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How long does it take to get a passport and US travel visa?


King Pitcos

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Well, let me elaborate and we'll pretend nothing happened there.

 

If you needed to get a visa, for whatever reasons, then you'd have to go to the embassy. Part of that is that they ask for arrest records. Now again you could say no to that, but they delve a lot deeper on people when issuing a visa (they've been doing background checks on me for 2 months based purely on my occupation!) so you may end up getting called on it.

 

So you may be tempted to own up to it, however at that point they have all the records of your previous entries into the US and will know you lied about it before.

 

Bit of a catch-22 situation.

 

That wouldn't apply to Pitcos, though - as he said, it's his first time abroad; he's got a relatively "clean slate" with regards to declaring convictions and stuff.

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Everything's a bit reversible though, isn't it? Except Monica Bellucci being bumraped in a tunnel. Russell Brand lied about his criminal record loads of times going to America, eventually got found out and barred from entry, and it got sorted out.

 

I don't think there's any way of getting the passport thing sorted in time to book flights and do the visa/waiver thing anyway now, but I'll have to cross the lie/don't lie bridge eventually. Providing you go through the proper channels and are completely honest with them, do you always get an assessment meeting to "plead your case" or are they likely to just say "no, you had a drunken fight when you were eighteen, you're never allowed in"?

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With all due respect, famous people are a whole different kettle of fish.

 

Was it just an arrest, or we you actually convicted of anything? It depends if the crime is on the list of 'Moral Turpitude' crimes too.

 

If you've ever been arrested you need to apply for a Visa, as you're ineligible to use the Visa Waiver Progam. Due to the fact that you're unable to use the VWP, I can't see you having any problems getting a Visa... So long as it's just the one offence.

 

US Immigration is extremely complex and if you turn up at their borders having not gone through the proper channels, they can and will send you back home on the next flight. I'm not trying to scaremonger or anything, but I've seen it happen and know people that it's happened to.

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With all due respect, famous people are a whole different kettle of fish.

Explain.

 

Was it just an arrest, or we you actually convicted of anything? It depends if the crime is on the list of 'Moral Turpitude' crimes too.

Three arrests: Breach of the peace, ABH/Criminal Damage, Failure to appear in court or whatever the legal name for it is. I was eighteen when the first two happened, just turned nineteen for the latter.

 

Three charges: ABH (later downgraded to assault and found not guilty anyway because the entire thing was ridiculous), Failure to appear in court (I forgot the date of one of the early hearings for the ABH/CrimDam thing), Criminal Damage.

 

Two convictions: One for missing the court date and one for criminal damage.

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Having just been through the US Immigration process to live here permanently, I would not suggest lying to Homeland Security.

 

And there's also the ESTA thing that you have to do before you go, too.

 

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

 

They know who's going to be flying into the US ahead of time.

 

The US process is a cakewalk compared to trying to bring a fiancee to the UK - the UKBA are basically a bunch of passport thieves, and without the help of someone from here, I'd have not made it on holiday, twice.

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Having just been through the US Immigration process to live here permanently, I would not suggest lying to Homeland Security.

 

And there's also the ESTA thing that you have to do before you go, too.

 

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

 

They know who's going to be flying into the US ahead of time.

 

The US process is a cakewalk compared to trying to bring a fiancee to the UK - the UKBA are basically a bunch of passport thieves, and without the help of someone from here, I'd have not made it on holiday, twice.

 

I wouldn't call having to have invasive medical examinations a 'cakewalk' and having to pay for the pleasure of having them either. I had to pay for vaccinations, bloodwork, etc. The entire process cost us almost $10,000 including the fees for our Immigration Attorney which we hired because the paperwork was so complicated. I understand that you may have had a bad experience, but I'm telling you that MY experience of the US process was that it was stressful and expensive.

 

As for UKBA, they detained my now husband when he came to visit me once in the UK. Apparently they thought he was gonna try and illegally work in the country or something to that effect. They let him in after interrogating me and him for about 45 minutes. We were long distance for almost 2 years before I moved to the US. We've never had any issues since, but it was pretty scary at the time.

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With all due respect, famous people are a whole different kettle of fish.

Explain.

 

Was it just an arrest, or we you actually convicted of anything? It depends if the crime is on the list of 'Moral Turpitude' crimes too.

Three arrests: Breach of the peace, ABH/Criminal Damage, Failure to appear in court or whatever the legal name for it is. I was eighteen when the first two happened, just turned nineteen for the latter.

 

Three charges: ABH (later downgraded to assault and found not guilty anyway because the entire thing was ridiculous), Failure to appear in court (I forgot the date of one of the early hearings for the ABH/CrimDam thing), Criminal Damage.

 

Two convictions: One for missing the court date and one for criminal damage.

 

With regards to the famous people, they can get some kinda special "O" Visa. It's been a while since I've been on the Immigration Forums that I used to frequent when I was going through my process... Don't forget that they have a ton of money to sort these issues out with lawyers and such too.

 

You need to apply for a Visa, if you ever want to travel to the US based on what you said (the convictions and arrests)

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