"Crimes of moral turpitude" are not well defined in U.S. immigration law. However, the Department of State has provided guidance, noting that the most common elements of a moral turpitude crime will include "fraud, larceny, and intent to harm persons or things." Crimes involving dishonesty and theft will almost always be considered crimes of moral turpitude. Other examples would be assault with the intent to rob or kill, spousal abuse, and aggravated driving under the influence ("DUI" or "DWI&quot .

As there are too many examples of crimes that have been found to involve moral turpitude to list here, it is safest to take a certified disposition of your offense (obtained from the clerk of the court where your case was heard) to a criminal or immigration attorney in order to learn whether your particular type of conviction has been found to be one.

When evaluating whether a crime involves moral turpitude, U.S. courts will examine the elements of the crime first and then compare them to "the generic definition of a crime involving moral turpitude." (This comes from the court case Castrijon-Garcia v. Holder, No. 09-73756, January 9, 2013.)

It may be possible to argue that your conviction should not be classified as a crime of moral turpitude, or that the statute that you violated contains elements that would not always pertain to a crime of moral turpitude. These types of defenses will be highly dependent upon the wording of the statute under which you were convicted. Criminal statutes almost always come from state law, so you may be raising brand new questions about how these statutes are interpreted under federal immigration law.