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

Generally speaking, if you answer yes to any of the ESTA questions, they are likely to refuse the application and suggest you apply for a visa. That's much more expensive and takes longer, but you get to speak to a real person at the embassy and that person usually makes the decision. They will know about your previous application, so I wouldn't expect you to get an ESTA, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't get a visa. This all happened in one go, eleven years ago and presumably there is nothing else on your record. By all means check Unlock's information and advice here, It says that assaulting a police officer isn't a crime involving moral turpitude (their equivalent of the naughty list) if it didn't result in bodily injury and wasn't wilful. It sounds like that won't be a problem, and you are their only source of information, so just tell them what happened from your own perspective but without being dismissive. Tell them what you think they need to hear without actually lying and you should be fine. Apart from waiting months, unfortunately. According to the US State Department website, the current waiting time for an appointment is 114 calendar days, so it's not a quick process, but once you've got a visa, you should be in the clear.

=========================================================================================================

If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)