As vaccinations have begun in full swing in Canada, this provides a spark of hope for the reopening of the Canadian-U.S. border in order to facilitate non-essential crossings during the period of summer. However, one must be aware of the guidelines associated with Criminal Inadmissibility that could hamper your travel process.

A person is deemed inadmissible to Canada on account of a bunch of factors as stated by the IRPA (Immigration and Refugee Protection Act), namely, on criminal grounds, for health-related conditions, and/or inability to satisfy the requirements of the country’s Immigration pathways.

This article has a pure focus on alerting those individuals having certain criminal records as a part of their personal history while traveling to Canada. Whether you wish to have a temporary visit or permanently settle within the country, it’s important to note the stringent regulations with regards to criminal offenses here, the rules related to these, and the resources involved.

First, one needs to get familiarized with double criminality, which is basically when a person gets convicted of an action that is labeled as a crime by the law in both, foreign setups as well as in Canada. In this case, the Immigration officer conducts a comparative study between the laws of both regions to find an equivalent ratio. Quite often, Canada’s Criminal Code will represent a Canadian offense. In case someone requires assistance during this process, a Canadian immigration attorney handles these details.

Criminal Inadmissibility as per Canadian laws gets divided into the following two classes:

Criminality

The following are a bunch of reasons one could be deemed criminally inadmissible even if they’ve never stepped into the country’s territory:

• being convicted in a country other than Canada of an act deemed as a criminal offense as per Canadian law. This also applies when the crime is labeled as an indictable offense, meaning, it has crossed to a serious degree. This would be known as a felony in the United States.
• possessing two offenses of a non-indictable nature for two separate acts. In the United States, these would be considered misdemeanors, meaning, they’re not as serious as indictable acts.

It’s also mandatory to clarify the distinguishing factor between committing an offense and being convicted. The latter indicates one has gone through the entire judicial process and has been found to be guilty of committing that particular crime. The former could be mildly compared to have pending charges over you, meaning, higher authorities of the law suspect you to have committed the crime, but no solid proof pertaining to the same exists.

One is also labeled as being criminally inadmissible if the criminal act is considered to be an offense both, in Canada and in that foreign country where it was committed. People having unresolved criminal charges are usually caught by law when credible evidence gets reported showing proof of them committing such an act.

In case an individual happens to violate Canadian federal regulations during their period of entering into the country, this also leads to them being labeled as inadmissible.

Serious Criminality

Similar to the patterns dictated above, one can be tagged as inadmissible if they’ve been caught being convicted or charged for a serious crime, inclusive of the following conditions:

• Convicted for a crime in a foreign country which is also considered as a criminal offense as per Canadian law. The minimum duration of imprisonment for the same would be ten years or more than that.
• were involved in the commitment of a criminal act in a foreign country which is also considered to be an offense as per Canadian law. The minimum duration of imprisonment for this too shall be the same, i.e., ten years or more than that.

To summarize what we’ve mentioned before, Canada utilizes a three-factorial methodology to distinguish between Criminal offenses and Serious Criminal Offenses: type of sentence imposed upon getting charged/convicted, nature of the crime committed, and the prosecution process one needs to undergo.

There are a bunch of options that aid in the process of revoking or avoiding trouble owing to these inadmissibilities, which vary from individual to individual, some of which have been explained below:

Legal Opinion Letter

Lawyers usually prepare letters like these to list down a bunch of worded arguments explaining reasons why the individual should be permitted to enter the country. These can be used to fight against a case where you’ve been charged with a criminal act or a solid conviction. The following arguments could form a core part of such letters: a rehabilitated status applicable to the client, the nature of the offense committed was singular or not that serious, there exists no suitable Canadian equivalent for the crime that the client has been accused of or committed. Such a legal opinion letter would act as a supporting document for a rehabilitation application or Temporary Resident Permit (TRP).

Regardless of whether you plan to enter the country on an immediate basis, it’s best advised to consult a lawyer in the situation that you’re facing charges. This could help supply you with a broad sense of the potential impact of any conviction/plea that may hamper your travel plans.

Temporary Resident Permit (TRP)

This is specifically targeted towards that population that has been tagged as inadmissible yet requires temporary access into the country. The grant is deemed acceptable provided the involved persons represent compelling reasons for entry, wherein their pros of entering the country should outweigh the cons. Successful applications are granted a validity of up to 3 years after which they may seek to be renewed. PRs, as well as citizens of the United States, should use a Canadian port-of-entry or pre-approval system for their application. A consulate should be utilized for applications in the case of non-U.S. citizens. A processing fee of approximately $200 CAD is applicable for the same.

Rehabilitation

A variety of factors go into consideration here too, namely, nature/type of crime committed/accused of, duration of time that has passed ever since the completion of the sentence, and behavior of the accused post-sentence completion.

The following are the two preliminary kinds of rehabilitation:

• Individual Rehabilitation

This is applicable to those individuals carrying criminal records who are ineligible for the second type of rehabilitation. However, it’s important that more than five years of duration have passed ever since the act was committed or the sentence had ended.

A sentence is typically labeled as any type of the judicial result of the crime in question, namely, time spent in jail, fine/fees as payment, or temporary probation. During the application process of this type of rehabilitation, the convicted person or his/her representative places an argument stating that a minimum of five years have been completed ever since they finished their sentence; the client isn’t a poser of criminality risk anymore; they were convicted of solely a singular criminal offense. In case someone’s record possesses information about more than one criminal offense, they’d have to provide ample proof of no longer posing a threat to the Canadian government.

Typical application costs range from $200 for criminality and approximately $1000 for serious criminality. One biggest advantage of applying for rehabilitation is that after procuring said grant, the benefits are long-lasting or more so eternal in nature, unlike the temporary nature of a TRP.

• Deemed Rehabilitation

This could be of an automatic setup, based entirely on the type/nature of the crime committed and the duration passed ever since being convicted or having committed said crime.

In case someone has been labeled as convicted or has committed a crime belonging to the category of Canadian criminal offenses and a minimum of ten years have passed ever since then, without any interrupting criminal offenses in the middle, he/she could be deemed rehabilitated as is now eligible to enter the country. An only exception would be an act labeled as a criminal offense as per Canadian law with a punishment period of more than ten years, wherein there is no eligibility for this type of rehabilitation.

This is also applicable to certain people who have two or more than two criminal convictions against their name which are summarized as offenses as per Canadian law. For this though, a minimum of five years need to have passed.

Even though his type of rehabilitation takes place in an automatic sense, one is still capable of attaching a legal opinion letter along with this. The attachment of this provides an immigration officer with complete and accurate information about a person’s past records and the status of the admissibility into the country.

For every individual labeled with a criminal record, a special situation is presented before authorities, wherein Canada takes into consideration security and compassion. The most primary method to bypass Canadian inadmissibility is cross-verifying the way one’s criminal history is convertible into Canadian law. One can get fruitful information by taking the assistance of a Canadian immigration attorney to understand the law, its relevance, and impact and note down the best suitable options.