NO2ID

Hi

Can anyone help?

My husband has had to get an ACPO report so we can go on holiday to America, and had to arrange a meeting at the London Embassy.

He had about 4 Breach of the Peace convictions and 1 Cannabis conviction (for 2 joints worth) from when he was 17 - 21.

He has just been to the embassy today for his interview and has been refused, if there are any charges on your certificate relating to drugs then it is an automatic NO!!!

I think this is awful, he is now 33 and is still being punished for being an out of hand teenager.

I would like to try and get this charge of his certificate but i don't know how to go about it, can anyone help?

My dream is to travel and obviously with my husband and this has now been crushed due to this.

Please Help!!!!!

Unfortunately, given that the US now knows about the convictions and has refused him a visa (which he will be required to declare on any subsequent attempt to enter the US), he is likely to find it difficult to enter the US legally whether or not he can get those convictions expunged from his UK record.

According to http://www.lawontheweb.co.uk/rehabact.htm (I don't know how accurate it is), ACPO guidelines state that convictions should remain on the police national computer for 20 years if someone has been convicted of three or more recordable offences, but Chief Constables are not necessarily bound by these guidelines. I'd suggest that the first thing you should try now is writing to the Chief Constable and your MP.

I concur with Geraint's suggestions of contacting the chief constable of the force that arrested your husband when he was 17-21. Be prepared to be persistent.

You may want to check the notes on the PNC I recently posted on my blog.

Some particularly relevant links I include are:

* to the weeding and step-down of information policies which are currently governed by the MoPI Guidance - Step model - Retention Guidelines (with the chief constable having the discretion to delete information s/he added). As far as I understand stepped-down info would not appear on the ACRO certificates used to get a US visa. Stepped-down rules depend on offences.

* to a decision by the information tribunal about the retention of old minor offences by five police forces. This decision has been appealed by the police forces. The outcome of this case will be key to how the police forces handle this in the future.

br -d

Hi

The woman my husband spoke to at the Embassy did tell him that he could not get a Visa until the drug charge was off his record. That emplies if the charge is removed from his certificate, he may not have this problem in future.

I will try your suggestions about writing to the Cheif of Police and my local MP and see what happens.

Thanks

You can get a visa for this. I have a friend who has a couple of convictions for more serious stuff. You have to apply for a B1/B2 visa, with a waiver to cover your previous transgressions. My friend has successfully had 2 visa's for one year, and they advised that when he requests another one it will be for 10 years. So it is possible.

I think it depends on how long also it's been since the event. If it's over 10 years it's a lot easier to show you have not had issues since then,.

Hi, I don't know how relevant this topic still is, due to the age of the post, however, I thought I would leave a reply for people looking in future. I know how much of a pain it is going through the US Visa application process!!

I have a police caution for possession of a controlled substance, dating from Nov 2007. The ACPO certificate details it as an A grade offence, as the substance was Category A prohibited.

I applied in the typical way, ACPO, £15 phone call, trip down to London. I was suited and booted. Waited around 3-4 hours at the Embassy and finally got interviewed. It lasted 5 - 10 minutes. She asked me the circumstances and whether I still used any drugs.

She approved the application straight away, I gave them my passport and another fee for the courier service and had that was that.

So to say a drug possession charge automatically results in a rejected Visa is nonsense, I had a caution on record 2 years when they issued me a 10 year B-2 tourist Visa.....

I found this from ACPO about the retention of records

http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/Pol ... ords06.pdf

I would be very careful about following the advice of anyone who appears on these forums saying that it's a breeze to get a Visa if you just appear at the interview and be honest and that they had done so. They always seem to pop up on these discussions everywhere. Keep in mind that the authorities want to know everything about anyone and would rather that you confessed these details than slipped through the net and also know that people come to forums like this for advice. Just saying...

I don't understand why people are so desperate to visit the US, the only country in the world which taxes all its citizens no matter where they live, and forces almost all foreigners to be photographed and fingerprinted at the border AND pay for it!