Can I Apply for Citizenship With a Dismissed Misdemeanor?

Applying for citizenship with a dismissed misdemeanor is usually possible, and in most cases the dismissal will not block naturalization. You still have to disclose the arrest and charge on Form N-400, and USCIS can still look at the conduct behind it. The result depends on what the charge was, how it was actually resolved, and when it happened relative to your filing date.

You Have to Disclose It Anyway

Form N-400 asks whether you have ever been arrested, cited, or charged with any crime, regardless of outcome. Dismissed charges, dropped charges, and cases that ended in acquittal all count. USCIS uses the answer to evaluate your moral character, and officers have access to FBI fingerprint results that will surface arrests you leave off.¹

Failing to disclose can be treated as misrepresentation, and lying under oath to obtain an immigration benefit is its own bar to good moral character. Disclosing a minor dismissed charge is almost always easier to overcome than a finding that you tried to hide it.

Not All Dismissals Are Equal Under Immigration Law

This is where applicants get tripped up most often. USCIS distinguishes between a charge that was genuinely dismissed and one labeled “dismissed” by a state court after you completed a plea deal or diversion program. The two can look identical on your criminal record and have completely different immigration consequences.

True Dismissals

If the prosecutor dropped the charges outright, the court dismissed the case on the merits, or a nolle prosequi was entered, that outcome is not a conviction for immigration purposes.² You still disclose the arrest, but the dismissal itself is evidence that the allegation was unfounded or too weak to prosecute.

Diversion and Deferred Adjudication

Many misdemeanors are resolved by completing community service, counseling, or probation, after which the charge is dismissed. Whether that counts as a conviction for immigration purposes turns on one detail: did you enter a guilty or no contest plea, or otherwise admit to the conduct, before entering the program?

If no plea or finding of guilt happened before the program, and the charges were dismissed on completion, USCIS does not treat it as a conviction. If you did plead guilty or no contest and the judge deferred judgment while you completed probation or treatment, that still qualifies as a conviction under immigration law, even though your state record may show a dismissal.³ Your state paperwork saying “dismissed” is not the end of the analysis.

Vacated Judgments

A conviction vacated because of a constitutional or procedural defect in the original case is not a conviction for USCIS purposes. A conviction vacated to help you avoid immigration consequences or because you completed a rehabilitative program still counts.²

Expunged or Sealed Records

State expungement or sealing does not remove your disclosure obligation. You must still list the arrest and charge on the N-400 and provide the underlying records. A state court action to expunge or dismiss a record of guilt under a rehabilitative statute does not erase the conviction for immigration purposes.²

If your records were sealed and you cannot access them, you are still expected to try. USCIS can file its own motion to unseal. If the records genuinely no longer exist, get written confirmation from the court or law enforcement agency that they cannot be produced.¹

How USCIS Looks at Good Moral Character

Every applicant must show good moral character during the statutory period before filing. For most people that period is five years; for spouses of U.S. citizens qualifying under INA 319(a), it is three years.⁴ You also have to keep good moral character between filing and the oath.

USCIS evaluates this case by case, weighing your conduct against community standards.⁵ A dismissed misdemeanor is not a conviction, so it does not trigger the statutory bars tied to specific offenses. But the regulation lets USCIS look at the underlying conduct anyway. If the arrest was for something involving dishonesty or violence, expect pointed questions at the interview about what actually happened.

The burden sits with you. USCIS does not have to prove you lack good moral character; you have to prove you have it. Ambiguity works against you.

The regulation also allows officers to reach back before the statutory period when earlier behavior seems relevant, or when recent conduct does not show a clear break from a past pattern.⁵ In practice, a lone dismissed misdemeanor from years back followed by a clean record rarely causes trouble. Multiple arrests over time, even without convictions, are what tend to attract that kind of scrutiny.

What Can Actually Cause a Problem

A dismissed misdemeanor by itself is unlikely to derail your application. Several factors change that:

The charge involved fraud or dishonesty, which goes directly to credibility.
The charge involved violence, including a dismissed domestic violence or assault case, which invites deeper questioning about the circumstances.
You have several arrests, even without convictions, suggesting a pattern.
The dismissal is recent and falls inside your statutory period.
Your “dismissal” was really a deferred adjudication after a guilty plea, which USCIS can treat as a conviction.
You left the arrest off the N-400.

Certain convictions trigger conditional bars during the statutory period, including crimes involving moral turpitude, most controlled substance offenses, incarceration of 180 days or more, two or more DUI convictions, false testimony for an immigration benefit, habitual drunkenness, and certain gambling offenses. These bars require convictions or admissions, so a genuine dismissal should not trigger them.⁶ USCIS still keeps discretion to find a lack of good moral character based on overall circumstances even when no specific bar applies.⁷

Documents to Gather Before You File

USCIS requires certified court dispositions for any arrest during the statutory period, whether or not it led to a conviction. The requirement also reaches some older arrests, including those involving offenses that could make you deportable or that could be classified as aggravated felonies.¹

Collect these well before filing:

A certified copy of the arrest report from the arresting agency.
Certified court records showing the final disposition, with the dismissal clearly stated.⁸

Older records can take weeks or months to obtain, and certified copies often carry fees. If a record cannot be located, get written confirmation from the court or agency that it is unavailable.

One narrow exception: minor traffic violations that were not drug- or alcohol-related, did not result in an arrest, and carried only a fine under $500 or points on your license do not need to be documented.⁸

If USCIS Denies Your Application

You can request a hearing before a different USCIS officer by filing Form N-336 within 30 days of the denial notice. At the hearing, the reviewing officer conducts a fresh review of the file, can examine you again, accept new evidence, and either uphold the denial or reverse it and approve you.⁹ If the hearing officer also denies, you can seek judicial review in federal district court.

When to Talk to an Immigration Attorney

If your dismissed misdemeanor involved a guilty plea, a no contest plea, a diversion program, or any deal where you admitted to the conduct, talk to an immigration attorney before you file. The gap between what a state court calls a dismissal and what USCIS calls a conviction is where most applicants with criminal histories run into trouble, and the interview is not the place to discover it.

An attorney can review your court records, decide whether your dismissal qualifies as a conviction under federal immigration law, and help frame the circumstances. That matters most if you have more than one arrest, if the charge involved moral turpitude, or if the incident sits inside your statutory period.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Evidence and the Record
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Manual – Adjudicative Factors
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Non-Precedent Decision of the Administrative Appeals Office
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Manual Volume 12, Part G, Chapter 3 – Spouses of U.S. Citizens Residing in the United States
5
eCFR. 8 CFR 316.10 – Good Moral Character
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 5 – Conditional Bars for Acts in Statutory Period
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S. Code 1101 – Definitions
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 Part A Chapter 4
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 6 – USCIS Hearing and Judicial Review