Traffic ticket won’t be roadblock to citizenship

AQEsen, by email You should answer “yes” to Question No. 23 on form N-400, Application for Naturalization, that asks, “Have you ever been arrested, cited, or detained by a law enforcement officer (including any and all immigration officials or the U.S. armed forces) for any reason?” That includes traffic tickets, but not parking tickets. Your offense won’t keep you from getting U.S. citizenship. Except for tickets involving alcohol or banned substances, traffic violations do not affect a permanent resident’s right to naturalize. Since you were not arrested and the fine paid was less than $500, U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services will typically not require documentation.

AKemo Paul, Guyana Maybe. Under the Child Status Protection Act, the unmarried children of family and employment-based preference visa applicants can sometimes immigrate with a parent despite turning 21 before the parent immigrates. The age of a child of a preference green card applicant, such as your father, is fixed on the date a priority date becomes “current” for the primary beneficiary minus the time it took the USCIS to approve the petition. Put another way, when the parent gets to the front of the line under the quota system, you take the child’s age on that date and deduct the number of days it took the USCIS to approve the petition for the parent. If using that calculation, the child’s “age” is under 21, the child can get permanent residence with the parent. If you cannot get a green card under these rules, you’ll qualify based on a petition from your parents after they immigrate, but that process could take years.