Old drink driving offense, work and Visa

Rodneyella

Hi all,

In March 2009 I was working in the States where I was on a 3 year working visa.
One night I did the dumbest thing to date and got blind drunk, called a cab, cab didn't show and the next thing I remember I am along the side of the road in cuff's. It turns out I went outside of the bar waiting for the cab and decided to get in the car and drive home......
I was arrested, convicted and it was a misdemeanor where I was off the road for 6 months and met all the other court requirements.
I continued my work there on my working visa and all was fine...
Currently I regularly travel to the states on my ESTA for 3-4 day work trips (alone) and to meet family. Due to my criminal record there is an extra interview stage in Immigration but I get through with a few questions and without any trouble.

Now I have begun work in Ireland with a multinational where I will also be required to travel to the states as part of a team. As I stated this is not an issue but if I am travelling with work colleagues they will get suspicious if I am pulled in by Immigration every time I travel. During my interview stage I was not asked about any arrests or anything like that, also no paperwork mentions that I should disclose any previous convictions.

My questions are:-
Should I disclose my previous arrest in the states to my new company?
Can I be fired for not disclosing it?
Is there anything I can do to stop Immigration from needing to interview me everytime I enter the States?

I appreciate any help you can offer.

InTheTrees

The only awkwardness is being pulled over by US immigration right? There's no other impact on your job?

I dont see why your company should know or that you should have disclosed it. Could you just explain away the extra interview as being because you've previously lived in the USA and had some other visa? Every time I travel to ireland I'm stopped on the way back because i'm still using a greencard after almost 20 years.

faceman

Check your contract OP to see if you are required to disclose it. If you are, you should via HR. Not everyone needs to know.

Regarding going through immigration I wouldn't give it an extra thought. I'm in the US a lot and sometimes colleagues are pulled in for extra questions and no one bats an eyelid from work. It's just part of the process.

Rodneyella

Hi Guy;'s,

InTheTrees; You are correct with regards to awkwardness but on one occassion the immigration officer was speaking rather loudly regarding my DUI and other people could hear.

faceman; I have checked and my contract does not mention anything about a criminal record.

I agree with you both that I can explain the extra interview step without any worries.

I was hoping that the new "spent convictions law" would negate the need to disclose the criminal record since its over 7 years ago but I want to be sure. I am hoping to travel with this company but this may require visas from 1-3 years in various countries and I'm not sure how this will affect it.

I appreciate your help.

coylemj

Unless your colleagues are in the same part of the queue for pre-clearance, how are they going to notice that you get asked a few extra questions? You may be travelling on the same flight but that doesn't mean that you can't get to the airport a bit earlier than them and then they won't notice anything.

Getting pulled over by immigration is no big deal anyway, you can explain it away by saying that you have the same name as a big American mobster, your colleagues will just laugh it off and take pity on you for the aggro it causes at immigration.