I doubt that this would be a serious problem, as the
violation is on the par of a parking ticket and shouldn't give anyone
doing a background check pause.
http://oregonstate.edu/international/oie/isfs/forms/H-Travel.pdf
http://www.northwestern.edu/international/forms/H1%20PDF%20Forms/Check-list%20for%20H-1B%20Visa%20Application.pdf
This will almost certainly NOT cause you a problem with immigration
officials. The citation is not a felony or even a misdemeanor, and is
not even classified as a crime, but a civil infraction.
When a consular official conducts a background check on a potential
visa holder, when they think it possible that a crime has been
committed, (and this would not be a crime, but a civil infraction)
they hold it up to four guidelines to determine whether to disqualify
the applicant.
http://foia.state.gov/masterdocs/09fam/0940021aN.pdf
The main guideline is that the offense must be a "crime involving
moral terpitude" or CIMT.
1. The offense was purely political
2. The offense committed involves moral turpitude
3. The applicant has been convicted
4. The applicant has admitted or may admit that he or she has
committed acts which constitute the essential elements of a crime
Let's break this down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_crime
Your offense was not political.
It does not fall under "moral turpitude"
You will probably be convicted and plead guilty
It is not classified as a crime, so you would not admit that it is a crime
So, you would not meet any of these criteria (keep in mind that it
would have to be classified as a "crime" in the first place in order
to even be held up to these criteria) except conviction, and it would
not be conviction of a crime.
"To render an alien ineligible...the conviction must be for a
statutory offense, which involves moral turpitude."
Moral turpitude is defined as "fraud, larceny and intent to harm a
person or thing."
In addition, "the following list assumes that the statutes involved do
not require the showing of an intent to defraud, or commit other evil:
(5) disorderly conduct
(7) drunkenness
(14) liquor violations"
From all this, it seems that you will not need to worry at all about
this violation harming your visa status; however, if you're still
nervous or unsure, it wouldn't hurt to seek the advice of an
immigration attorney.
In addition, if your employer conducts a background check and this
comes up, or if you're afraid that it will and they ask you about
criminal background, it could be a good idea to just tell them that
you were issued an NYC citation.
----------------------------------------------------
http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/nyc/criminal/specialprojects.shtml
"Effective July 1, 2004 individuals who receive a Criminal Court
Summons citing a violation of Section 10-125 (2b) of the N.Y.C.
Administrative Code- ?Consumption of Alcohol on Streets Prohibited? (
also known as ?Open Container Violation? or ?Consumption of Alcohol in
Public?) are eligible to plead guilty and pay a $25 fine by mail. This
program is available to persons charged with this petty offense only,
and only if no other summonses are issued to the individual at the
same time.
In order to plead guilty by mail you must send the following:
* the plea form, completed and signed
* the summons you received
* check or money order for $25 made payable to NYC Criminal Court
(DO NOT SEND CASH) with the summons number written on the payment
* The above items must be mailed within 10 days of the date that
the summons was issued, to:
N.Y.C. Criminal Court
P.O. Box 555
New York, NY 10013-0555
If you plead guilty by mail, you do not need to appear in Court."
Since in order to plead guilty by mail you must mail the forms "within
10 days fo the date that the summons was issued," you would have had
to mail the forms by July 18 in order to bypass a court date.
In this case, you'll have to wait until the summons comes in the mail
and show up to court and pay your fine. If there is anything on the
ticket or summons that is wrong, you should be able to easily get out
of the fine, as seen by this Google Answers thread:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=117360
Search terms:
code 10-125 (2b) new york city
nyc summons
h1b visa background check
cimt
cimt visa
If you have any further questions or clarifications, let me know and
I'll be glad to help. Good luck!
--keystroke-ga |
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