drink driving

[mancgirl02]

how do US customs know if i have a conviction for drink driving?

And will it affect my entry to the US if i don't have a visa?

[Buenchico]

The US immigration authorities don't have direct access to UK criminal records (although the US government continues to press for such access). The chances are that, if you break the rules and enter under the Visa Waiver Program, you'll get way with it. (The UK authorities do pass some information to the US. For security reasons, they won't say exactly what this includes but it's unlikely that a DD conviction would show up).

If you do try to enter the US under the Visa Waiver Program, and get found out, you will probably be refused entry. You will then either have to fly back on the first available flight (at your own expense - which might mean paying a top-price fare with a full-fare carrier) or be held in a detention facility (effectively in jail) until your booked return flight. As I've already stated, it's unlikely that the US authorities would find out about your conviction but it's important that you should know what might happen if they do.

To complicate matters however, there's an apparent discrepancy over US immigration rules. The US embassy website makes it clear that any arrest or conviction (apart from minor non-arrestable motoring offences) bars you from entering the USA under the Visa Waiver Program. The actual question on the visa waiver form though, only asks about offences 'of moral turpitude'. It seems that you could answer 'no' to this question without lying.

As I originally stated, you probably won't have any problems entering the US. However, if it's going to worry you, you can go through the lengthy (5 to 6 months) visa application procedure. Details are in my post, here:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Travel/Question 289769.html

Chris

[mushroom25]

check with your car rental company, your conviction is very likely to cause you problems in this area.

[JonnoGenie]

Drink driving is not categorised as 'Moral torpitude' and so you are perfectly entitled to seek to enter the US under the Visa Waiver Scheme, just like most travellers from the UK.

Ignore talk of 'breaking rules', 'getting found out', being refused entry, you, in clear legal terms, are doing none of this.

If a DUI in the UK is your only sin, enter the US on the Visa Waiver Scheme with total confidence.

p.s. Re the 'lengthy 5-6 month visa process', it took me 2 months to get a B1/B2 issues last month, and my application was not straight forward (:-D) and included 'additional processing'...

[lady_p_gold]

Just to clarify I actually had an appointment with a US attorney the other day and I asked him this question directly and he assured me that they do not consider a drink driving conviction as something you have to answer 'yes' to, although the wording is most obscure. This question comes up regularly on AB but I never hear from anyone who was turned back, so you should be OK. But nothing is ever 100% certain and a friend of mine was turned back because she had a wedding dress in her luggage and they assumed (probably rightly) that she was planning to get married.

[JonnoGenie]

It is crystal clear, read this....
http://foia.state.gov/masterdocs/09fam/0940021 aN.pdf

This is the manual the US staff at the embassy use to issue visas.

It is no more complicated than that!