A Single DUI Conviction at a Marriage-Based Green Card Interview

Attorney Answer

A single completed DUI conviction is usually not a bar to adjustment of status. Under Board of Immigration Appeals precedent, a simple DUI is not a crime involving moral turpitude — so the main inadmissibility ground people worry about does not ordinarily apply.

The ground itself is 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I), which makes an applicant for admission — and an adjustment applicant is one — inadmissible if convicted of, or if the applicant admits committing, a crime involving moral turpitude, or an attempt or conspiracy to commit one.

Why a DUI ordinarily falls outside it: in Matter of Torres-Varela, 23 I. & N. Dec. 78 (BIA 2001), the Board held that Arizona's offense of aggravated DUI with two or more prior DUI convictions is not a crime involving moral turpitude. Its reasoning is what helps you — a simple DUI is not a crime involving moral turpitude because it lacks a culpable mental state, and recidivism alone does not convert it into one. The Board distinguished Matter of Lopez-Meza, 22 I. & N. Dec. 1188 (BIA 1999), where aggravated DUI committed by a driver who knew his licence was suspended did involve moral turpitude. Those decisions bind the immigration adjudicators who handle your case. The practical lesson is that any added knowledge element in your own conviction — driving while knowing you were prohibited from driving, for instance — is what would change the analysis, so the exact statute and subsection you were convicted under matters.

There is also a backstop. Even where a single conviction qualified as a crime involving moral turpitude, the petty offense exception at 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(ii)(II) can remove it, where the person committed only one crime, the maximum possible penalty did not exceed one year, and the sentence imposed was not more than six months.

One practical point that has nothing to do with the moral turpitude analysis: alcohol-related driving history sometimes surfaces again through the immigration medical examination, where a civil surgeon may ask about alcohol use. Being straightforward there, with proof that everything was completed years ago, is the right posture.

What you can do before the interview

1. Get certified copies from the clerk of court: the charging document, the judgment, and the sentence — including the exact statute and subsection of conviction. 2. Get written proof that every condition was completed — the DUI course certificate, probation termination order, proof fines were paid, community service completion. 3. Order your certified driving record. 4. Have an immigration lawyer look at the statute of conviction against the Torres-Varela and Lopez-Meza line before the interview, especially if there was any injury, any child in the vehicle, or any licence suspension in place at the time. 5. Disclose the arrest and conviction accurately and without minimising. Non-disclosure is treated far more seriously than the DUI itself. 6. Attend the interview. Do not reschedule out of nervousness.