According to La Presse and the Toronto Star the number of Americans being denied entry into Canada is on the rise. The rate of denial went up more than 31 per cent in 2016. Over 30,000 American citizens were turned around at Ports of Entry in that year. This is a staggering figure compared to 2014, a year in which less than 8,000 US citizens were stopped at the border.
Why are so many people being turned away? One reason, cited by the Star, is a new agreement between the two nations making it easier to share intelligence. When scanning an American citizen’s passport, a Canadian border agent is able to see the citizen’s FBI criminal history. Access to this information can lead a border agent to determining a person is criminally inadmissible to Canada. In brief, this means a person cannot enter the country because of a past criminal history. Canadian border agents are now able to see more detailed information on an American citizen than ever before, leading the Canadian Border Services Agency to finding more and more people inadmissible. With this new information, criminal offences committed decades ago are preventing people from crossing the border.
Americans who fear that they might be inadmissible to Canada because of criminality have a few options to overcome this issue. If it has been less than five years since all terms of a sentence were completed, a person can apply for a Temporary Resident Permit that will allow them to come into Canada for a specific amount of time. If more than five years have passed, a person can wipe their record clean for purposes of crossing the Canadian border by applying for Criminal Rehabilitation. If a person only has one, non-serious offence on their record, and it has been at least 10 years since the completion of their sentence, then they are deemed rehabilitated by the passage of time and will not be considered criminally inadmissible by the Canadian Border Services Agency.
Our immigration law firm, FWCanada, helps a significant amount of criminally inadmissible visitors apply for Temporary Resident Permits and Criminal Rehabilitation each month. we are extremely knowledgeable about the current Canadian TRP and CR application procedures at any given moment. Use the following form for a free assessment of your inadmissibility!
FWCanada is a Montreal-based immigration law firm that provides professional legal services on Canadian immigration. For more tips and updates on Canadian immigration follow FWCanada on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.
