Do I have to declare a UK "spent traffic conviction" from 2007 in an Ireland tourist visa application?

Upvote:-2

Traffic offenses that does not lead to jail time are normally not criminal offenses, there are some exceptions around driving under the influence, but in your case I would say no to that question as you have not committed a criminal offense by being fined and loosing points on your license.

Normally the criminal offenses to be signed for in VISA applications are the ones that carry a jail sentence of 6 months or above, but of course clarify this before signing properly to avoid misunderstanding

Upvote:0

Assuming all you were convicted of was what you said then while they are criminal offences they aren't so-called "recordable" offences. So prior to the convictions being considered "spent" you had convictions but not a criminal record.

The INIS guidance talks about a "criminal record" but the form talks about "convictions". Your convictions are "spent" (which means they can be effectively ignored in certain circumstances) but they still exist.

Irish Citizen's Information states that spent convictions must be declared:

When applying to enter, be or remain in the State

Which would seem to apply here - so yes I would say you have to declare them.

Upvote:2

It is safer to tell them about this.

Either it is something they don't care about (which is quite likely), then it will be completely ignored and won't affect your application.

Or it is something they care about; in that case they will find out anyway and your application will be rejected.

And here is the one that you should worry about: If you don't mention this conviction, and they find out (for example by asking the UK if you did something seriously wrong), then the fact that you didn't mention it will be ten times worse than the conviction itself.

So much safer to mention it.

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