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Almost seven years ago now I was charged with a DUI (drink driving) and had my license suspended for 6 months. When asked “did you commit an offense that is imprisonable?” I said no, confused by the question because I wasn’t imprisoned. My travel was authorized. Only to realize that the offense is prisonable.

I’m traveling to U.S and want to know what I should do?

Should I continue with the hopes I get in at border or take precaution and apply for non immigrant visa?

Has anyone had similar experience ?

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    In what country did that DUI happen? Are you sure that is is imprisonable in all cases, and not only over a certain limit or for repeat offenses for instance?
    – jcaron
    Commented Aug 25 at 9:44
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    Are you sure that was the text of the question? I’m too lazy to go through the whole form to get to the relevant question(s), but the questions I find online are quite different and do not mention “imprisonable” at all, but rather specific types of offenses.
    – jcaron
    Commented Aug 25 at 12:45
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    @jcaron I wonder if they even used the official site or one of the numerous third-parties
    – Crazydre
    Commented Aug 27 at 0:22
  • As @jcarona astutely points out, you've simply read it wrong OP, you are good to go.
    – Fattie
    Commented Aug 27 at 14:13

2 Answers 2

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I think the current ESTA question is (from here):

  1. Have you ever been arrested or convicted for a crime that resulted in serious damage to property, or serious harm to another person or government authority?

It's pretty strange that you can be arrested and not even charged. And there are plenty of imprisonable offences which don't result in "serious damage to property, or serious harm to another person or government authority" (for instance "attempted murder" might not). But that seems to be the current wording.

I would check your ESTA paperwork and see exactly what question you answered.

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    (+1) Agree with this tbh; double-check the ESTA form carefully. I wonder if they even used the official site
    – Crazydre
    Commented Aug 26 at 13:40
  • People get arrested and not charged all the time in the US. Technically an arrest is being deprived of the ability to freely leave (and has nothing to do with being placed in handcuffs, taken to jail etc), and can be done to investigate a crime. If that investigation determines that the person is innocent, then they will be released with no charges. Note that I am not including retaliatory arrests in all of this, but corrupt cops will and do arrest people for performing legal activities that offend" those cops. There are many many YT channels devoted to this sort of thing.
    – Peter M
    Commented Aug 27 at 13:28
  • The legal term in US immigration law is moral turpitude; that Wikipedia page has a lot of details, and excludes drunk driving. See also e.g. UK charity advice.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Aug 27 at 14:51
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    @StuartF Moral turpitude is now obsolete; instead they talk about "serious damage to property, or serious harm to another person or government authority"
    – Crazydre
    Commented Aug 27 at 18:35
  • @Crazydre that's interesting. Is there guidance on the difference between "serious" harm or damage and harm or damage that is not sufficiently serious?
    – Robert Columbia
    Commented Aug 28 at 22:42
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Legally speaking your ESTA is probably invalid and you need to apply for a visa.

My personal opinion? Travel on your ESTA and keep quiet about the DUI; the CBP won't know about it unless it happened in Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the UK, in which case they possibly might owing to FVEY. It would constitute immigration fraud, but it's up to you to weigh the risks vs. the benefits of it.

Edit: Double-checked FVEY and contrary to what I suspected it doesn't systematically share individuals' criminal record, at least officially. Combined with the fact that 1) you didn't go to prison and 2) the ESTA was approved, I'm inclined to believe you'll be fine, and I personally would've chanced it. But again, since so much is at stake, you need to make that judgment for yourself.

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    Judging by the OP's name, it quite likely was in New Zealand. If that's the case, can they assume that the US doesn't know or doesn't care, since otherwise the ESTA would have been rejected?
    – user111403
    Commented Aug 25 at 20:03
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    @user111403 Just double-checked FVEY and contrary to what I suspected it doesn't systematically share individuals' criminal record, at least officially... Combined with the fact that 1) OP didn't go to prison and 2) the ESTA was approved, I'm inclined to believe OP will be fine, and I personally would've tried it on. But again, since so much is at stake, OP needs to make that judgment for themselves.
    – Crazydre
    Commented Aug 25 at 20:53
  • @Crazydre I don't think there's much at stake. Assuming the OP is a Kiwi (i.e. a low-risk country) and their ESTA is already authorized, IMO a CBP officer won't care about a DUI case years ago.
    – Johnnyjanko
    Commented Aug 27 at 13:03
  • (+1) Does the Five Eyes agreement even cover immigration at all (beside potentially feeding no-fly lists or the like)? I never quite understood all the assumptions made about it on this website, its original focus was quite different and effective collaboration between intelligence agencies requires sharing information you don't want to be available to any random CBP officer, e.g. to protect sources and methods. If it entailed broad (reciprocal?) access to each country's law enforcement databases, it would at the very least have to be completely separate from the all the military intelligence.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Sep 7 at 7:16
  • @Relaxed I know Gayot Fow (bless his soul!) stated fingerprints are shared within FVEY, and that in case of a match, biographic & immigration data is shared.
    – Crazydre
    Commented Sep 7 at 16:01

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