Is a visa absolutely mandatory for america following a police caution

[chopster]

dp has a caution for assault and we have planned a florida hol at xmas, but we have just found that a visa is normally required to enter america following a police record. How would we obtain a visa, and do we abolutely have to? Surely american immigration don;t have access to UK police records?

You get your visa from the US Embassy in London - info is here. There's more information about applying with a criminal conviction here.
The UK and US share information about criminal convictions - this is part of the "war on terror" effort. I wouldn't take the risk, if I was your DP, of trying to enter the US without the visa - he might well get away with it, but if he was caught, he would be instantly deported and would never be able to go back, which might put a bit of a damper on your holiday.

we went to florida at easter and following a convo with the US embassy ( in which they said that the visa may not be produced in time for our trip) DP took the risk and travelled anyway.

We were a bit apprehensive going through Imm control but the man just looked at our passports and waved us through.

ok so one yes and one no. hmm. Dp has asked someone who works for the embassy but is wating for that, we weren't sure if the us and uk shared info or not.

dp has a caution for assault, anyone know how much it costs for a visa? We've foudn the site quite hard to get info from.

atm we are thinking well, if he id refused entry this time then we don't win, or we appley ad get refused entry and we don't win, so not sure what do do!

you can chance it
depends on your luck

various pop stars have been refused entry - lily allen recently... she had a caution

the US embassy site reckons you need to declare all arrests even!

DP actually had conviction for assualt (10 yrs ago though it was)

when he phoned the embassy they said it would be around £150 and you still may not get entry. so he decided to chance it.

(its tiredemma by the way- just done a trade unionist name change - dont ask!!)

I would not chance it, people have been deported or held up at US immigration for far lesser transgressions of the law.

If your partner was either arrested and or charged he will certainly need a visa.

He will need to attend the interview in person and the decision re the visa will not be made on the day. There is also a fee payable for this service.

atm it seems a risk between being refused entry thru applying to immigration or being refused trying to enter the county on a visa waiver. we've found on the net that peaple having had far worse
k, such as drugs charges and worse and being able to use visa waiver and get away with it, whereae ohte people jave said that is is possible that if he uses thevisa waiver he could be denied entry and so he doesnt know what to do. So we really don't know what to do, the trouble is, is that it isn;t jsut a one of thing, but a lifetiem risj of not beng able to enter to america.