Criminal Record and no visa,Ever been refused

[mermaid83]

Hi,
Im planning on going to amercia in 2009 with my daughter my mum and dad and have a criminal record for fraud, by the time i go i would of spent my conviction which was a 6 month suspended sentance for 2 years.

Will the US athorities know about this, i know i should apply via the embassy but being a crime of moral turtpitude im deffo guranteed denied one.

Has anyone gone to the us on visa waiver with a criminal record and do they actually have criminal activites on there datebase? What do the airline actually send to them while we are flying, i know its 34 pieces of information but does anyone know what these are?
Are they only allowed to do a criminal record check with our permission or what.

any answers would be entirely grateful, sorry if this has been asked before.

[Buenchico]

1. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act does not apply outside of the UK so, as far as the US embassy is concerned, your conviction will never be regarded as spent.

2. Several AB contributors have posted to state that they've not experienced any problems entering the USA, under the Visa Waiver Program, with undeclared criminal convictions.

3. The information currently forwarded by the airlines only consists of 'routine' data, such as your nationality, address, etc, together with details of the debit/credit card which you used to book the flights.

5. EU privacy legislation prevents the UK government from making UK criminal records available 'en bloc'. They can only pass on specific information when there is 'justifiable cause'. (i.e. they can pass on information about suspected drug traffickers, terrorists or 'sex tourists' but they can't allow the US free access to criminal records).

6. The US authorities have no direct access to any criminal records, other than those of the USA and Canada (with whom they share a common database).

7. Under 'exceptional circumstances', the US immigrationservice will be able to access 'sensitive' data collected by the DHS, which might include your religion, sexuality, etc but still doesn't include criminal records:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0 ,,2132099,00.html

Chris

[mermaid83]

Thanks Chris

that information has put my mind at ease :)

[BBWCHATT]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_turpitude

[munchie63]

I'm not sure the fraud would automatically rule you out.
It does depend on the actual offence, but they'll also take into account how long ago it happened, and no offences since.
it's very unlikely they'd ever know about it if you don't tell them.
I applied for a visa to play safe as in the world today we never know what will happen, and in the future it's possible we'll start to share this info.