Immigration and Convictions

[brunad]

I have a couple of questions. In a couple of weeks I have a pre-trial hearing for a second degree retail fraud. My lawyer is very optimistic in keeping my record clean with no conviction. Will they (the prosecutor or the judge) bring up and ask me about my immigration process? I am an F1 student and a professional as well and I am in good status.

Will they let the immigration know about this?
I know that it is ground for deportation, but what is the likelyhood of that happening?
My lawyer sais that usually the immigration doesn't have time for misdiminours and especially since I might end up with no criminal record anyways.
Also, in a year or so (I just received the approval for H1-B) I wanted to apply for a green card.
Will I even have a chance, or I shouldn't even bother?
My lawyer is a criminal defence lawyer and doesn't know too much about immigration.

[aaron]

The disposition of a criminal charge breaks down into three core elements: Initial charge, plea charge, and conviction charge. Your record will already reflect the initial charge. Now, you are presumably either being offered some form of delayed disposition where the charge will be dismissed in advance of a plea, or some other form of delayed disposition where you would plead guilty but your conviction will not be entered if you successfully complete a period of probation.

Your best case scenario would be to obtain some form of disposition where you do not enter an actual guilty plea - that is, a delayed disposition, or dismissal on payment of fines, or something similar where you don't actually plead guilty. If you are not given that opportunity, see if you can at least plead "no contest" (although that would likely be treated in the same manner as a guilty plea.)

The immigration authorities probably won't find out about this if no conviction is entered - but they almost certainly will ask about your experiences with law enforcement if you apply for a green card. You must answer those questions honestly. It is much better within that context to be able to honestly answer that you were charged with a shoplifting offense, but it was dismissed, than that you pled guilty but didn't have your conviction entered because you successfully completed probation.

Given your immigration status, if the outcome is the same, perhaps your attorney can convince the judge and prosecutor to exercise a bit of discretion to make sure that the resolution of your case has a minimum impact on your immigration status.