u/freshguava777

Good afternoon,

First I’d like to thank you for taking your time to address my question. And if you refer me to a paid legal advice I also would have no problem with it. I’m hoping maybe someone had a similar situation as I did and maybe able to help me.

I’m a 30M Filipino, California resident, and have been in the US for 20 years. I’m a registered nurse in the ER as my occupation and I’m married to a citizen, but I’m going through the traditional way of citizenship.

My green card has expired so I applied for naturalization. During the interview I disclosed a criminal arrest when I was 16 years old and completed 1 year probation and now the records were sealed/ expunged.

Meat and bones: I did not pass approval at the interview because of need of evidence request.
I’m submitting evidence with claims of “ No records.”
I have a letter form the custodian that my name search resulted in ,” no case file.”
Is this enough evidence to submit ?

I described the situation as best as I can during the interview but here is a summary just incase.
Sorry if I’m over sharing but I’m trying to be as transparent as possible for the sake of good data and hopefully some sound counsel.

Situation: I was in high school and my friend had a medical marijuana card. A handful of the high schoolers knew we always had marijuana on us and yes, we would sell it to them. On 4/20, it’s considered a holiday for those that smoke marijuana, and there was a classmate of us that brought a joint from us, that we received form a medical marijuana dispensary, and later on he would have an adverse reaction while attending to watch a high school football game. Later it was revealed he also had pcp, was intoxicated, and had other drugs in his system. ( just fyi, we also consumed the same products as the one we gave him and we were ok.)
The result of that was they obviously disclosed they bought the joint from us and they thought we had “ laced it.” Am meaning they thought we had tampered with the joint and added other drugs, which was happened occasionally in that community (Obviously we didn’t and the class mate was eventually ok.)

1. The next day my buddy and I got pulled into the principals office and a police officer did a wonderful job getting me to confess ( I was a terrible criminal.”
2. Our parents had to pick us up at the station , and I don’t recall if they had to pay a bond.”
3. Court wise, the attorney was able to bring it down to case of possession of 1 marijuana joint.
4. I did community service and 1 year of
   Probation was completed without incident.

Afterwards they said they sealed the records. Since they I haven’t interacted with that situation except for when I tell the story of how I was such a knuckle head when I was younger ( I still am but in different forms 🤣)

My efforts:

1. I went to my local courthouse and they referred me to the Juvenile court because they didn’t have any record from me.
2. The juvenile court told me that they didn’t have any records under my name. But they advised that maybe i can get my records unsealed if i really needed it. They then referred me to the probation department hoping they had records of me and also referred me to the “ custodian.”
3. I called the probation office that handled my case and told them my situation. The head of the probation was dumbfounded and asked, “ why would you want your records unsealed?.” And proceeded to tell me that if those records were sealed or expunged and after years have passed they sometimes physically destroy the files or they delete it from their records.

OP input: I think my mistake was I didn’t get any form of paper work form any of these interactions prior to going to my interview.

At the interview:

1. I passed the test for language and history
2. But was not recommended for approval to due to need for evidence regarding my criminal incident.
3. Instructed to complete N-14, request for additional information, documents, or form. The interview said I just need to submit some paperwork related to the incident or if no records, a paperwork that shows that.

Post interview:

1. I did my due diligence this time and asked any leads I could find. Nothing came up.
2. I was able to visit the superior court and obtain a legal document, a name search result, from the custodian of record for the superior court of California.
3. The search concluded, “ NO CASE FILE”

My question and big worry

1. On the custodian letter there is a section that states .” I have conducted a thorough search of all Court Records, excluding those that are sealed pursuant to California Rules of Court, Rule 2. 550, or are confidential by law.”
2. I’m worried that because it says it’s excluded sealed records they may want copies somehow ? I’m not exactly sure
3. Should I submit with this paper only or should I try to continue to inquire about filing a request for the sealed copy ?

Thank you for your time!
Please let me know if I can answer any question

Or

If I should list the documents I have ( sensitive info covered) if it’s going to help in anyway.

Thank you!!