How are foreign criminal convictions handled now?

[yankeebrit]

Hi,

My wife and I are planning on submitting our application for a spouse visa to the UK at the end of the summer however there is one sticking point, she has a misdemeanor conviction in the USA from 2009.

She received a non-custodial sentence in the USA (fine + 3 years probation) all of which she paid and completed successfully and without issues. Other than that she has never had so much as a parking ticket.

According to the NEW criminality thresholds which I have read up on extensively she should be in the clear to apply at this point. For the spouse visa it seems to require that there has not been a criminal conviction in the past 12 months which received a non-custodial sentence...

I guess I just don't know how worried I should be about this...If she gets refused I have no idea what we will do and that is all I can think about. We easily meet the financial requirement luckily, and all the other aspects of the application should be just fine.

Can she still be refused for criminality even if she is PAST the 12 month criminality threshold?

Any thoughts or advice would be most appreciated.

[Amber]

Look up the suitability requirement (click). What was the conviction for?

[yankeebrit]

As far as the suitability requirements go I think she should be ok...As I said it was a non-custodial misdemeanor conviction that occurred nearly five years ago...

The conviction was for corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of a child...I know it sounds really bad. The details of the crime are not too serious and I think that is demonstrated by the non-custodial conviction.

I just don't know how the UKBA will see it.

[Amber]

I assume there were some mitigating factors?

[yankeebrit]

It boiled down to a serious lack of judgement on my wife's part however she decided to "seek help" from a professional therapist before any more serious crime was committed which in turn lead to an investigation etc etc.

The sentence was relatively small for a serious sounding charge due to the fact that nothing too serious ever happened as she stopped it from happening by seeking help...

[yankeebrit]

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with foreign convictions...According to the suitability requirements she should be ok...Should I be worried?

[Amber]

You should be ok, include a letter with the mitigating factors - psychological issues, which are now recovered.