Permanent Residency renewall of green card and traffic fines

[louie26]

Can my status be affected and renewall denied due to late traffic tickets or because I owe one?
I owe $1100, and am asking to get a new court date, can having this on my record lead to denial of my resince?

 

[tpajet]

Normally no, but if you owe $1,100, then it sounds like this is more than a simple traffic ticket, unless it's a case like Virginia where, if you are a resident and you go more than (as I recall) 20 miles per hour over the limit, then they fine you $1,050 (if the speeding happened in VA.)

If it's a simple traffic ticket, then it should not affect your citizenship, however if this has become more, such as failing to pay, or something else that could involve jail time, it could, but probably won't. It would have to be something serious to affect you citizenship, but as I said, $1,100 sounds like you could be in that territory.

 

[louie26]

Well, it has escalated due to failure to pay, I am concerned about renewing my residency, should I pay my fine and then take my biometrics or is should I request a new court date?
my ticket was not speeding, Im in california... I was fined due to lack of registration, and carpool fines, my license is suspended, I can take care of the problem but will it affect the decision of the court?
Should I take my biometrics and then go pay or request an extension pay my fines and then do the biometrics? Also will requesting a new court date be a good option?

 

[tpajet]

Well, here's the problem.

Until you go to court, you are only charged. You are not as of yet guilty. And ideally you would want to take care of the citizenship items first, as being guitly is what could affect your citizenship.

However, you also could have a warrant for your arrest for failure to pay, and if you do, then when you do the citizenship, you might have an officer come over to you with some nice silver bracelets chained together.

What you need to do is call the court, or even the police and see if there is a warrant out for your arrest. If not, then do your citizenship things FIRST. And most likely since you already have a court date then you won't have a warrant, but make sure first.

The traffic offenses by themselves would not be something that would affect your citizenship, however being that you faild to pay makes it a whole other deal. Most likely you will only have to end up paying the fines, plus maybe some extra for late fees, but that's up to the judge.