I wanted to report back on my experience (thus far), as I followed Adam Walden's very helpful advice in the post above. I am getting married in B.C. and two of my family members who are coming from the U.S. have DUIs. One DUI is six years old, the other individual's is 4 years old. Neither involved any injuries, jail time, or property damage. Both persons paid all their fines and completed classes and probation terms.
We sent in the TRP applications, character reference letters, all documentation showing completion of sentence, printed out the equivalent Canada law, proof of the application fee paid online, copies of passports and driver's licenses, all exactly as advised by Adam. We just sent in copies, not originals. I sent them by overnight mail to the Canadian Consulate in LA, also as Adam advised, and they received it on June 1, 2018. I had not heard anything as of June 26, so I sent an inquiry via email to
lngls@international.gc.ca. I didn't get a response, but I'm not sure if that was the right email address to use because today, July 9, I received an email from <LNGLSQuestions@international.gc.ca> saying that all that was needed to finalize was evidence of the wedding. So I emailed in to that address copies of the invitation, the RSVPs, and my venue confirmation. I received an automated acknowledgment from that email address. I am hopeful now that we are going to get approval, hopefully via email, as the wedding is July 22, and the flights are scheduled to depart on July 18.
I screwed up by waiting so long, I went back and forth on whether to hire an attorney to do it, but it was very expensive, and given Adam's experience I decided to chance it myself, and assuming everything continues to proceed smoothly, I'm glad I did, but I definitely advise getting it in much sooner than I did. We decided if we had not heard back in time, that we just were going to hand carry the applications and all documentation to the border and apply there if needed and hope for the best. Obviously that is a stress that we really hope to avoid.
I did not bother getting FBI or state clearances.
I will update as to how/when/if we get final approval. But thanks again to Adam for the very helpful post as so far it appears to be working out well.