petty offence?

Hi guys,
I entered the US several times between 1994-97. In 1998 I had a DUI with a property damage in overseas. In 1999 I was convicted of a felony with max possible penalty of 1 year. I was only fined of $400 and probation. The same year I entered the US legally again and overstayed. Now I got married to a US citizen an facing AOS. Is my crime CMT? Could it be an aggravated felony? Could I apply for the petty offense exception if my case is CMT by INA? Would I still be deportable and how are my chances of staying here with my wife and her 3 kids? Is anybody around who could help me please?

Hi guys,
I entered the US several times between 1994-97. In 1998 I had a DUI with a property damage in overseas. In 1999 I was convicted of a felony with max possible penalty of 1 year. I was only fined of $400 and probation. The same year I entered the US legally again and overstayed. Now I got married to a US citizen an facing AOS. Is my crime CMT? Could it be an aggravated felony? Could I apply for the petty offense exception if my case is CMT by INA? Would I still be deportable and how are my chances of staying here with my wife and her 3 kids? Is anybody around who could help me please?

No "crime" punishable by a maximum period of imprisonment of 1 year is a felony in the U.S.

I wish I know what a felony for immigration purposes is. I know my DUI with property damage was a crime and there is 1 year max possible penalty for that. All that happened in Europe 5 years ago and it is gonna be expunged. But if it could be a felony or even an aggravated felony I don't know. I just think it could be a crime of moral turpitude, but a petty offense exception... Hopefully.

It will be best for you to get the copy of final disposition of your case. May be it was not felony conviction. It also depends from which country you are, may be over there is not Felony but is consider like that in State in which you are living now.
Good luck.

Thank you Umesh, you are always very helpful.. I am watching you LOL..
I came from continental Europe where there is no law precendences and all the law aspects are written in books and codexes. We have violations and crimes. Because of the damage on someone else's property went over a limit of about 1,000 dolars I slided among crimes. The books say "who DUI and damage..... can be punished max 1 year in a prison or/and a fine of max..." I plead guilty, agreed to everything. I have never been in a jail nor a court room in my life(even I was arrested on papers for probably a couple of hours). The court without me beeing present found be guilty and ordered a jail time of 2 weeks or 400 dolars fine. I paid the fee and nobody bothered me after. I knew it is never gonna happen again so I didn't even pay attention to a probation time.
My question is if the max possible penalty imposed for me was 1 year or 2 weeks. My opinion 2 weeks might be a CMT and a petty offense exception. If 1 year than it would be an aggravated felony/crime of violence and a deportation for me if I file for AOS and admit my expunged crime overseas.
A pretty tough question isn't it?
If they look at the crime by the law of the place where I live now. I better start to study criminal law of all the states and look for a place to move!?
Thank you guys for any ideas.. I live in NM now..

I made some research on the DUI/crime of violence problem and it seems like the situations is kinda changing and the circuit courts start overruling the first decisions for DUI as a crime of violence 4 or 5 yers ago. Now the tendency is that DUI is not a crime of violence because there is a missing intent to use a physical force against a property or a person. The only circuit that still rules the old way is the 10th Circuit which is Colorado, New Mexico... The problem here is that the look on DUI is not unified and the immigration judges will still rule the old fashion way and put you in a lot of trouble when filing with a DUI background...

I had a similar problem just recently. Is the problem that big? It is still just DUI...? I should have an interview in a couple of months... Thanks for any reply!