Hello everybody.
So I am in the following situation and I would greatly appreciate any answers or advice:
I lived in the U.S. for about 8 years, starting 2002, while I was working on my masters and doctoral degrees.
In 2007, I was charged with 4 felonies and later on convicted in 2 of them. Since that was the very first time I got myself in any kind of trouble with the law, the Judge went easy on me and gave me a combine sentence of 12 months in county jail, which later on got reduced to 11 months. I actually managed to get out after only 8 months, just to be picked up by immigration (ICE) 2 months later
.
In the meantime, my and my fiance, who by the way is a born and raised in America US citizen, were making plans to get married and that was before even I was picked up by ICE. So once I was picked up by ICE, they told me that I am deportable because my crimes involve moral turpitude, bla, bla, bla shit like this, but I managed to convince the immigration judge that I am not such a bad guy after all (I'm really not) and she granted me a voluntary departure vs deporting me. Now here comes the fun part.
So my and my fiance were like no big deal right? She said you go back to Bulgaria, and I will come and marry you there and then you can come back. Sounds good, but as it turned out, according to Robert Birach a hot shot immigration lawyer from Detroit, this is not a good idea, because it would seem like we are getting married just so I can go back to the U.S. Well in a way this is exactly why we wanna get married but I want to go back to the U.S. not just so I can live there but because my future wife is there and I want to be with her. So the lawyer guy tells my girl: "Why don't you move to Bulgaria with him for a couple years and live there together and then try to come back." Well fu^%%^$ing A, first of all she doesn't know the language, second there are no jobs around here fir her and even if she finds a job, she wouldn't be making more than $400-500 a month!!! You have to love lawyers. They live in their lawyer bubbles and tell you what to do without thinking about if it makes sense outside the books or not. Never mind that though. many of you are probably already wandering, OK, that's fine, but what does this has to do anything with Canada. Well here it is.
We, me and my fiance, want to move to Canada, which would be a great alternate, since both of us already speak the language and fall in to the skilled workers category. However, based on some of the things I have been reading online, I may not be able to immigrate to Canada because of my criminal record. Now here is my actual question. All the things I found out about this apply to Americans with felonies trying to go visit r move permanently to Canada. I couldn't find anything about a citizen of another country who caught a couple crimes in the U.S., then left to his home country and is trying to go to Canada which is exactly what my situation is.
The questions is, since I will be traveling with my Bulgarian passport, and my criminal record here in Bulgaria is absolutely clean, will the crimes I have committed in the US show if I try to immigrate to Canada from Bulgaria???
I really hope that somebody out there had to deal with a similar situation and can give me a credible answer to this question.
Although I have a criminal record, I am for from the carrier criminal persona. I have a high education (6 credits away from being done with my doctorate), I have taught in a college for a couple of years, and I have performed with a numerous orchestras around the globe. So this is pretty much it.
Your answers and comments will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
So I am in the following situation and I would greatly appreciate any answers or advice:
I lived in the U.S. for about 8 years, starting 2002, while I was working on my masters and doctoral degrees.
In 2007, I was charged with 4 felonies and later on convicted in 2 of them. Since that was the very first time I got myself in any kind of trouble with the law, the Judge went easy on me and gave me a combine sentence of 12 months in county jail, which later on got reduced to 11 months. I actually managed to get out after only 8 months, just to be picked up by immigration (ICE) 2 months later
.In the meantime, my and my fiance, who by the way is a born and raised in America US citizen, were making plans to get married and that was before even I was picked up by ICE. So once I was picked up by ICE, they told me that I am deportable because my crimes involve moral turpitude, bla, bla, bla shit like this, but I managed to convince the immigration judge that I am not such a bad guy after all (I'm really not) and she granted me a voluntary departure vs deporting me. Now here comes the fun part.
So my and my fiance were like no big deal right? She said you go back to Bulgaria, and I will come and marry you there and then you can come back. Sounds good, but as it turned out, according to Robert Birach a hot shot immigration lawyer from Detroit, this is not a good idea, because it would seem like we are getting married just so I can go back to the U.S. Well in a way this is exactly why we wanna get married but I want to go back to the U.S. not just so I can live there but because my future wife is there and I want to be with her. So the lawyer guy tells my girl: "Why don't you move to Bulgaria with him for a couple years and live there together and then try to come back." Well fu^%%^$ing A, first of all she doesn't know the language, second there are no jobs around here fir her and even if she finds a job, she wouldn't be making more than $400-500 a month!!! You have to love lawyers. They live in their lawyer bubbles and tell you what to do without thinking about if it makes sense outside the books or not. Never mind that though. many of you are probably already wandering, OK, that's fine, but what does this has to do anything with Canada. Well here it is.
We, me and my fiance, want to move to Canada, which would be a great alternate, since both of us already speak the language and fall in to the skilled workers category. However, based on some of the things I have been reading online, I may not be able to immigrate to Canada because of my criminal record. Now here is my actual question. All the things I found out about this apply to Americans with felonies trying to go visit r move permanently to Canada. I couldn't find anything about a citizen of another country who caught a couple crimes in the U.S., then left to his home country and is trying to go to Canada which is exactly what my situation is.
The questions is, since I will be traveling with my Bulgarian passport, and my criminal record here in Bulgaria is absolutely clean, will the crimes I have committed in the US show if I try to immigrate to Canada from Bulgaria???
I really hope that somebody out there had to deal with a similar situation and can give me a credible answer to this question.
Although I have a criminal record, I am for from the carrier criminal persona. I have a high education (6 credits away from being done with my doctorate), I have taught in a college for a couple of years, and I have performed with a numerous orchestras around the globe. So this is pretty much it.
Your answers and comments will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!