Can You Get A Passport If You Have A Criminal Record?

[lilacben]

My friend and I was talking about this and wondered if you could still get the passport but would not be able to get into the USA.?

[grasscarp]

You can get a passport. Its the visa that may be harder to get but not usually impossible. Depends on what you have done.
My nephew was not so good years ago and is trying to visit his ill father in Australia. Visa people want to know why he did what he did etc etc and what were the summing up remarks in court!? He doesnt remember details much as so long ago. At this rate his father will die before he gets a visa.

[janbee]

Cheryl Tweedy- Cole- Fernado's Hideaway- Versace got one!!

[lilacben]

Thankyou grasscarp.x

[Buenchico]

As had been written above, a criminal record is no bar to obtaining a passport. (35% of British men have a criminal record before their 30th birthday, so there would be a great many disappointed football fans, for example, if such a rule applied).

Anyone with a criminal record is barred from entering the USA with an 'ESTA' (Electronic System for Travel Authorization), whereby travellers simply provide relevant information online. They must instead seek a visa. That's a lengthy and complicated process, as it involves getting hold of a document from the police, together with court records, and attending an interview in London. The whole process can take several months (and there's no guarantee of getting a visa anyway).

Further, anyone convicted of an offence involving 'moral turpitude' (other than a single offence while still a minor) is automatically barred for life from entering the USA (although there's actually an appeal process - read on!). 'Moral turpitude', rather oddly in my opinion, includes all offences of theft but excludes most offences of violence. So you can be barred from entering the USA for nicking a single sweet from the pick-&-mix display but allowed in if you've beaten someone up!

If someone has been convicted of an offence involving 'moral turpitude' the US Embassy has no alternative other than to refuse them a visa in the first instance. However their case can then be referred to Washington as an application for a 'waiver of permanent ineligibility'. Such cases take ages to process and can still end in refusal. (There was a case reported here on AB where a guy had two convictions for driving without insurance. He had to wait 15 months to here whether he'd be given his 'waiver', only to be turned down).

Most other countries (e.g. all EU countries) don't require British passport holders to obtain a visa or, alternatively, their visa application processes doesn't ask about criminal convictions, so there can be no bar to travelling to such countries.

[Bazile]

//'Moral turpitude', rather oddly in my opinion, includes all offences of theft but excludes most offences of violence. So you can be barred from entering the USA for nicking a single sweet from the pick-&-mix display but allowed in if you've beaten someone up! //

That's a very odd system Buenchico - have the authorities an explanation for that ?

[Buenchico]

Don't expect me to make sense of the US legal system, Bazile!

This Wikipedia page defines 'moral turpitude' quite well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_turpitude
(You'll see that, at one time, adultery also counted as moral turpitude!)
If you'd rather read the full legal document, simply click on Reference No 9 at the foot of the page.

[Peter Pedant]

yes the short answer is:

yes you can still get a passport
but still may not be able to visit the USA

[EDDIE51]

Interesting link Chris , but from that anything and everything from litter dropping and swearing to murder and rape could be classed as Moral Turpitude . How do they decide who to let in and who to bar?