This story is from January 26, 2020

Driving record may hold key to visa to US, Canada

Driving record may hold key to visa to US, Canada
Ludhiana: Getting long-term visa for United States and Canada, which are among the most sought-after foreign destinations for Indians, might actually depend on clean driving record of applicants.
These countries have sought records of applicants on traffic violations committed in their native land. Ludhiana police have already got five such request letters from embassies of the US and Canada, seeking to know whether applicants from Ludhiana commissionerate have been involved in such violations or not before granting them visa.
Ludhiana police commissioner Rakesh Aggarwal said in the past four months, they have got five such request letters from embassies of countries like the US and Canada over applications by Ludhiana-based residents, seeking permanent residency in the respective countries.
He said since they have digital database now, they check the records and share the details of the applicants with the embassies.
Meanwhile, immigration experts said this is uncommon for any city, if such requests had been made to local police by embassies.
“Normally at the time of filing of application for visa for most countries, an applicant has to tick about whether he has a criminal record and if they (countries) later find out that one does have such record, they deport those persons. However, traffic violations cannot be taken as a ground for rejecting visa by countries, unless it leads to criminal offences like causing deaths on road etc. I haven’t heard about such instances wherein embassies have sought traffic violations report from police,” said immigration expert Ayush Jain. However, he said criminal record can be ground to deny visa to applicants.

Road safety experts linked the request letter about traffic violations with the highest fatality rate in Ludhiana.
“The embassies have sent such request letters to Ludhiana as the city is number one in the country with 68.6% fatality rate in road accidents. So, there is general concern that Ludhiana residents might not be following traffic rules and may create havoc on their roads when they come to their countries. It is good that they have asked the local police to verify driving record, including traffic violations. This move will make a lot of people follow traffic rules,” said international road safety expert Kamaljit Soi, who is member of National Road Safety Council, an apex body for road safety in India.
“The aspiring youths who want to go abroad will desist from breaking the laws. We want all the countries to inquire from police about traffic violations committed by applicants,” he added.
No request from smaller nations
A senior police officer said traffic violations alone cannot stop the embassies from issuing visa. He said they have not got any such requests from smaller countries.
In the list
Police officials said earlier police had manual data of traffic violations, so NOC was many times issued without checking the record as it was laborious process. The parameter of checking traffic violations before issuing such visa has been added recently by the embassies of these countries, they added.
Parameters
Cops said the financial statement of the applicant and no criminal record are few other parameters before the embassies issue visa.
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