Hi,
I'm looking for some advice please!
My fiancee and I are thinking of applying for PR in Canada. We're from the UK. We've been living and working in B.C. on working holiday visas for over 2 years.
I was arrested (a few months ago, whilst in Canada) and charged with possession of controlled substances (a small amount of cocaine and MDA), following an argument with a night club bouncer.
I asserted my innocence throughout and pled not guilty. I was given a trial date, but after emailing the prosecutor and insisting he took a close look at the evidence (or lack of it), they dropped the case. I represented myself and beat the charges.
Essentially, I wasn't found guilty of anything.
I technically don't have a "criminal record", but knowing how the police work, I suspect there will be some kind of record kept of it all somewhere.
Once my fiancee and I set up an express entry profile on CIC, I'm sure they'll ask questions such as "Have you ever been arrested for drugs?"
I'll obviously have to answer honestly. Is this likely to cause problems for me?
To get to this point, my partner will have had to have already paid for her educational assessment and done an English test (around $500). I don't want to put her through all that, if they're going to deny me PR over these drugs charges...
We're planning on doing the application independently, but have just paid a consultant a one-off fee to point us in the right direction.
He suggested maybe doing a Canadian police check to see if it flags up there.
I'm a bit reluctant to pay the RCMP money to tell me what I already know. I'm pretty certain an RCMP police check will flag up that I got charged but that I was not cautioned or convicted.
However this doesn't tell me whether that's likely to create immigration problems or not though...
If anyone's got any info that'd help, I'd really appreciate it.
I can provide more details of the alleged incident if it's likely to help...
Thanks
Nick
I'm looking for some advice please!
My fiancee and I are thinking of applying for PR in Canada. We're from the UK. We've been living and working in B.C. on working holiday visas for over 2 years.
I was arrested (a few months ago, whilst in Canada) and charged with possession of controlled substances (a small amount of cocaine and MDA), following an argument with a night club bouncer.
I asserted my innocence throughout and pled not guilty. I was given a trial date, but after emailing the prosecutor and insisting he took a close look at the evidence (or lack of it), they dropped the case. I represented myself and beat the charges.
Essentially, I wasn't found guilty of anything.
I technically don't have a "criminal record", but knowing how the police work, I suspect there will be some kind of record kept of it all somewhere.
Once my fiancee and I set up an express entry profile on CIC, I'm sure they'll ask questions such as "Have you ever been arrested for drugs?"
I'll obviously have to answer honestly. Is this likely to cause problems for me?
To get to this point, my partner will have had to have already paid for her educational assessment and done an English test (around $500). I don't want to put her through all that, if they're going to deny me PR over these drugs charges...
We're planning on doing the application independently, but have just paid a consultant a one-off fee to point us in the right direction.
He suggested maybe doing a Canadian police check to see if it flags up there.
I'm a bit reluctant to pay the RCMP money to tell me what I already know. I'm pretty certain an RCMP police check will flag up that I got charged but that I was not cautioned or convicted.
However this doesn't tell me whether that's likely to create immigration problems or not though...
If anyone's got any info that'd help, I'd really appreciate it.
I can provide more details of the alleged incident if it's likely to help...
Thanks
Nick
