Good Day Every Body,
I have been charged in domestic violence case in January 2021 and court have given me absolute discharge , I want to apply my citizenship application in February 2023 , So my question is do I need to mention of my absolute discharge in my citizen ship application( It have been asked in citizenship application form that do you convicted any indictable crime in last 4 years ) if Yes how it can impact my application ? and if it can rejects my citizen ship application do you suggest any solution to deal with situation ?
So, I did some research. Here is what I gathered:
- The citizenship application says the following relevant question to your case:
Been convicted of an indictable offence under any Act of Parliament or an offence under the Citizenship Act?
The first requirement is your offence to be an indictable offence. An indictable offence one of the most serious criminal offences, such as the following: murder, terrorism, robbery, drug trafficking, treason, types of sexual assault and other such serious crimes. Ten years minimum or more is the rule of thumb here. Here is the
source from a Canadian based law firm. Here is some further
information about indictable offences under any Act of Parliament.
- Your crime was domestic violence for which you received an absolute discharge. Generally, an absolute discharge is given for first time offenders or those with minor charges. The Canadian criminal code states the following:
Where an accused, other than an organization, pleads guilty to or is found guilty of an offence, other than an offence for which a minimum punishment is prescribed by law or an offence punishable by imprisonment for fourteen years or for life, the court before which the accused appears may, if it considers it to be in the best interests of the accused and not contrary to the public interest, instead of convicting the accused, by order direct that the accused be discharged absolutely or on the conditions prescribed in a probation order made under subsection 731(2).
Therefore, such discharges are prescribed only for the more minor crimes. Here is the
source of the above.
All in all, here is what I infer: it appears your crime is not as serious as the crimes the application requires to know about. It would be unlikely that you'd find someone here who can give you an insight on whether it would affect the processing of your application. I would recommend consulting with an immigration lawyer as they will be able to best guide you through the process. They will best know how to use the nuances of your case and the system.
