In many ways, a Desk Appearance Ticket does not feel like such a big deal. The arrested person is usually handcuffed and taken to a police station where they are fingerprinted. They typically wait a few hours in a holding cell until they are given a piece of paper telling them the date and location of their appearance in court. Before Desk Appearance Tickets became routine, criminal defendants could expect to get “sent downtown” and spend the night in jail before seeing a judge. Obviously, Desk Appearance Tickets are preferable for criminal defendants because they spend less time in custody and also have the opportunity to choose counsel for themselves prior to going to court.

Make no mistake, however: the issuance of a Desk Appearance Ticket is in fact an arrest – it is not “just a ticket”. More importantly for visa holders, this event is not going to “fly under the radar” with the immigration agencies. If you were arrested and given a Desk Appearance Ticket, your fingerprints and the arrest charges have been sent to a New York state agency (the Division of Criminal Justice Services) and to the FBI, which maintains a federal nationwide law enforcement database of all arrest events across the United States (the Interstate Identification Index). Visa and green card holders should understand that the immigration agencies, in processing visa renewal requests, access this database to investigate whether the visa applicant has an arrest record. Indeed, some visa holders actually receive emails from Department of Homeland Security (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) agents after their arrests, because the agency was notified of the arrest via the fingerprint database.

Generally speaking, visas will not be renewed if a visa holder has a pending (meaning unresolved) criminal case. Our office has worked with many people whose visas to work or attend school in the U.S. were denied on account of having a pending criminal case, either forcing them to return to their native country or preventing them from returning to the United States. Of course, certain types of convictions can also prevent the renewal of a visa, and can even result in removal or deportation for green card holders. The rules pertaining to the effects of various convictions are too complicated to full explain here – you should consult with an experienced attorney on the subject.

If you received a Desk Appearance Ticket, it should tell you what you can expect to be charged with when you go to court. Specifically, it will list a “Penal Law” charge with the phrase “PL” followed by a number next to the term “Top Offense Charge” or “Top Count”. The most common types of Desk Appearance Tickets include charges of Petit Larceny (or shoplifting, PL 155.25), Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh Degree (PL 220.03), Theft of Services (PL 165.15), Criminal Possession of a Weapon (PL 265.01), Assault in the Third Degree (PL 120.00), Trespass (PL 140.10), Public Lewdness (PL 245.00), Forgery (PL 170.20), Unlawful Possession of Marijuana (PL 221.10), and Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree (PL 130.53). These charges are all misdemeanors punishable by up to 90 days or 1 year in jail.

Most individuals (without prior arrests) charged with these crimes do not incur criminal convictions. However, many of the “best” dispositions for these cases – called Adjournments in Contemplation of Dismissals (or “ACDs”) – involve long “probationary” periods of six months or a year, during which time the defendants agree to remain arrest free and complete community service or counseling in exchange for a dismissal of the charges. Dismissals are generally great for defendants, so it is hard to refuse such an offer from the prosecutor and court, normally. Unfortunately for visa holders, these “probationary periods” sometimes overlap with the deadlines for renewals of their visas, and since the criminal charges are technically still pending during these probationary periods, visas can and will be denied during these periods. There are a number of possible solutions to this problem. Oftentimes, we seek to have court dates advanced for our clients to avoid deadline problems, meaning that the cases are brought to court sooner than originally scheduled. Sometimes we are able to convince prosecutors to dismiss charges outright. Other times, we simply petition prosecutors to shorten the “probationary periods” on the ACDs to give our clients the opportunity to apply for their visas without this impediment for renewal.

Criminal defendants holding visas and facing Desk Appearance Tickets should also consult with an attorney prior to traveling abroad. New executive orders signed by the President have complicated foreign travel for such individuals. Indeed, foreign visa holders could risk being denied re-entry into the United States by traveling while a criminal case is pending.

Our attorneys regularly represent foreign citizens charged with Desk Appearance Tickets. In fact, on account of our close relationships with several foreign consulates in New York City, over half of our criminal defense clients are citizens of foreign nations. As a result, we understand the unique challenges that holders of green cards of visas face after receiving a Desk Appearance Ticket, and we understand how to best help our clients avoid serious consequences for their visas or immigration status. We have helped countless individuals with F1, K1, H1B, J1, O1, E3, H2B, B1, and other visas remain in the United States so that they could pursue their careers and educational opportunities, and we are proud to have been able to do so.

If you or a loved one are a foreign citizen and have received a Desk Appearance Ticket, you should seriously consider the experienced criminal defense attorneys at the Law Office of Matthew Galluzzo. Their team of former Manhattan prosecutors will help you navigate the confusing criminal-immigration system and work with your immigration attorneys to do everything possible to ensure that your application for a renewal of your visa or green card is unaffected by these criminal charges.

Though it seems like a simple and small matter that ought to be handled civilly, taxi drivers typically will call police or drive their passengers to police precincts for arrest. There, police officers will typically arrest the passengers and fingerprint them and give them Desk Appearance Tickets charging them with one count of Theft of Services, a class A misdemeanor in violation of Penal Law Section 165.15 (PL 165.15). Recently, the stepdaughter of Attorney General Loretta Lynch was arrested for this mistake (though the arrest was ultimately voided when her boyfriend came to the precinct and paid her fare), and the attorneys at the Law Office of Matthew Galluzzo have represented dozens of people charged criminally under this scenario.

A conviction for a misdemeanor gives a person a permanent criminal record and potentially carries a maximum jail sentence of one year. However, this is not a typical result for most individuals arrested and charged with Theft of Services (PL 165.15). It should be noted that a person is only guilty of this crime if he or she intends to withhold payment for taxi services – in most of these cases, the failure to pay is an accident, and not intentional. That being said, the arrest itself can have serious consequences for some professionals and non-citizens.

For example, if you are a professional working in the finance industry, you will almost certainly have to report this arrest to your employer. FINRA-licensed brokers will have to acknowledge on their U4 forms that they have been arrested for a crime of theft. Those employees of FDIC-insured institutions can also be rendered unable to work by virtue of the FDIA (Federal Deposit Insurance Act) prohibition of employees having criminal charges relating to theft. If you are employed in the finance field, you should seriously consider contacting the experienced criminal defense attorneys at Wall Street-based firm The Law Office of Matthew Galluzzo, as they have extensive experience representing financial professionals in matters like these.

Moreover, if you are a non-citizen, you should be aware of the fact that this charge can count as a “crime involving moral turpitude,” which can have serious consequences for your visa or your application for citizenship. If you are a non-citizen facing a charge like this one, you should strongly consider contacting the multilingual defense attorneys at the Law Office of Matthew Galluzzo, as they have represented clients from virtually every industrialized nation and have close relationships with the New York-area consulates of several foreign countries (in particular France, Saudia Arabia, Australia, Belgium and Switzerland).