VIC Criminal Record in the US - Effect on My Trip to Australia?

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Ho Lam Lai

Active Member
27 January 2016
6
0
31
No, the best way to explain it, is to provide evidence that you have, in the interim, taken steps to explain to American authorities of your intentions to return and explained why you absconded in the first place. Otherwise just saying you will return without proving it, may be regarded as not very genuine and thus have a hollow ring.

Okay. In what form of should the evidence be? Like an email?

Thank you.
 

TKC

Well-Known Member
12 January 2016
32
11
149
Sydney
I can't offer legal advice here, you should be in close two-way contact with the relevant authorities in the USA about this matter. You have absconded from justice and that's a very serious matter. Unless you have a reasonable excuse for doing so your, story to any authority will fall on deaf ears and this matter will quickly escalate.
 
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profnick

Member
3 February 2016
2
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1
When you were arrested in the US the second time, you were 'put through the system', so your fingerprints, 'mug shots', along with the rest of your bio-metric data is on record there. Since you missed a criminal court date in the US, a US criminal court judge almost certainly issued a bench warrant for your arrest.

Since 2009 five countries: USA, Canada, Australia, UK, New Zealand started sharing all data (criminal, immigration, intelligence) pooled from each country via an arrangement called FCC (Five Country Conference). The USA end of this 5 country sharing system is called US-VISIT (United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology), I am not sure what it's called in Australia, but in this US Department of Homeland Defense unclassified document on page 9, you can see Australian Server network diagram ( ref: https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/privacy/privacy_pia_usvisit_fcc.pdf ).

The FCC system is not instantaneous, requiring a 72-hour notice, and so it is not used to check newly arrived passengers, but those who applied for visas outside Australia could be checked primarily for the following reasons: (a) indication of derogatory activity or other associations of concern (in some of the 5 FCC countries), (b) concern individual is blacklisted, (c) individual destroyed documents, (d) reason to believe another FCC country was already visited by individual, (e) locating individual who may have violated criminal laws inside the FCC partner country. (see page 5 of link above)

Starting May of 2015, Australia changed rules for visa applicants from Hong Kong, which now require biometric data (fingerprints + photo + vital stats) to be submitted with the visa application. However, if you have a Hong Kong SAR passport, you will not have to provide biometric data, unless Australia Immigration request it specifically. (ref: VISMG: Important Notices )