Immigration Law: Does a Traffic Violation Affect My Immigration Status?

Whether a traffic violation will affect your immigration process depends on the nature of the ticket. Specifically, whether or not it was a citation, and if so, the severity of the infraction that led to the citation. Non-moving violations such as parking tickets are not classified as citations, and so for these types of tickets, you don’t need to worry about them impacting your immigration status. You will not be required to report them on your Application for Naturalization.

Sometimes, when the police issue a traffic violation, they report the driver to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, (ICE). ICE may look into your immigration status. But they may also not investigate if you are a low priority. ICE is less likely to investigate your immigration status if you got a minor traffic violation instead of a major one. If you are convicted of a minor traffic violation, ICE is not likely to investigate your immigration status if you have no criminal charges and are not in a high priority category.

If you are confronted in a similar situation, please contact us for a free consultation.