Hey all, 

I wanted to go to New York in 2019 and thought I would try for an online Esta form. I answered yes to the question: Have you ever been arrested or convicted of a crime that resulted in serious harm to another person or govt authority or serious damage to a property.  I shouldn't have but after reading loads of info it said if asked if you'd been arrested you should say yes!

My backstory: in 2013 I had been out at a leaving work do all afternoon and left to get my train home, had to get tube and then train. I had both tickets to travel. I was drunk, missed my stop, got off in South London somewhere very disorientated as I fell asleep on the tube, tried to make a dash to get back onto another platform to get back to the mainline station, in my confusion pulled the wrong ticket out to put in the barrier then two plain clothes BT officers flanked me and pulled me backwards, I crapped myself (female 5'2") kicked one of them in the shin because i was petrified, i had no idea who they were. They did not show me or tell me until I had been dragged backwards into the ticket hall.  They arrested me for fare evasion and D&D, they had to drop the fare evasion charge once they looked in my bag and changed it to assaulting a police officer. As I had no idea what to do they suggested i accept the caution as a slap on the wrist. Little did i know this would affect the rest of my life and i just wanted to get home and safe.

So I said yes to the question and it came back denied. I wasn't sure I had to answer yes to it or not tbh. That was in 2019. Will the declined application still be on their system. Should I try again or go straight for an interview?

Thanks