Hello all
I have a question about some of the statutory questions in Express Entry (FSW) application.
I'm sorry in advance that I sort of have to give you my lifetime story before I ask my real question.
In year 2002 (I was 13), in the hope of better life, my parents sent me to US (rest of my family remained in my home country). I first entered US with a visitor's visa and then the plan was to change my status from visitor to student as recommended by my immigration broker at that time. After some months, my broker sent me what she said was my student visa and I believed her. I was a little kid and my parents had no knowledge of US immigration process, so we had little choice but to believe her.
When the time came to apply for college (2007), I went to my high school academic advisor and asked for my I-20 (or F-1) and she said "you don't have one" (I found out later that I never had legal status since my visitor's visa expired!!!... yes... immigration fraud...). Around that time, people were having a very high hope for DREAM act (which I'm a perfect candidate of), so I decided to remain in US... and go to college in Buffalo... yes... I'm an idiot...
Then, in my sophomore year (2009), my friends and I were looking for U-Haul and my friend accidentally drove near the border. I freaked out, told him to stop and quickly got out of the car. But, then ICE officer of course saw me and arrested me because he thought I was illegally crossing the border. Then, I was detained in an US immigration detention center for some days. Then, I was released with a bond and after 2 years of immigration court hearing, I decided to take voluntary departure (year 2011) and was barred from entering US for 10 years. From 2011-2012, I pursued master's degree in the UK (got my student visa in UK no problem for some reason), then worked in my home country from 2012-2016 as a research engineer. And I'm currently doing PhD in engineering in Canada since 2016. I've seen a lot of threads in this forum how difficult it is to get the study permit with overstaying history, but I got mine no problem for some reason... luckily...
So, ICE arrest record does show up on my FBI background check and I know for sure that I have to answer "YES" to "Have you ever been detained... in a jail"question but I was wondering if this was considered "arrested for criminal offense"? and should I answer "YES" to "Have you ever been convicted of, arrested for.... criminal offense" in the statutory question section?
The reason why I ask this is because I think I answered "NO" to this question when I was applying for my study permit... I really had no intention of lying but as far as I knew I thought "being an illegal alien" was not a "criminal offense"...
Thank you so much for reading my unnecessarily long story... and I'd really really appreciate any advice.
Thank you...
I have a question about some of the statutory questions in Express Entry (FSW) application.
I'm sorry in advance that I sort of have to give you my lifetime story before I ask my real question.
In year 2002 (I was 13), in the hope of better life, my parents sent me to US (rest of my family remained in my home country). I first entered US with a visitor's visa and then the plan was to change my status from visitor to student as recommended by my immigration broker at that time. After some months, my broker sent me what she said was my student visa and I believed her. I was a little kid and my parents had no knowledge of US immigration process, so we had little choice but to believe her.
When the time came to apply for college (2007), I went to my high school academic advisor and asked for my I-20 (or F-1) and she said "you don't have one" (I found out later that I never had legal status since my visitor's visa expired!!!... yes... immigration fraud...). Around that time, people were having a very high hope for DREAM act (which I'm a perfect candidate of), so I decided to remain in US... and go to college in Buffalo... yes... I'm an idiot...
Then, in my sophomore year (2009), my friends and I were looking for U-Haul and my friend accidentally drove near the border. I freaked out, told him to stop and quickly got out of the car. But, then ICE officer of course saw me and arrested me because he thought I was illegally crossing the border. Then, I was detained in an US immigration detention center for some days. Then, I was released with a bond and after 2 years of immigration court hearing, I decided to take voluntary departure (year 2011) and was barred from entering US for 10 years. From 2011-2012, I pursued master's degree in the UK (got my student visa in UK no problem for some reason), then worked in my home country from 2012-2016 as a research engineer. And I'm currently doing PhD in engineering in Canada since 2016. I've seen a lot of threads in this forum how difficult it is to get the study permit with overstaying history, but I got mine no problem for some reason... luckily...
So, ICE arrest record does show up on my FBI background check and I know for sure that I have to answer "YES" to "Have you ever been detained... in a jail"question but I was wondering if this was considered "arrested for criminal offense"? and should I answer "YES" to "Have you ever been convicted of, arrested for.... criminal offense" in the statutory question section?
The reason why I ask this is because I think I answered "NO" to this question when I was applying for my study permit... I really had no intention of lying but as far as I knew I thought "being an illegal alien" was not a "criminal offense"...
Thank you so much for reading my unnecessarily long story... and I'd really really appreciate any advice.
Thank you...
