Consider someone (UK Citizen) who had been arrested but had No Further Action taken by the CPS (i.e. arrested and not charged with an offence) then successfully applied for the record to be deleted via ACRO.
They will therefore have no record of the arrest on:
- The Police National Computer;
- A police certificate, or;
- A subject access request.
US Visa applications (DS-160 form) ask: "Have you ever been arrested or convicted for any offence or crime, even though subject of a pardon, amnesty or other similar action.
From what I understand, pardons or amnesties are given to people who are convicted (i.e. proven or admitted guilt) of an offence but later "un-punished" (for want of a better word!):
- Pardon: "...a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction".
- Amnesty "an official pardon for people who have been convicted of political offences".
Would such a person be required to answer "yes" to this question? I.e. is the ACRO deletion process covered by "other similar actions"?
The only place a record could still exist would be on the local police force's system (they are not always deleted alongside the PNC record) - plus any paper records that the person arrested kept.
I've seen posts saying the US has no access to UK records and would therefore have to request via Interpol - which of course is not routine practise for every single Visa application.
Could any future partnership between the two countries change their current level of visibility to include such a deleted record?
Should the person choose to answer "no", would the US be able to see any records of this arrest?
