U.S. tourist ticketed for driving w/o license+insurance. What next, to avoid visa denials in the future?

April 22, 2007 9:26 PM

A friend is in the US on a tourist visa (from a non-visa waiver country). He just got ticketed for driving without a license, without insurance, and with highbeams on. He'll be entering a US university as an undergrad this autumn, for which he'll convert his visa to a student visa. Could these infractions result in his being deported or being denied further visas and, later on, permanent residency status?

I'm trying to advise my friend on what to do now. I imagine the traffic court won't look lightly on an 18-year-old foreigner who did these things, so at the very least, a lawyer is a necessity. If the verdict is not guilty or the case is dismissed, will he still be forced to explain himself on his next visa application? If the verdict is guilty, what will that mean for his ability to continue living here and for his student visa application? (He'll be going to a very highly regarded university, if that matters.)

What should he do now?

posted by jbb7 to law & government (15 comments total)

I think he should talk to an immigration lawyer. He could call the international students adviser at the university he'll be entering and get a referral. It would really suck to be barred from going to this highly regarded university because of a really stupid traffic offense.

(And I want to be clear that by "really stupid," I mean that your friend was really stupid, not that the offense is trivial. He should talk to a lawyer, but he should also cease behaving like a moron.)
posted by craichead at 9:39 PM on April 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

What should he do now?

Pay the ticket, don't do it again, and yeah immigration lawyer
posted by edgeways at 9:57 PM on April 22, 2007

It's probably a good idea for him to get a drivers license before he goes to court if he can. Was it his car? Was it insured when he was pulled over? If he can prove that it was insured and he can get a license before he goes to court, they will probably dismiss it. His citizenship doesn't have much to do with it. He does need a traffic court lawyer at the least. He can probably find someone to represent him for free if he does a little research and asks around the courthouse where he needs to appear.
posted by lee at 10:04 PM on April 22, 2007

Pay the ticket, don't do it again, and yeah immigration lawyer

He probably can't just pay the ticket. Driving with no license is most likely a "must appear in court" misdemeanor.
posted by lee at 10:06 PM on April 22, 2007

In California, driving without a license is an infraction, in which case it's effectively a fix-it ticket. If he shows up to court with a valid license a nice judge may just throw that part out. I've seen it happen.

Then again, I don't think they're in California since it's illegal for the police to ask for insurance there, outside of an accident situation. That said, insurance is typically for the car more than the driver, so if the owner of the car was insured he should be okay.

The highbeams I have no comment on.
posted by rhizome at 10:15 PM on April 22, 2007

I have no idea what the deal with the highbeams is either. A couple of observations:

a) As long as the charge is not criminal (I can't imagine why it should be), he should be fine with future immigration stuff.

b) He probably cannot get a driver's license in the meantime (can tourists get one?) so a court appearence may be unavoidable. A good laywer could talk to the judge and reach some deal where this doesn't go on his record. Even if it does, don't traffic records dissapear after x years?

Oh and the standard IANAL/IANAIL
posted by special-k at 10:26 PM on April 22, 2007

To answer some questions...

It is his car. I believe it is registered and that the license plates are current, but there is no insurance on the car. My friend was not insured under some other policy, either.

Also, this is, indeed, in California.

Thanks for the answers so far.
posted by jbb7 at 10:29 PM on April 22, 2007

Hmm.

I can't imagine that the highbeams would be enough to jeopardize his student visa. So I have two questions.

1. There's the aforementioned question about whether the car was insured at all. If so, he's probably covered. If not, he should find out what the consequences are for driving without insurance.

2. Does he have a license anywhere? If so, it's possible that his license is valid in the U.S. I know that when my roommate's brother came to visit the U.S., he was able to drive legally with his British drivers' license. In that case, he's only guilty of driving without the physical license, not of driving without having a license, and that likewise is probably not that big a deal.

I still think he should talk to a lawyer, because immigration stuff is nothing to fuck with.
posted by craichead at 10:31 PM on April 22, 2007

IANAL. I am especially not an immigration lawyer. He should talk to one.

As near as I can tell as an interested observer, the usual standard for visas is a crime involving moral turpitude. Now again, IANAL, but driving without a license, driving without insurance, and driving with the high-beams on inappropriately are almost certainly **NOT** crimes involving moral turpitude. So he should be okay.

---BUT---

He should expect to fess up to this with each and every visa application he ever makes to the US ever again. It would be supremely stupid for him to be banned from the US for lying on a visa application about something that he didn't need to lie about in the first place.

But again, he should talk to an immigration attorney.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:41 PM on April 22, 2007

He has a driver's license in India, but he did not get a valid international driver's license, which is apparently required to make foreign driver's licenses usable in the US.

Car and driver were both completely uninsured.
posted by jbb7 at 10:42 PM on April 22, 2007

Ok, so the international drivers' license issue is a documentation issue. He was legal to drive in the U.S., but he didn't have the proper documentation to prove it. From the link you provided:

This permit only verifies that you hold a valid license in your home country. It is your foreign driver's license that allows you to drive in the United States.

I strongly suspect that this isn't going to be a big deal. He should get insurance ASAP, and he should call the Indian consulate and see if it's possible to get an international drivers' license while he's in the U.S., which will allow him to verify that he was, in fact, licensed at the time he got his ticket. (Or he should see if California is still letting you get a drivers' license without proving residency.) And then he should call the university to see if they can hook him up with an immigration lawyer, just to make sure everything is going to be ok.
posted by craichead at 11:03 PM on April 22, 2007

short answer no, it will not. I've been an F-1 student myself, thus I know.

but he needs to go with a lawyer to court. anything else would be stupid.
posted by krautland at 12:01 AM on April 23, 2007

He has a driver's license in India, but he did not get a valid international driver's license, which is apparently required to make foreign driver's licenses usable in the US.

Jbb7, as this happened in California your friend may want to check the California DMV website rather then use non-state specific information.

From the California DMV Drivers Handbook (my emphasis added)

Adults Visiting California
Visitors over 18 years old with a valid driver license from their home state or country may drive in California without getting a driver license as long as their home state license remains valid.

From the California DMV Driver License FAQ (my emphasis added)

International Driving Permits
The State of California does not recognize an International Driving Permit (IDP) as a valid driver license. California does recognize a valid driver license that is issued by a foreign jurisdiction (country, state, territory) of which the license holder is a resident.

Hope that helps.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:51 AM on April 23, 2007

Lawyer. Way too important to trust to anyone who isn't working for money on the problem you have.
posted by Ironmouth at 7:18 PM on April 23, 2007

"International driver's license" is essentially a translation of your real drivers license, so not having that is not a problem. I.e. intl driver's license is of no value without the original license.

Some countries require you to have this translation with you, but I don't believe it's necessary anywhere in US.
posted by zeikka at 4:36 AM on April 25, 2007