Just want to throw in my experience with this.
I have a very old incident (very minor) on my record but it is an inactive record, no longer on my public record (I confirmed this with police) and I was never arrested, fingerprinted, or convicted of anything. I have been able to get government jobs, student loans, and renew my license, so I came to the conclusion before applying for my visa that it would not be revealed in a criminal background check.
I just got my spouse visa approved after answering no to all the criminal offence questions (including traffic offences) on the application. I ended up consulting a US/UK immigration lawyer about this, after receiving very differing advice online, where on one extreme I was told not to worry at all, and on the other, that I could be rejected, and before that, most likely interviewed. (please note this is advice I got from several people online) I was so stressed that I probably would've really suffered in an interview at that point, so it was really to my benefit to answer no to the criminal offence questions if I could. The lawyer I spoke to told me that if I was not arrested, fingerprinted, or convicted of anything, nothing would be uncovered. Well, she was right. My visa was approved in 4 working days.
As for the traffic offences I have had, I was told that I didn't need to mention tickets for not stopping at stop sign, expired tags, or parking tickets. She said the traffic criminal offence question pertained more to something like a DUI.
Hope this helps anyone who is researching this and possibly going through a lot of stress about what to do, as I did.
I'll also say that while paying for a consultation with a lawyer was not ideal, it was the best thing I could have done in my situation, to get a straight answer and help my stress. I was literally not sleeping before that. If I had to contact the lawyer all over again I would do it, but straight away, not after weeks of fretting about being rejected.
Just my 2 cents!
Oh yeah, please don't take my word, go to an expert!
