Misdemeanor while getting Green Card

Hi All,

My sister in law is currently being sponsered for her green card in the U.S as a University Professor. She and her husband are both Canadian.

The school is petitioning for her and her husband however on form I-485 they are asking if "You have ever been arrested"...Her husband had a misdemeanor stemming from 1997 which has now been expunged. He went to the police station and there are no records of it. The form requires you have proof of documents to support the charge. How do they go about getting this if they have discarded his records? I know he has to say "YES" on the form but where is he supposed to get his proof if there is none? It's a bit tricky situation if you ask me...

Any help would be great thanx

Just include a typed up separate sheet of paper. And if there is any record of the process to have the charges expunged, that could be included as well.

Thanx for the reply. Sorry if I'm slow but what do you mean by a "typed sheet of paper"? Do you mean a record of the expunged case?

And also, will the misdemeanor charge affect the green card processing a whole lot even if the case was expunged?
I hope the immigration officers don't hold this against my sister in law and her husband. Her job at the University is paying her well and she loves it. He is actually doing his own Phd at a different university.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Depends what the offence is, if it's a speeding ticket or some minor vehicle-related offence it doesn't make any difference. They only really care about felonies and anything drug or prostitution-related. With minor drug offences he'll probably need to get a waiver first.

Anything that appears in CPIC or NCIC will cause him problems but only serious criminal offences are put in those databases.

by "typed sheet of paper" I mean a separate sheet of paper typed up by you, explaining the "Yes" answer to that question. At the top of the sheet of paper you should type "Attachment to question number XXX" and your explanation of the charges, and explanation of expungement.

IF you can get copies of the court documents that expunged the charges, you should also include them.

Thanks for your reply...I will give my sis-in-law the advice you provided.