Usa Travel Visa.

[sapelesam]

I am travelling to the USA later this year on the visa waiver programme. A friend wants to travel with me, but 20 years ago served one year of a two year prison sentence for arson. Does anybody know if he will get a visa. I don't want problems by association on arrival.

[-SharonA-]

Have a look at the posts underneath, they may give you an idea.

[dzug2]

Problems by association are unlikely - you would normally be 'processed' separately, most likely by different staff.

I would hazard a guess that 20 years is long enough ago for a visa to be possible. But it needs to be applied for in advance and it can be a long drawn out affair with the need to supply his police record, etc.

[Buenchico]

Arson is defined as a crime 'of moral turpitude' by the US authorities. That means that, in the first instance, the US Embassy MUST refuse to issue him with a visa. They have no discretion whatsoever; the US Immigration and Nationality Act imposes an automatic ban upon him entering the USA.

However he can then ask that his visa application be transferred to Washington as an application for a 'waiver of permanent ineligibility'. The MINIMUM additional processing time is 6 MONTHS but the actual time taken to hear the result of such an application is often far longer. (Someone posted, here on AB, to say that her husband had to wait 15 months to find out whether he could be granted a waiver after two offences of driving without insurance; his application was eventually refused).

So it's almost certainly too late for your friend to get a visa for travel this year. He needs to apply now for travel in 2017.

[jno]

if you mean will it affect you, no, it shouldn't; you're not responsible for the lilfe history of anyone you may travel with.

If I were him, I'd just be forgetting about my past unless he thinks there's some reason they'd want to check him out. But that's his call.

[Bazile]

This must be the most frequently asked type question on AB

[jno]

incidentally, have you got an Esta or don't you need one?

[clairson59]

Anyone travelling to the USA has to get an ESTA to prove they are eligible to travel under the visa waiver programme but your friend will have to apply for a visa and hope it's granted but it seems unlikely due to the crime he committed despite how long ago it is. The USA are renowned for having long memories where crime is concerned. They are still after Roman Polanski nearly 40 years after he fled the US after they reneged on a promise to put him on probation following his arrest for unlawful sex with a minor.