Arrests or convictions of the following crimes may make you inadmissible to Canada.
- Fraud
- Cyber crime
- Embezzlement
- Tax Evasion
- Insider Trading
- Money Laundering
- And more…
White-Collar Crime, as it is commonly called, is typically conducted by established professionals, either against other individuals or organizations. Official names under this broad umbrella term include occupational, corporate, and economic crime. This refers to mainly monetary-related offences that are committed against legitimate institutions such as businesses or governments.
When immigrating to Canada, you may be criminally inadmissible if you have committed a white-collar crime in your country of origin. In order to rectify this inadmissibility, you may need to apply for a Temporary Resident Permit, Criminal Rehabilitation, or a Legal Opinion letter. If not, you may be turned away at an international border crossing.
Criminal inadmissibility occurs in cases where an offense was committed that would constitute a hybrid or indictable offense under Canadian law. Even if a person was convicted of a misdemeanor, there is still a possibility that the crime would be considered an indictable offense under the equivalent Canadian statute.
According to section 37 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, an individual may be inadmissible on grounds of “being a member of an organized criminal group” or “having been convicted of an offense outside Canada that, if committed in Canada, would constitute an offence under an act of Parliament punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years.”
In Canada, most of these offences are prohibited under the Canadian Criminal Code and are enforced, depending on the offence, by the municipal, provincial, and sometimes even federal police. However, enforcement can be difficult because the suspects of these crimes are often employees of the institutions from which they are stealing and their employers either don’t find out or don’t report the crime.
The four most common white-collar crimes are theft of assets, fraud in the procurement process, accounting fraud, and cyber crime. The sectors most likely to experience these crimes are financial services, retail, and communications.
If you have been convicted of such a crime or any other, you may be criminally inadmissible or require additional documentation to enter Canada. For more information, click here.
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.
