American immigration

[ned toun]

How do the American immigration know if you have been arrested in the uk? A friend of mine is coming on holiday with us and was "convicted" (admonished) of shoplifting over 21 years ago when he was 16, can they tell? He has run a subject access check and this turned up nothing both locally and on the national computer!

[Buenchico]

The US immigration service have no direct access to the criminal records of any other country (except Canada, which has a common database with the USA).. EU law prevents the UK from making our criminal records freely available to other governments. Only specific information can be passed on, where there is 'justifiable cause'. If your friend happens to be suspected of terrorism or drug-trafficking the UK authorities will have passed on everything they know about him. Otherwise, the US immigration service won't know about his 'youthful indiscretion'.

Chris

[ned toun]

Thanks Buenchico, you sure about that?

[Buenchico]

This question (or a variation on it) comes up almost daily. Loads of people have posted to say that they've got into the USA, under the Visa Waiver Program, simply by 'forgetting' about their convictions. Among those posts was one from a guy with two convictions relating to Class A drugs, so you can be confident that your friend won't have any problems.

Chris

[ned toun]

Thanks, that's great news!!!

[munchie63]

pretty sure as the crime was commited when a minor anyway, it wouldn't count and he could still use the visa waiver option