My spouse is a legal resident of the US from the Philippines. She has been in the US since 2005. She applied for citizenship in 2008. On the application it asked if she had ever been in an incident with the police and she told them of an incident where she and a friend had found a bank debit card in a parking lot and she and her friend charged a few hundred dollars of merchandise on the card. Her conscience told her this was wrong and she told me about it that day when I got home from work. We notified the police ,found the owner of the card,returned the card and reimbursed the card owner for all the money charged . The owner declined to press charges and there was never even a police record of the incident(we checked to see).This was the only negative incident against my wife's record even to this day. She was denied citizenship on moral turpitude grounds because of mentioning the incident. We appealed and she was still denied.Her friend applied for citizenship the next year not mentioning the incident and was granted citizenship. I'm wondering if my wife should reapply or would this "black Mark" follow her the rest of her life. We have 2 children now and she would really like to get her citizenship some day. AS i SAID,SHE'S NEVER EVEN HAD SO MUCH AS A SPEEDING TICKET SINCE 2005.
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: Georgia Already Tried: WE APPEALED AS STATED IN THE PREVIOUS QUESTION.
Hi, my name is Kim & I will be happy to answer your question.
Seeing as she has not had any other incident since the 2005 debit card issue, then she could reapply for Citizenship. It is ALWAYS a good idea to tell the truth, even if it hurts a bit. She was honest and although she was denied, she has not had another problem since that time.
USCIS will scrutinize closely the time since she was denied and if there are no incidents within 5 years of the last one, then that will look favorably towards her. She could even have the debit card owner make a statement on her behalf to include with her citizenship application if she knows where the person is.
I hope I have answered your question to your satisfaction. If I have then please click Accept and rate my service. If you need more information, please click "Continue Conversation" or "Reply" instead of "helped a little" or "I expected more." Those options give me a negative rating but do not indicate to me that you need additional information or have a follow up question. If you do have a follow up question or need additional information, I will be happy to provide it to you.Best regards,Kim
Experience: I currently practice family immigration law