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Please explain the additional MV/I/DAM and can I file for US citizenship?
Anonymous3 views3 answers
please explain the additional MV/I/DAM that was added to a charge of GRAND THEFT/MV/I/DAM after I receive a NOLLE PROS-COMP PreTrial Intervention also, I recently got married and my husband wants me to do my citizenship I been living in the US for over 4 Years but I got arrest and the case was Nolle pros. I have traveled outside the US after the case was Nolle Pros had no issue with homeland security But
This is a clerks office abbreviation of the statute that you were charged with and it basically means Grand Theft motor vehicle involving accident with damages.
It is not relevant because since you successfully completed Pre-Trial Intervention, (PTI), the state entered a Nolle Prosse. This means, "dismissed by state attorney".
This case should not affect your immigration status in most cases, since it was not proven and in Miami, you maintained a plea of not guilty and did not admit to the charges. So, after five years of residency, you may apply for your citizenship.
The only thing left for you to do is to get an attorney to prepare a petition to expunge this case if you are otherwise eligible. This can be done very economically right here in Miami. That would make the information come off of the public record and your attorney can help you make sure it is removed from other websites on the Internet.
For more information Contact one of us.
As usual, Mr. Quirantes hit it out of the park.
You case was dismissed and your criminal record will show that you were arrested for a felony but that the State nolle pros'd it. You are now free to seek enpunction, although that will not truly "hide" it from either INS or the rest of the world. I will spell out everything that you need to know about sealing / expunction below, but, before I do so, let me address the other component of your question, which is immigration, and NOT (caps intentional) criminal defense oriented.
While many criminal lawyers know something about immigration matters (there is some undeniable overlap), if you want to increase your odds at getting a competent answer then you should repost this question and list "immigration" and not "criminal defense" as a practice area. You should seek immigration advise from an immigration and not a criminal defense practicioner.
Back to sealing is available in a case where you received a withhold of adjudication, and expunction is available in a case which was dismissed, nolle pros'd, no actioned or where you were found to have been not guilty. In Florida you can only seal or expunge one eligible (non-disqualified) offense in your lifetime.
If you look at the following website you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about the sealing / expunction process:
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/content/getdoc/c83dd888-ef7a-448e-9a96-ba69fc41811f7/Seal-and-Expunge-Home.aspx
The procedure is both quite detailed and somewhat painstaking but is also far from being rocket science. You can attempt to navigate it yourself (FDLE has tried to simplify it - again I refer you to the website above) but, assuming your eligibility, any criminal defense lawyer (anywhere in Florida - this can be done remotely and does not necessarily require a local attorney, although a local attorney may or may not be less expensive) will be able to accomplish the task with greater ease and likely in a shorter time period.
That said I suspect that it doesn't much matter where you were arrested, what you were arrested for, what the final disposition was or whether or not you sealed / expunged the record. This is 2015 and we are forehead deep into the internet age, where nothing is private, sacred or truly hidden from public scrutiny.
Sadly, sealing (and expunging) only applies to certain (not even to all) government agencies and has no effect whatsoever on private (er, extortionist) enterprise, who compile and maintain arrest information and then demand that you pay them off to remove your information from their database and public access. Worse still, after you "buy back your information", then you can count on there being another private company lurking, somewhere, sometime, somehow, just waiting for you to pay them off as well. Its a seemingly never-ending vicious cycle.
For better or for worse you are probably best advised to take the wind out of the sails by admitting your past issues / indiscretions to your present (or potential) employer, lender, landlord, etcetera, rather than waiting for them to find out on their own.
I hope that I have been helpful in answering your question.
My two colleagues are right on the mark (as always) with their comments. The N400 has now grown to over 20 pages and it asks specific charges about all charges, arrests, etc. Also immigration consequences of all criminal adjudications are treated differently. The fact the case was NP is very important as it will make most of the issues on the N400 not be of concern. It is still essential that it be fully reported and you will need a certified copy of the criminal charges and police report. In these cases its the failure to report that causes much more issues then the fact the alien was charged. This cannot be assessed fully without being examined as the issue of having to sign a document as part of the pre trial intervention is still an issue in come Circuits in Florida.