Question about traffic offenses for spouse visa

Hello,

I'm new here, and after lurking on here for a while I finally joined this very helpful site.

To give a little background I am a British citizen who currently resides in the USA with my husband who is an American citizen. I've lived here for nearly ten years and would like to go back to England with my husband. We will be applying for a spouse visa some time next year. However, there are a lot of factors to take into account, and we need some clarification on certain topics. I'm hoping someone can help with these.

In 1987 he was given a ticket ($30 fine) by the police for riding a bicycle without lights (the bike just had a back reflector). How would we deal with this on the application? Would he put it under traffic offenses, or something else? He was also stopped by the police another time and the officer just gave him a verbal warning. Does this need to be mentioned on the application, and where would it need to be mentioned? Does it come under the section for cautions, arrests, warnings etc. He has no evidence of these events. The courts no longer have evidence of payment of the fine, and my husband did not keep a copy of any paperwork as he never thought he would ever need it. The events were so long ago.

The main traffic offense occurred in Virginia in 1990. My husband was 20 years old and had a learner's permit that had expired. He had been to a nightclub with his roommate and his roommate had a bit too much to drink and asked my future husband if he could take the wheel of the car (which belonged to the roommate). They were in the middle of nowhere, and cell phones weren't so popular back then, so they couldn't call anyone. My future husband did agree to drive and ended up going up a one way street, and got stopped by the police. He was given a traffic ticket to get the problem fixed regarding the permit, and a fine of around $50 -60. He had to appear at traffic court, but didn't get a new permit because he decided that he didn't want to drive again, and he never has to this day. He just paid the fine. My husband says this was just a traffic infraction, but I worry it could be classed as a misdemeanor. How serious of a problem is this going to be?

I would be extremely grateful for any help that can be given.

Hello,

I'm new here, and after lurking on here for a while I finally joined this very helpful site.

To give a little background I am a British citizen who currently resides in the USA with my husband who is an American citizen. I've lived here for nearly ten years and would like to go back to England with my husband. We will be applying for a spouse visa some time next year. However, there are a lot of factors to take into account, and we need some clarification on certain topics. I'm hoping someone can help with these.

In 1987 he was given a ticket ($30 fine) by the police for riding a bicycle without lights (the bike just had a back reflector). How would we deal with this on the application? Would he put it under traffic offenses, or something else? He was also stopped by the police another time and the officer just gave him a verbal warning. Does this need to be mentioned on the application, and where would it need to be mentioned? Does it come under the section for cautions, arrests, warnings etc. He has no evidence of these events. The courts no longer have evidence of payment of the fine, and my husband did not keep a copy of any paperwork as he never thought he would ever need it. The events were so long ago.

The main traffic offense occurred in Virginia in 1990. My husband was 20 years old and had a learner's permit that had expired. He had been to a nightclub with his roommate and his roommate had a bit too much to drink and asked my future husband if he could take the wheel of the car (which belonged to the roommate). They were in the middle of nowhere, and cell phones weren't so popular back then, so they couldn't call anyone. My future husband did agree to drive and ended up going up a one way street, and got stopped by the police. He was given a traffic ticket to get the problem fixed regarding the permit, and a fine of around $50 -60. He had to appear at traffic court, but didn't get a new permit because he decided that he didn't want to drive again, and he never has to this day. He just paid the fine. My husband says this was just a traffic infraction, but I worry it could be classed as a misdemeanor. How serious of a problem is this going to be?

I would be extremely grateful for any help that can be given.

Welcome. 

Nothing there will be a problem for the visa. You should mention it all, just for full transparency but keep to just the essential details.

Thank you very much Larabee for putting my mind at ease.

I have a couple more questions regarding the above citations. My husband never got beyond a learner's permit, and phoned the DMV in Virginia who checked for his name in the system, even though we know records only go back so far. Nothing came up as expected.

Does he need to request an official copy of a driver record just to get a letter to prove that no information can be found?

Ditto for the bicycle infraction. Does he need to write to the court to get a response to prove that records no longer exist?

Just wondering if this is over the top, or if the burden of proof is on him for events that happened over thirty years ago.

If it makes you feel better, when I listed all my various infractions from 30 years ago, I just specified what I could remember.  Often I couldn't remember the exact year, or the exact charge, or other details.  It wasn't a problem for me even thought it was pretty vague. 

Thank you Jimbocz. My husband also doesn't remember exact dates and other details. I'm just wondering if he should state that he doesn't have any evidence, or that he tried to get it.

Thank you Jimbocz. My husband also doesn't remember exact dates and other details. I'm just wondering if he should state that he doesn't have any evidence, or that he tried to get it.

  I just stuck to the facts and it worked for me.  As far as I know, this kind of ancient teenage mischief is fairly common and no big deal. 

That's good to know. Thank you very much for your help.