Not another VWP w/ Criminal Conviction Question...

[DDGG88]

Sorry- I know these are quite popular but I wanted to start a fresh one as most threads seem to be quite dated.

I have a criminal conviction for ABH (lesser serious side) which from I gather is NOT crossing the line of Moral Turpitude.

I am travelling to the US and the VWP question quite clearly asks:

"Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offense or crime involving moral turpitude or a violation related to a controlled substance; or been arrested or convicted for two or more offenses...."

My honest and legitimate answer to this is "no".

However I see nerving posts suggesting that ANYONE with ANY conviction is not eligible for the VWP so why is the questions limited to "Moral Turpitude" and not all convictions?

I've a friend with a more serious conviction (fraud) which does impose Moral Turpitude in some cases. He served over a year in prison and has since travelled 3 maybe even 4 times to the US and not had a problem. He ticks the "no" box and get's in. IF he chose to apply for VISA, chances are his case would be assessed, application rejected and thus not allowed to enter the US. Does this VISA system not seems to be scare mongery? It sort of gives me the idea that the US are saying

"we don't have records of most UK convictions- but if you could bring yourself forward to our embassy so we can black list you accordingly it would be a great help?".

Not that I'm in that position as a small ABH conviction where I was sentenced to 40 hours unpaid work isn't inadmissible Moral Turpitude. I'm just wondering why I can't complete a VWP inconfidence when aswering honestly yet still feeling an element of guilt/worry/anxiety about entering.

Thanks.

[jno]

as I recall, the official US advice is sometimes contradictory. Just ignore the bits you don't like, give an honest answer to the question above, and away you go.

[rockyracoon]

Answer the question honestly as jno said, you'll be fine, you're only worried because people are answering threads about this without actually knowing the facts.

[dzug2]

The reason the London Embassy want all 'criminals' to apply for a visa is that they don't trust the UK public to have the foggiest notion of what moral turpitude is - and to judge by many posts in the past here and elsewhere they are probably right to do so. They therefore wish to decide the moral turpitude question for themselves, and the mechanism for doing so is applying for a visa.

You are perfectly entitled in US law to decide that question yourself. The only slight (and yes, very slight) danger in doing so is that IF the Immigration Officer knew of the conviction (and yes that's a very big IF) and disagreed about it not being moral turpitude then you've no way of challenging him.

Your friend's chances of getting a visa if applied for depend on how long it was since his crime (10-15 years might be OK), and how serious it actually was. They are not improved by his having lied to get a visa waiver.